Why let bread rise

Sourdoughs and starters are another can of worms, and we'll cover them in later posts. Yeasted breads get bigger. That's why we call them leavened. For a baker, this is what we call rising. Rising is the most dramatic physical change a dough undergoes on account of yeast activity. Technically speaking, rising is a product of a process called respiration, which occurs in conjunction with fermentation, that we'll discuss next. You see, S. And flour just so happens to be packed with starches—long chains of simpler, smaller sugars, such as glucose, sucrose, and maltose.

When our flour met our water during the autolyse, enzymes called amylases began breaking down the flour's starches into these simpler sugars, which the yeast readily devour.

As the yeast eat sugars released by the starch, they belch out carbon dioxide, and that gas congregates in tiny air bubbles. It's those same air bubbles that we incorporated into our dough during mixing. These bubbles are in turn held inside our dough by the gluten structure we developed during mixing, and which we'll further develop during bulk fermentation. As the yeast respirates, our bread rises.

In the simplest of terms, fermentation is what happens when yeast cells eat and poop. Specifically, it's what happens when yeast cells consume sugars and produce ethanol and other derivative chemicals. The alcohol produced by the yeast during fermentation—along with a multitude of other reactions—are what give great bread its characteristic flavors and aroma.

Generally speaking, more fermentation means tastier bread. In the most technical, terms fermentation is an anaerobic reaction meaning it happens in the absence of oxygen that the yeast performs after respiration, which is aerobic and requires oxygen. In bread baking, the word proofing most commonly refers to the final rise dough undergoes, which takes place after being shaped into a loaf, and before it is baked.

In practice, however, the words proof and fermentation are sometimes used interchangeably. What's important to realize here is that shaping dough affects its physical form, but doesn't impact its internal chemistry—the processes and chemical reactions at work during our bulk and final rises are the same.

With that vocabulary in mind, let's take a look at the dough we all just birthed, and, armed with patience, get back to work. The bulk fermentation for any dough is a crucial step in the bread baking process, even if it isn't the most exciting one. We call it a bulk fermentation because we are letting our dough—the entire batch—ferment as one mass, before dividing and shaping it into loaves.

It's during our bulk fermentation that the yeast does the majority of its work, helping our dough gain flavor as ethanol and other byproducts are produced, and gain structure as CO2 inflates our gluten network. At a comfortable room temperature, our bulk fermentation for the workhorse loaf will take about one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half hours. As a rule, warmer dough will rise faster than colder dough, so make sure you take stock of the environment in which you're baking.

I can hear you asking, "Why not make my dough really warm so it'll proof faster and I can have bread sooner? Chief among them is that the fermentation that produces good flavor really only takes place in earnest after the yeast have exhausted most of their oxygen supply.

If we allow our dough to rise too quickly, we'll get lots of CO2 but less alcohol than we want, meaning our bread won't taste as good. Furthermore, gluten is less temperature sensitive than yeast. Meaning that if we get our dough too warm, our yeast will inflate the dough faster than its gluten structure can organize itself—the bubbles that make up our dough's internal structure will over-inflate and pop like balloons.

This will hurt our shaping efforts later and give us flatter, less sexy looking bread. I know, two hours feels like a long time. Trust me, it's worth it. Don't rush the bulk rise. So, can the bulk rise be slowed down?

A slower bulk rise will encourage more flavor and structural development up to a point. But remember, the yeast has a limited food supply, and we want to make sure to leave it enough food for a successful final proof, and make sure enough sugars are present to allow our crusts to properly caramelize when we bake them. If you want to let you dough proof for longer, try bulk-fermenting it in a cooler place, but don't allow it to go longer than three hours or structure and flavor may be compromised.

For the workhorse loaf, a bulk proof of approximately two hours gives us the optimal balance of flavor and texture. Practically speaking, all this means you shouldn't let the workhorse bulk-ferment anywhere you wouldn't want to hang out. If you're working in a really hot kitchen, allow your dough to bulk ferment in cool a cabinet close to the floor.

If you're working in a very cold kitchen, put your stove on low and set your dough near it. If you live in a home where you can control the temperature of rooms without needing to beg your superintendant for a favor, set your thermostat to 75 degrees and stop thinking about it. But a watched dough never rises, so don't stare at it the whole time. Eat a sandwich, make your bed, or get to work cooking the rest of your meal. Let the dough do the work and try not to mess with it too much.

Distractions are a home-baker's best friend. That said, us bakers do have some important work to do during the bulk fermentation. About a half hour into the bulk rise, it's time to fold, or turn, our dough.

Folding dough effectively takes a bit of practice, but is one of my favorite parts of making bread. A good fold lets us stare into a dough's soul. So, why do we fold dough? Lots of reasons. To start with, folding dough develops gluten structure.

By first stretching and layering our gluten, we help our dough more effectively hold water and air. As we trap more air in our dough during these motions, folding also helps to establish a more open crumb structure in our baked loaves. Secondly, folding dough redistributes our yeast and its food, making sure each little Cookie Monster gets its fill. Also, folding dough helps to regulate its temperature, keeping it consistent through its mass.

Together, these two consequences of folding regulate yeast activity, and help our dough stay on schedule. To perform a fold, start by wetting your dough spatula and hands with water. Then, gently scrape around the edges of the bowl to prevent sticking, and make a clean fold possible. Without tugging, pull the side farthest from you up and towards you, and fold your dough in half.

Give the bowl a quarter turn, then perform the same motion again. Give the bowl a half turn, and repeat the same motion. So what happened? The dough had risen so much that blisters had formed at the top. Normally, this would be okay, but there were too many blisters and they were too big—the dough has risen way too much.

There was so much gas in the dough from over-rising that it collapsed in the oven and came out short and dense. The next day, we tried again. This time, I set the timer for about thirty minutes and walked away.

Once it went off, I went to check on the buns. Not ready yet, so I set the timer for another two minutes and walked away. I continued to do this until just two small blisters had formed at the top of two buns. I rushed them into the oven right away.

Rising your bread dough just until blisters start to form is fine and a great way to tell when your bread is ready to go into the oven, but right as they just barely start to form, you need to hurry to get it into the oven.

No distractions. If you walk away from it to answer the phone first, you could end up having too many blisters or too much gas in your dough, and it will flop just like mine did.

How long should it take? A lean, moist dough in a warm kitchen will probably rise in 45 minutes or less. A firmer dough with less moisture will take longer to rise. The important thing to keep in mind that setting a timer for your dough to rise should only tell you when to go check on the dough, not necessarily when the bread is ready to go into the oven.

Think of it this way: your yeast comes with its own thermostat, not a watch. Yeast is very sensitive to temperature; even a few degrees less in the kitchen can extend the rise time significantly. A change of 17 degrees will cut the rise time in half. A trick that we like to use to cut the rise time in half is putting the dough somewhere warm, like in the front of the car, in front of a sunny window, or on top of a warm kitchen appliance, like the fridge.

Another thing we like to use is a proofing bag. Placing the pan with the dough inside a bag and then in a warm area efficiently captures the heat, traps in the moisture, and creates a greenhouse effect to make the dough rise significantly faster. Bread that has risen slowly has a different flavor than fast risers, a more acidic flavor—hence the sourdough flavors in slow rising breads. In addition, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. To many, many people who enjoy sandwiches, toast, and other forms of bread, baking bread every so often is a fun and enjoyable experience.

There are countless different recipes and ways that you can make bread. However, if you are just getting started making bread, you may not know what to pay attention to or what you need to focus on. There are several aspects to breadmaking that warrant your full attention. You will want to knead out the dough, you will want to use the right amount of flour, and you will need to make sure that you allow your bread to rise properly.

For beginner bakers, allowing bread to rise the right amount is often the most difficult aspect of breadmaking. For your bread to rise, the conditions have to be just right.

There is a delicate balance between letting bread rise too little and letting bread rise too long that bakers need to work with.

If you have come to realize that a bread recipe you have started is not going to allow the dough to rise enough, then you may feel at a loss as to what you should do. While there is always the option of leaving the dough out until it eventually rises, there are a couple more things that you can do to try and fix the bread. Before you can understand what happens to your bread if you do not let it rise enough, you need to understand what happens to the bread chemically during the rising process.

Inside the bread, there is a fair bit that is happening on a chemical level.