Tips For Rising Bread In Cooler Temperatures
As we embarked on this month’s book of English Bread and Yeast Cookery by Elizabeth David the weather took a cooler turn here in Australia. Great from the perspective that we would embrace turning our ovens on and devouring crusty fresh bread from the oven with our bowls of soup and braised casseroles. One of the things I didn’t really think about though was how to get my dough to rise to get the deliciousness at the end. It’s a common problem for people in cooler weather and can result in it taking all day to produce one loaf of bread if you haven’t had some bread baking experience to know what works in your kitchen. You don’t want to over stimulate it with heat and kill your yeast, but nor do you want to end up with a loaf that is overly yeasty due to it being under worked, which results in sore tummy’s and less than happy taste buds.
These tips are not specifically from Elizabeth David. In the era of many of the recipes that she shares the bakers would have been able to place their dough on top of their Aga stoves, or near to the open fireplaces to get the yeast going. In an era of central heating, or no heating in our warmer climates this is not such an easy solution to use. Because of this I thought I would share some tips that I’ve picked up along the way from various sources (none of which I can now attribute unfortunately) that I thought might help you in your bread baking endeavours.
- Warm your flour and dough bowl in the oven for about 5 minutes before starting your baking process. It will dry out the flour if it is holding any humidity but also give that gentle push that the dough might need. Plus the warm oven might just rise the temperature of your kitchen enough to help the process along.
- Wrap your dough bowl in a beach towel to create a dutch oven. This one is tried and true in my household and a trick that I’ve used for years.
- Warm your milk/water to a tepid temperature rather than using cold straight from the tap or fridge. Too hot and it will kill the yeast but if you put your finger into the liquid and it feels neither hot nor cold then you are spot on for getting your yeast started.
- Knead your dough by hand. The warmth of your body will help to warm the dough gently and just enough where as a mixer won’t.
- Place the dough in a warmer spot in the house. Some of the suggestions I’ve heard in the past is near a window that gets the winter sun, or perhaps even near a central heating vent if you have the heating on.
- A trick Lady Red Specs shared is that she turns the light on in her oven and places the dough inside. If the oven has not been preheated the heat from the light warms the space just enough to help her dough to grow.
Just a few tips, but I’m sure there is many more idea’s so please share below for those of us that are just beginning on our bread baking and yeast cookery adventures.
Leah
There’s also using the cold to your advantage- I’m down in Victoria and the cold weather now means that the temperature is ideal for making long, slow sourdough breads, even recipes that you start early in the day, refrigerate overnight and bake first thing the next morning
You’re so right. I occassionally put my dough in the fridge to achieve the same result, but here in Brisbane I can still end up with an overproved dough. Nothing like fresh bread in the morning though.
Thanks for the comment and for stopping by,
Leah
The car is your friend in cold weather. If the car is in the sun it will get quite warm, and is an ideal place to raise bread. Many is the time I have put trays of buns in the back to help them rise. I have also heard a tip about pre-warming your dryer then putting the dough in there. I haven’t tried this one yet. I have also been using a warming plate that hubby has for brewing this year which works quite well.
What a great idea Tania, I love it! Also love the idea of using the laundry which is warmer after a bout of using the dryer. Thanks for joining in this month 🙂
Good tips. I have a wood fired heater so pop it in fron of that on a chair. also I use the sunny window trick. Now I am thinking of the Dutch oven idea- perhaps an empty plastic storage box to contain covered bowl and something warm inside the box too- like a thermos or something. Thinking ahead as I returnn in mid July when Melbourne will be really cold.
If I had a fireplace I’d be all over that too….but I do love your idea of creating a prooving box as such. I remember one of the kitchens I worked in many years ago actually had a setting on the oven specifically for proving bread… not such a bad idea really. 🙂
Great tips for consideration in the year-round cool Britain! It always takes longer to rise here and believe it or not, not everyone has a AGA!
Thank you…. what’s your trick for getting your bread to prove in the cooler weather?
Before we put double glazing in, I used to put the dough into the airing cupboard along with the sheets and towels. Now, I just put it on the kitchen table although it does take a bit longer to rise than the usual hour or so. Somewhere I read that a long rise improves the flavour of the bread – particularly with sourdough.