Getting a rise

No, not a pay raise. Nor am I talking about getting someone to react to a joke, or to an evil comment, or anything like that. I'm talking bread. Of course.

Almost every cookbook, it seems, has a recipe for bread in it, emphasizing how nice it is to eat homemade bread, etc. And it's true: it is wonderful to have good homemade bread!

But these same books also suggest that the bread be left to rise "in a warm place", sometimes suggesting the top of a fridge, or even a gas oven with a pilot light left on. Perhaps this is because they think that people don't want to take the time with their recipes, or perhaps it got written down once, and like a bad meme or the common cold got passed from author to author. Whatever. Please, please, try making your own bread. And please, please, please try letting it rise somewhere other than a warm place!

Here's the thing: yeast will grow faster in a warm place, but that fast growth doesn't give the dough time to develop all that wonderful character, to reach its full potential. That takes time! And there are a variety of things you can do to give it that time. I will occasionally retard a rise by letting the shaped loaf rise in the fridge overnight (but letting the dough come back to room temperature for a couple of hours before baking!) I will choose a cooler spot, or chill the bowl in which the dough is going to rise.

Anyway, I'm thinking about posting some more thoughts on this in the next little while.

Did I get a rise?

Yours, seated,
N.