Making bread seems daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. One of the steps with which you may be least familiar if you don’t make a lot of yeast products is proofing.
Proofing is simply putting the yeast dough in an environment to keep the yeast happy and alive. There are two main factors in this: heat and humidity.
In well-equipped professional kitchens (unlike the one I work in) there is usually a proofer. This is basically a metal box with a heating element and some sort of steam source (I’ve seen them as simple as a metal bowl sitting on the heating element). These fancy things have both adjustable heat and humidity settings and in a professional setting are very useful. However, let’s face it – they take up a lot of space and only do one thing, so most places go without.
The simplest way to proof unshaped dough is to place it in a greased bowl and cover with a moist towel. This will work perfectly fine, but depending on the ambient temperature could take a while. It also doesn’t work too well for shaped doughs such as loaves and baguettes. The best solution I’ve found for the final proof of the shaped dough is to turn your oven into a proofer.
Keeping in mind that yeast dies at 140ºF, turn your oven onto the lowest setting it can be on. This is often even before the numbers on the dial start showing anything – 100ºF works just fine. Place a bowl (preferably metal) of warm water (not boiling) on the oven floor, and place the bread, on the tray you want to bake it on, above the bowl of water, allowing enough room for the steam to circulate. Keep in mind that by the time it’s ready to bake the dough will have doubled in size, so don’t put the loaves too close together. If your oven has a dodgy thermostat, as many do, check to make sure it isn’t too hot with an oven thermometer.
To test if it’s fully proofed, when the dough is roughly doubled, press your finger ever so gently onto it. If it springs back, it still needs more time. If it slowly springs back but leaves a bit of a dent, it’s ready to go. Remove both the bread and the bowl from the oven, turn the temperature back up and bake away.
