Most doughs rise faster in a warm and humid environment. Here are some ideas on warm places to let your dough rise:
1. Oven – a) Turn on the oven for about one minute and turn it off. Place dough in the warm oven. b) Place a pot of boiling hot water in a cold oven. Place the dough inside with the hot water. These will only work until you need to preheat the oven to bake. If you have a second oven, you can keep the dough in there longer.
2. Heating Pad – Set the dough on top of a heating pad and set the pad to low or medium temperature.
3. Lamp – Turn on a reading lamp and set the dough under the bulb.
4. On Top of Fridge – Your refrigerator generates heat so it’s usually warm on top of the fridge so you can place the dough there.
5. Microwave – Bring a cup of water to boil in the microwave. After it boils, put the dough in the microwave with the cup of hot water and close the door right away. This creates heat and humidity.
6. Neck Wrap – If you have a neck wrap that you heat in the microwave, you can heat it up and wrap it around the container that holds the dough.
7. Bowl of hot water – Fill a bowl with very hot water and put a flat top on it like a plate or pizza pan. Place the dough on the plate and drape a towel over the dough and bowl to keep the heat in.
8. Window – If the sun is coming through a window in winter, place the dough next to the window in the sun.
9. Hot Car – If your car is parked in the hot sun, put the dough in the car.
Did I miss any? If anyone has other suggestions, please post them below.
Asking, not sure if this would be a good idea but I have a sauna. Can I ride my dough in there?
Today I put it in the sun, covered in a damp cloth and watered my plants. It was 94 degrees outside. I had to move it though, so I put it in the garage while covered.
It’s summer so in Texas it’s around 95 in the afternoon and 80 at night, so when I came back after my friends dragged me out the bread rose very well
I out my dough on a heat register. I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and today the outside temperature is -33 celcius…LOL. I hope it works out for me…hahahahaha
I use a seedling heat mat to keep my dough warm, while it rises.
How do you use an electric skillet to proof your dough; what temperature do you use?
Good suggestions! Thank you!
I use the Oven (see first suggestion 🙂 ) for the first rising and my warming drawer for the second. I preheat the oven about 15 minutes before baking time.
I put my dough in an cold oven with the light on. No drafts and warmth from the light bulb does the trick.
My house tends to be cold, so I place my dough to rise on top of the Water Heater. It’s in its own closet and it stays warm. Especially more cost-effective with long proofing. Otherwise, I use the oven with the light on.
I used my Instant Pot .I would just put the ancient Kitchen Aid mixer in, set it at “yogurt” Today I’m going to try to put my new Cuisinart bowl in.
I use a steel pot for the first rise. I simply put the pot on top of the toaster and turn the toaster on at the lowest setting for a minute or so. The heat from the toaster is enough for the first rise :). It works for me every time. Sometime I will turn the toaster on for another minute or so at the lowest setting after about half hour.
I live in the Rocky Mountains above 5000 feet. I struggle with proofing dough in colder months. I could spend $180.00 on a proofing oven but, I’m thrifty.
Imagine my surprise to discover (through the internet) that a slow cooker on the warm setting would work perfectly (I place a tea towel over the dough and place the lid on top of the tea towel).
I switched to an oval baking dish to fit inside my oval slow cooker for your amazing Cinnamon Rolls to proof and baked as directed in the oven.
Wow! Shared the bounty with my 86 year old neighbor.
Jenny, you are a truly gifted cook. Thank you for the recipes and the all important videos.
Slow Cooker!!! Why did I not think of this? I usually use the microwave method (boil some water in it, etc) but it never fails, just when I get the dough in there, hubby decides it’s time for lunch and needs the microwave! I’m trying out the slow cooker next time. Genius!
HI Carol
Does placing the lid and what is it-what lid do you mean-does placing on top of the tea towel with its added weight prevent the dough from rising?
I believe she places the pan, with the towel resting on top of the dough, into the slow cooker. When closing the lid of the slow cooker, it would not be touching the pan so there is room for the dough to rise.
This is what I use for my bread to rise as my kitchen is cold. I have a round Tupperware container with a lid. I place a wet hot tea towel on the bottom of the container. Then I place the tin containing the loaf of bread on the hot tea towel. Put the lid on container. Fill kitchen sink with 3 inches of hot tap water. Place container containing bread in water. I put weights on top of lid to hold it in the water.
Just to expand on your heating pad suggestion:
My Baba/grandmother would use the heating pad on the lowest setting under a big corning glass mixing bowl (large “miska”). The bowl was covered by an oversized linen and set on her couch. She would then cover everything completely with her hand-crocheted blankets, preventing the heat from escaping. She would do very large batches of dough for multiple Pascha Breads (Slovak version of Paska) at once. They needed to rise and be pounded down three times, which would take a long time using some other methods. Allowing the bread to rise for two additional times makes for a fluffier and airy bread – less like a hockey puck or brick 🙂 and the heating pad/electric blanket method SIGNIFICANTLY cuts down the rise time when you need dough to rise more than once.
My microwave is above the stove with a light for the cooktop. I find keeping the light on the low setting heats the microwave perfectly as a proofing box!
Several years ago I purchased frozen balls of dough to make rolls for thanksgiving. Since we cooked the turkey in a roaster and it was pretty chilly I turned the oven on a few minutes, then turned it off and put the rolls in. I can’t remember if I left the door ajar or not, but I did turn the light on. The rolls rose great, However when I turned the oven back on to bake the rolls and my sweet potato souffle, it wouldn’t turn on. Thankfully my husband had a pellet style bbq pit and I was able to cook both in the pit toward the end away from the fire. He later sold that pit and bought a Green Egg. i would have had to disturb the rolls and transfer them to another pan to cook them in that pit because the pan I put the rolls on was a USA silicone coated pan. No way would I put that pan in the green egg, because it could get too hot and ruin the pan. It turns out a wire to the heating element had broken, so I had to reattach it. That was kind of hard to do because it was at the very back of the oven and the wire in the hole was very short. I had to grab onto that wire with plyers and clamp onto it to hold it so I had about 1″ of wire to work with. The oven has worked great since that time. During the repair I ended up breaking the glass cover over the bulb and had to replace it. My husband helped where he could, but he is blind so it was up to me to do the delicate reattaching. Saved a lot of money doing the repairs ourselves.
How does this recipe work if you want to use a stand mixer and dough hook?
I turn my dryer on for a few minutes . Then, turn it off and put my covered dough inside. It rises wonderfully.
I find putting it a warm dryer woks the best once it cools take the dough out turn it on again for 10 minutes repeat till the dough fully rises
Outside on the front porch on a hot humid day
Great Idea! It worked for me. My oven proofing did not work for this recipe today. It’s 30 degrees Celsius outside in Toronto and my covered back porch did the trick.
I plan my bread making after I have ran the dishwasher! The heat and moisture makes a perfect rise! Viola!
Great idea about the dishwasher! I will try this.
For the no knead bread, what is the maximum time it can sit before going to step 2? Thank you, have a lovely day!
On top of the wireless modem! Works great
We own a house with an old radiant heat system. During the Winter, the tops of those radiators are often the perfect place to let dough rise. Just remember to insulate with a book, or a few magazines.
Love the ideas – would have never thought of those suggestions?
Me again. Everything I turn to is helpful to me. I am just so excited that I finally bake things that come out well. Your cooking advice is written in everyday, uncomplicated explanations. No other cook book have I ever seen that reads like this. I just tried your Easter bread, even though not Easter, and I cannot tell you I was thrilled that it came out delicious. I have never had success with this. And now I will be bring a loaf to my husbands aunt and I will be very satisfied and proud of the results. ?
I absolutely agree! I have learnt so much here!!
Thank you SO much, Jenny!!❤
Thus was so helpful! Thank you Jenny!
Can I put my bread in our indoor greenhouse to rise?
I used to rise mi e on my water ed. I put the bowl right onto the mattress with a towel on top of the bowl, then the comforter on that. Same for the rolls after I shape them, for the 2nd rise. Worked great. Waterbeds used to be about 72° F.
I made your whole wheat bread yesterday and it was great.My two questions are can I just use the egg white with out the yoke to reduce cholesterol second I am out of instant yeast and only have dry active can I proof it in the cup off milk in your recipe.
Regards Wally
One loaf of bread covered often fits nicely on top of the gas hot water heater to help it rise.
Do laundry. We always raise our dough on top of the running dryer. Growing up our mother used to save the laundry just for bread day.
I’m a newbie and have simply been taking it out after overnight refrigeration and letting it come up slowly in the kitchen, which is kept cool. I mean like only in the mid 60s Fahrenheit. Last time it sat there three hours, but next time I’ll try longer to get a bit more rise.
It’s tempting to run my truck engine (in the garage with the door open for venting exhaust) for 15 minutes and shut it off. If I put the bowl of dough on top of the hood, that would be a warmer place than in the house.
When I was young married are used to put these the yeast dough “ to bed”.
Just put the ball in the towel underneath the blankets in the bed and leave it for the allotted time. It worked
I turn on the dryer for about 5 minutes, turn it off, and put my dough in there to rise. Don’t remember where I first saw this, but it’s my go-to method.
Let your chicken(s) sit on it
In an oven, heat turned off, oven light on.
The oven light method never worked for me
I turn my oven on 350 for a minute and a half to two minutes, then turn it off. I put the dough in then and turn on the oven light for the entire time it rises. I love the light because I can keep an eye on it and tell when it has risen enough.
My oven has a warm setting turn on for about 5 min turn it of and put in my rolls to raise works great.
My cinnamon buns are not as soft as the first time I made them. What am I doing wrong, I have tried everything.
Did you change brands on anything like the flour or yeast? If it is tenderness, could be the flour and possibly overworking the dough.
Hi Jenny!
Ive recently discovered your cooking videos on Youtube and I must say, Im a BIG fan! I remember watching your talk show as a teenage and was so glad to see you resurface again! You have the cutest personality and always pick up bits of information that really help in my (baking) struggles. Thanks again Jenny. Greetings from PA!
I love your personality Jenny! I loved you when you did stand up comedy, your recipes all turn out wonderfully! Pretty, kind, funny, smart, creative are the words I would use to describe you. You Rock! (I’m from London, ON too!)
Shout out to London! ?
Yes, you have all those lovely qualities that I admire. It is a pleasure listening to you and I enjoy your cooking skills. My first wheat loaf, I goofed on. I forgot to let it sit for 30 mins in a warm spot! I couldn’t retrieve it. Let’s see what happens? A dry mess I bet!
Jenny, I remember watching your TV Shows and loved your personality more than anything else. I Love your YouTube videos. I just wanted to take a moment to Thank you for all the great videos and recipes. Linda
In a sauna works great if you have access to one
In the dryer.
Ran it on high for about 10 minutes – then turned it off and put the dough in the dryer and closed the door. Toasty warm environment here in MN in the Wintertime.
Brilliant!!! Can’t wait to try this one!
not everybody has a greenhouse but I’m thinking ill try that as i do have a greenhouse that is hot to rise my bread—ya think
breezeman
hi jenny! love seeing you cooking on u-tube! so how many kitchen timers do you have? here in Kansas our summer temperatures and humidity are high…wondering if i could leave bread dough in a covered bowl on my patio? thanks! and look forward to more videos. you explain things well, and i really like your sense of humor!
If i was to prove bread, i would put it in my garage because it is usually warm. But during the winter, i would surely use these tricks instead.
I heat the clothes dryer for a few moments, wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and then wrap in a clean towel. It’s a great draft free area.
I run the dryer for a few seconds. Place the bowl or pan inside, close the door, and set the timer for 5-7 minutes. I repeat this as I do other chores like cleaning the kitchen or washing dishes. Sounds like trouble but it’s not and it works.
But I have to say I like the reading lamp idea better. Time to hit the thrift stores and garage sales.
Hi Jenny,
this is not a request, just a compliment for you personally and also your wonderful site.
You and I go way back to the old TV days. I liked you then and still enjoy you now. Your my favorite go to when I want a recipe or to try something new. At the moment my White Bread is rising in the Microwave, I’ll let you know how that works for me……..so, my dear, Keep on cooking and baking because you are really right on!! BTW I am probably old enough to be your Grandma, 79 and still doing my thing in the kitchen.
Love to you,
A fan,
Betty Horne
Thank you for the lovely note, but you are not old enough to even be my mother. I am 71 years old so I guess it must be my home cooking! 🙂
My daughter thought you were my age, 48. It must be the home cooking, love you!
Oh my word! No way! (is your No-Knead Bread video several years old, then? You truly look at least 20 years younger than that!
You look absolutely lovely JENNY. It is your great personality, and good looks, and good cooking!
hi betty i am 78 and like you watched jenny on her tv show every day and love her cooking its never to late to leard new things.
If you don’t want to heat the oven for a minute just turn the oven light on. Works great!!!
Another warm place to rise dough, sit it on a thick towel on your hot water heater, nice and warm!
You can leave it on top of a controlled radiator
One of our bathrooms (easy access to pool) has a heat lamp next to the overhead light.I know it sounds awful , but I put a beach towel on the commode , turn on the heat lamp, close the door and put a post-it note on the door telling all who read it that if they open that door it’s under pain of denial ; they are denied any of what I’m baking ! The lamp works like a charm ! My next door neighbor does her dough the same way !! We have had so many laughs over our dough raising in the bathroom it could fill a book . So there’s one more way to raise dough in our house that is too cold to raise dough all year round ! In summer the AC is on and in winter we try to keep the heating bills down , so it’s still cold in this barn of a house ! There’s more than one way to skin a cat !
Thanks for taking time to share this.
I have a pizza stone,and did not cover bread,the top came out very
Crusty. I later put it in a zip log bag and it soften a little.
Let me know what I can do.
Louise Thanks
Crusty bread never stays crusty, especially when wrapped in plastic. But even after being stored in foil, it still needs to be re-crisped in the oven. I cover the sliced sides with foil and leave the crust exposed, and re-crisp in a 325 oven directly on the rack for about 10 minutes.
Use , if you have, the electric underblanket
Thanks for sharing your recipe. I want to try the Simple Whole Wheat Bread and I would like to know if I can skip the egg and also if I can use coconut milk or fat free milk instead of using 1% milk as stated in the recipe? Thank you for your answer. This is going be my first bread making (lol)
Baking is an exact science so if you’re baking for the first time, it’s best not to change the recipe. I only make this bread the way it’s posted so if you can’t follow this recipe, you may have better success if you find a different recipe. I have a whole wheat bread without egg (https://www.jennycancook.com/recipes/easy-honey-wheat-bread/) but I can only guarantee a great loaf if you don’t change the recipe. Good luck!
Hello Jenny,
Thanks for all your recipes. We have used unsweetened vanilla almond milk for your recipes and thus far all came out well. Husband cannot consume cow milk. We have done whole wheat bread with egg with almond milk too and delicious!
Will this recipe be ok to double or triple etc. Does it freeze well? When I make bread, I usually make at least 4 loaves and freeze.
I’m not sure which recipe you are considering but no matter which one, I have never doubled or tripled so I’m sorry I can’t offer any help.
fantastik! i love all of them but the microwave and the one with the plate on top of the hot bowl of water are very reasonable. thanks.
Reference where to place bread to rise. Put in oven and turn on oven light. Oven will maintain 80-85* in a draft free inviroment. Perfect for bread rising.
I turn my space heater on in a bedroom and the place the loaf pan about a foot away from it.
Thanks Jenny, for answering my question.
Hi jenny I’ve never baked bread before. I live in hawaii where the temperature is warm humid and in my area damp and the altitude his a little bit higher then other area’s. What ajustments do I need to make to the receipe
Humidity is actually a great environment for rising dough but as far as high altitude, that’s a specialized area of which I have very little knowledge but I believe that it’s only over 3,000 feet that you need to make adjustments. If you are that high, you would need to research “high altitude baking” for specifics. I wish I could help more but this is out of my area of knowledge.
Kona , the website KingArthurFlour.com has an entire set of directions for baking at high altitudes . It is EXCELLENT ! Glad to be of help . Happy 2017 and Baking ! ^_^
Bread Flour is 1 cup 128 g 4.5 oz sifted is 4oz scooping can be 51/2 or more.
I showed this to show that a cup is not always a cup! A cup of sifted flour weighs less than a cup of packed flour the same as powdered sugar is less than granulated sugar. I mention this because baking is a science not a art like cooking is. If you want to have the same result in your bread or other baked goods you need to use the same amount every time. So most of us need to use grams and if no other choice ounces. King Arthur in it’s tips says this
” You can, in fact, create a 4-ounce cup of flour by sifting the flour first. The sifting process incorporates a lot of air into the flour, which is the first source of leavening. Scooping flour, which can produce a much heavier cup (up to 5 1/2 ounces plus), will obviously contain less air and more flour”. So not only is how you measure important but how you determine time of raise of baked goods.
From what I have seen in my baking how much the bread raises is more important than the time it takes. If it says double don’t let it raise much more than that as when you bake it it will most likely fall and if not enough raise it will be dense. This method of not using time but volume of raise means that you don’t need a warm place. Baking using cups teaspoons and tablespoons always left me scratching my head. 1 out of 5 times I would have good results Then after watching so many popular chefs when baking saying how they use grams and not cups and mentioning how big bakeries used percentages to be exact I bought a scale and now when following a formula exactly I never have a bad experience!! The problems are multiplied when trying to make bigger batch. Water is the one variable as you never know how wet or dry your flour is to start with. So you need to hold back a few ounces of fluid or maybe adding a few. The problem I always had was if I used the amount called for and it was to much water then I would have to use more flour and some times it would be a cup or more to get the dough right and maybe get it to tight and then go in another circle. This always ended up with the wrong formula not enough yeast sugar or salt ending up with bread you could not feed to the birds.
This was a long winded way of saying be as exact as you can and hold back fluid you don’t need and if you have to use cups sift the flour and you will at least be close enough to get a fairly good result. Buy a scale and you will be happy everytime.
take the dough to the bathroom and turn on the shower to hot and that will create humidity
Jenny, Do you have a recipe for beer cheese soup? Thank you Michael
Sorry, I don’t.
I have a recipe for beer dressing for a turkey.
I just saw this recipe a couple of days ago for beer cheese soup. I haven’t tried it yet.
http://www.food.com/recipe/bavarian-restaurant-beer-cheese-soup-22344#activity-feed
Hi, I am looking for your sweet potato recipe made with oat bran that was in a magazine many years ago. I lost mine and cannot find it anywhere. It was a wonderful recipe and very popular in my house.
I’m sorry but I have no recollection of this recipe. The only one I remember is my sweet potato chocolate cake but there is no oat bran there. I wish I could help but I can not remember publishing such a recipe.
Hello Jenny, I think Denise Keeler maybe talking about your sweet potato muffin recipe on your about page, that was also posted in TV Week Nov. 1992. The one where you had sent in a correction as they had printed errors that you titled: “Miffed about her muffins” I wouldn’t mind to have that recipe too ! Thank you.
I believe that was my pumpkin chocolate chip muffins: https://www.jennycancook.com/recipes/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-muffins/
Hi Jenny, no it really was “sweet potato muffins” and if you look on your “About page” the recipe is still there – we just aren’t able to read it. Please let us know.
Oh! I’m so embarrassed! That was so long ago but I will look for that article and if found, I will post the recipe. Thank you for taking time on this.
Clothes Dryer – Run the dryer a few minutes to warm it up (you can place a couple of towels in there if you don’t want to run it while empty). Place your dough in a clean bowl, or rolls/bread on a tray, and cover loosely. Close door to keep the warmth in. It works!
That’s a great idea – thank you!
Good Morning, Jenny,
I have made your tortillas on a regular basis and you are right (again), they are so delicious!! I have also made the orange chicken and it was another success!! Thank you so much for this website and all your delicious recipes and fun videos!
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