I love to bake homemade bread and pizza dough and don't really care for bread machine results. When I make breads by hand, I need a nice warm, clean, out of the way place for the dough to rise. I have been putting the dough in my microwave (turned off, of course) and letting it rise there with the best results.
It frees up my counter space and is clean and warm. So make use of that idle microwave when in need of a place for dough to rise. I've even got some pizza dough rising in mine right now for entertaining friends later.
By jill from Blue Bell, PA
I am a bread baker also...I have a warmer drawer on my stove, I put my bread dough in the bowl in the warmer drawer with the temperature set on Low; my dough rises in half the time it does sitting in a warm place on my counter. I also place my bread pans with the bread dough in them in the warmer drawer; I am able to bake the bread quicker than the conventional method of bread rising on the counter. It works for my bread baking methods.
I have a friend that puts her bread dough in her oven with the oven light on and the bread rises quicker using that method.
This page contains the following solutions.
When I am trying to get a yeast dough to rise, I place a heating pad on low underneath the pan of dough. Cover with plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray and place a kitchen towel on top to keep the warmth inside.
Before putting in the dough, either set the pan in the sun, place it on range with oven on "warm" underneath, or run hot water over the pan until it is warm to the touch, then dry the pan.
A perfect place for dough to rise is in the oven. Its draft-free and a perfect temperature. Of course, the oven needs to be off!
While using your clothes dryer and making bread, pizza dough, etc., put the loaf pan on top of your dryer to help the bread rise!
So you have not updated to one of those slick, slim TVs yet, and you want to bake some bread? Believe it or not, if your TV is on, it make a nice warm spot for you dough to rise.
I needed a quick way to get my dough to rise and I thought why not use a heating pad? I plugged it in, turned it on and checked to make sure it was not too hot.
You can put dough on top of the TV to help it rise. If the TV has been on for a while it is an effective heat source.
If you are baking bread on a warm sunny day, use that heat to rise your dough. This is a page about how to let dough rise in warm sun.
