Have you discovered the love of baking bread thru all these stay-at-home-trying-to-entertain-yourself days (weeks, months...)? Maybe not? Not yet, anyway? I grew up making bread (side story - I won a 4H ribbon for my cinnamon rolls when I was like 10, had to have a neighbor kid stir the flour in for me because I wasn't strong enough to do it by hand!) and there's something to be said for how satisfying it is to spend the day making it and seeing/smelling the results. Anyway - on with today's bread making tip!
After you make the dough it needs to rise for a couple hours or so until it doubles in size, and you need to put it somewhere warm for that to happen. Not too warm, not too cold...yesterday when I made a weird but delicious bread (I'll post it tomorrow) I tried a new technique and it worked so thought I'd share. My mom gave me this idea but I couldn't remember exactly what she said, so I did the next best thing and googled it ;)
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| I know, I know, I bet you groaned. But it made me laugh! |
Once the dough is ready to rise, turn your oven on the lowest temp it'll go - mine is 175' at the lowest. Let the oven heat until it reaches 110' and then turn it off. You're aiming for an oven of approx 75' to 85' - letting the oven heat a little higher than that assures the temp will be warm enough after you open the oven door and place the dough inside (you'll have the dough in an oiled bowl with a clean cloth covering it).
An alternate method for using the oven to proof your dough is to put a glass pan in the bottom of the cold oven and add 3 cups or so of hot water. Place the dough on a rack above it and the steam from the hot water will warm the oven - I haven't tried that method but don't know why it wouldn't work, I just didn't want to deal with another dish to take care of!
Now having said all that, if you live somewhere warm or you have your temperature cranked to at least 75' you can just leave it on the counter away from drafts and it should be fine. But in snowy Michigan it's 30' outside and I like to keep the house on the chillier side (everyone who comes over complains or makes note of how cold it is - put a sweater on people!) so I needed to find a warmer spot for the dough to hang out!
PS: Dave's mom used to tell stories about how she'd make a couple loafs of bread and when the kids got home from school they'd devour it all - so she stopped making it hahahahah!!
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