Getting a rise

[jere7my]

When a recipe says to allow dough to rise "until doubled in volume", do they really mean doubled in volume—i.e., a ~26% increase in radius—or do they mean doubled in radius, which is an eightfold increase in volume?

Comments

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

Huh -- what kind of recipe are we talking about, here? For most bread recipes, at least, I would expect the dough to be rising in a bread pan which confines its sides, and thus a twofold increase in volume is corresponds to a roughly twofold increase in height, or maybe a bit less if it's not touching the sides to begin. But I take it that you are making your bread on some kind of flat surface instead. Anyway, for bread in general a twofold increase in volume seems a lot more reasonable than an eightfold increase, since the latter would require a lot of yeast, and also result in extremely fluffy bread.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Rather than trying to guess whether or not my dough has actually "doubled" I use a simple test:

Poke your finger in the dough at it puffiest point. If the indentation bounces back, give it more time. If not, your ready for the next step. I also rise my dough in the oven with a pan of water. Not a hot oven, mind, but I turn it to 200 degrees for ive minutes or so, then turn it off.

Also, keeping the dough in a lightly oiled and covered bowl will help gauge how much more volume the bread is taking up.

Good luck.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

Definitely doubled in volume. You don't want fairy floss, and most recipes don't ask for enough yeast to get there anyway.

Also, remember that yeast is alive, and you've got to keep it alive until you bake the bread. I think more than about 50C will kill it, but 35C is better than 25C is better than 15C, in terms of how long it takes to double.

[chlomar.livejournal.com]

I think it means neither. I just made bread. They just want it rising in the bowl to look bigger and take about an hour in a warm place. Bread is yummy.

[andele.livejournal.com]

I'm with Wednes: the "does it bounce back" test is much more useful than the "what's its volume" test.

I haven't been in a bread-baking phase in quite a while, but from the last time I was, I heartily recommend Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Breads. It's got lots of great recipes, and it's also got science-geek explanations of how bread works, for those as wants them.

[jaipur.livejournal.com]

Being pragmatic, they definitely do NOT mean an 8-fold increase in volume. Hard to find a bowl the right size for that... :)

[myalexandria.livejournal.com]

I tend to go with time rather than a strict volume measure. Eh, it works for me.

As always, I recommend the Tassajara Bread Book, both for its excellent bread recipe and for its serene zen bread-baking wisdom. (I'm actually not really kidding about that last part.)

[jere7my.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking particularly of the pizza dough recipe in the latest Joy of Cooking. I start with a grapefruit-sized ball of dough, and when I come back an hour later it's closer to a bowling ball. That's surely more than a doubling in volume, though I'm not sure it's quite a doubling in radius, either.

Anyway, my pizzas and breads turn out fine, so I was mostly asking to sate my curiosity. :) Like ceceliaregent, I tend to go by time, which seems to work well enough.