Home » Food & Cooking » Cooking Ingredients

How to Make Dough Rise

16 Comments

32 Like

Like 32

Pin It

Ranked #452 in Food & Cooking, #8,623 overall

Working With Yeast When Baking Bread

Making homemade bread is easy; but, one of the main challenges in baking bread is getting the dough to rise. Yeast will rise best in temperatures between 80 and 90 degrees fahrenheit. Finding a location in your home that stays this temperature can be difficult. If you try to make dough rise in a cooler spot, the rising will be sluggish. If you put it in a spot that is too warm, the yeast can burn itself out.

Most of us do not live in rooms that are between 80 and 90 degrees. If you do, you can just set your bread dough out on the counter to rise. Most of us need to find a warmer location.

This lens will explore working with yeast and how to make dough rise. There are plenty of ideas here, so everyone should be able to find a solution that will work for each situation.

So, let's bake bread!

Photo credit

Slices of Whole Grain Bread on Cutting Board

Buy This Allposters.com

1Turn your oven to "warm" for just a few minutes. Let it warm up, then turn it off. Leave the oven door shut. Cover the dough with a cloth, then set it in the oven. As long as you do not open the oven door, it should stay about the right temperature.
2Fill a shallow pan with hot water and put it on a lower shelf in the oven. Set your bread dough above it and leave the door closed. If the water cools off, dump it out and add more hot water.
3If your oven has a pilot light, you might be able to use that for your rising dough. Watch to be sure it does not get too warm. If needed, keep the door open a bit to adjust the temperature.
4You may be able to use the lightbulb in your oven to get it to the correct temperature for rising dough.

Activating Dry Yeast

How to Make Dough Rise

Need some help activating your dry yeast? Check out this instructional video.

How to Activate Yeast: by AllergenFreeBaker | video info

14 ratings | 10,363 views

curated content from YouTube

A Makeshift Proof Box

How to Make Dough Rise

Commercial bakeries use a proof box for their rising dough. You can make a homemade version very easily with items you already have in your house.

Step 1 - Place a towel over a heating pad.

Step 2 - Set a cake rack on top of the towel.

Step 3 - Put the dough in its bowl on the rack.

Step 4 - Invert a corrugated cardboard box or a foam ice chest over the entire set up.

Step 5 - Adjust the heating pad setting to change the temperature inside the box.

Step 6 - Use a thermometer to monitor the temperature.

Tip: If you need to increase humidity for the final rise, put the loaf pans inside sealed plastic bags to which a little water has been added.

Brod & Taylor Folding Proofer

Make Dough Rise the Professional Way!

Now you can rise bread at home with professional results. This proofer will maintain a consistent temperature and humidity for a perfect rise. It also makes yogurt and tempers chocolate. Perfect for the home kitchen, this proofer collapses for easy storage.

Brod & Taylor Folding Proofer

Check the reviews on Amazon! This proofer maintains a temperature between 70 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit (21-49 degrees Celsius), and a humidity of 60 to 80%.

Baking Bread Poll

Kitten Making Bread

Buy This Allposters.com

Loading poll. Please Wait...

Share this poll
- Stumbleupon
- Facebook
- MySpace
- Twitter
- Digg
- Delicious
- Email

Ingredients for Baking Bread

How to Make Dough Rise

Here is an instructional video from Fleischmann's Yeast with tips for making your bread dough rise.

How To Ensure The Best Rise: by AchFoodCompanies | video info

9 ratings | 30,529 views

curated content from YouTube

Yeast Poll

How to Make Dough Rise

Loading poll. Please Wait...

Share this poll
- Stumbleupon
- Facebook
- MySpace
- Twitter
- Digg
- Delicious
- Email

More Ideas for Getting Dough to Rise

1Set the dough to rise in a sunny window or on a warm sun porch.
2Put your bread dough on a shelf above the hot water heater.
3Try the top of the refrigerator for a warm bread rising spot.
4Park your car in the sun and put the bread dough inside.

Some Useful Items for Baking Bread

Another Breadmaking Poll

Loading poll. Please Wait...

Share this poll
- Stumbleupon
- Facebook
- MySpace
- Twitter
- Digg
- Delicious
- Email

Bread Cookbooks

Whether you are just getting started baking bread or are an old pro, you are sure to find something here you will want to try!

Look at All the Great Bread You Can Make

Click on the photos to make them larger

Organic Honey Oat Bread by Growing a Green Family

Organic bread rising by Growing a Green Family

No knead oat bread! (+1 in comments) by martinak15

homemade bread at Witches Falls Cottages by Witches Falls Cottages

Mmm...whole clove garlic bread by jeffreyw

desem bread after proofing at about 95f by fishermansdaughter

giardiniera with dried tomatoes and olives by jeffreyw

Mmm...meatball sammich with gruyere by jeffreyw

Mmm...grilled chicken with spinach, tomato, and spicy mayo by jeffreyw

Mmm...sausage sammich for lunch by jeffreyw

morning tea - the spread by various brennemans

Homemade organic pretzels by Growing a Green Family

Cara's Homemade Soda Bread by julesjulesjules m

Unbaked bread. All sorts of delicious. by julesjulesjules m

Bread, apple butter, real butter by fishermansdaughter

automatically generated by Flickr

Making Dough Rise

Check out these instructional videos on preparing your bread dough for rising.

Bread Dough: First Rise (Fermenting): by epicuriousdotcom | video info

32 ratings | 41,550 views

curated content from YouTube

What People are Saying About Making Bread

Kaelvas May 31, 2012 @ 8:25 pm

Baking homemade bread while I try to search for simple video recording software...
ValNicoleF May 31, 2012 @ 7:07 pm

Currently baking homemade banana bread :) #Excited
savings_steward May 31, 2012 @ 1:00 pm

Roasting garlic for homemade bread & making a S'more Pie. Good day for baking!
elle_hansen May 31, 2012 @ 11:23 am

Making homemade chocolate chip banana nut bread! Yummy! #baking #comfortfood
Your_Vokal_News May 31, 2012 @ 10:17 am

Just tried baking homemade bread for the first time. I hope it turns out okay! #culinarycraziness

automatically generated by Twitter

Thumbs Up if You Love Fresh Baked Bread!

This module only appears with actual data when viewed on a live lens. The favorite and lensroll options will appear on a live lens if the viewer is a member of Squidoo and logged in.

Add this to your lens »

Do You Have a Favorite Spot for Bread Dough Rising?

How do you make dough rise? Share your bread baking memories, tips or suggestions with us!

Reply

poutine May 6, 2012 @ 8:21 pm | delete

I haven't try my hand at making bread yet, but it's on my list.

Reply

JoshK47 Apr 27, 2012 @ 9:55 am | delete

Excellent guide you've put together! Blessed by a SquidAngel!

Reply

Margaret_Schaut Mar 10, 2012 @ 7:18 pm | delete

I love homemade bread and I like to knead it myself to work off stress. It is so relaxing to smell the bread baking that I would rather be stress free and enjoy it.

Reply

Ramkitten Mar 10, 2012 @ 12:07 pm | delete

I haven't tried making bread for a very long time. Must have had beginner's luck back when I did, though, because the dough rose. And rose. And rose. But this is great info, and I'm sure, given my track record in the kitchen lately, that if I try my hand at bread-making again, I'll need it!

Reply

tokyonights7 Mar 10, 2012 @ 10:32 am | delete

My dough always flops and drops. I seriously need this lens!

Reply

lestroischenes Mar 10, 2012 @ 10:23 am | delete

I start the yeast in warm water to check that it is good and live. When the dough hasn't risen in the past, I've put dried yeast directly into the mix and I suspect that it has been to old, so now I test first. I also notice that the dough likes it really quite warm - but I put it over a too hot stove once and baked its bottom!

Reply

veryirie Jan 24, 2012 @ 5:07 pm | delete

Usually I just cover the bowl and set it on top of the stove as the oven preheats.

Reply

Kimbesa Nov 20, 2011 @ 9:21 am | delete

My pizza crust goes into a glass or stainless bowl, with a towel over top, and sits on the stove. In warm weather, no need to turn the stove on, but if it's really cold, I may turn on the oven for a few minutes to get a little warmth happening.

Reply

AJTyne Aug 8, 2011 @ 5:06 pm | delete

I've only made my bread a very few times ever -- by hand. But I have been given a bread machine and would like to try it. We go thru bread like it was water. My daughter loves raisin bread, but it's expensive for the amount you get. I want to make whole grain bread, whole grain raisin bread and whole grain bagels -- anyone have good bread machine recipes?