The Surprisingly Simple Way I Finally Got My Bread Dough to Rise Perfectly

I'm lucky to live in San Francisco, where excellent pastries and sourdough bread are readily available. Despite the abundance of baked goods, I still love making cinnamon rolls, yeasted coffee cakes, and various styles of pizza at home. Here in San Francisco, though, the temperature is almost always between 55 and 72°F (12 to 22°C), which means I often struggle to proof dough at room temperature. Luckily, I've found a clever workaround that guarantees perfect proofing every single time: placing a hot cast iron skillet in the oven with the dough.

The Importance of Proofing

Yeast is a living ingredient that needs time to work. When leavening agents such as baking powder and baking soda are incorporated into doughs and batters—and, in the case of baking soda, used with acid—they create carbon dioxide through a chemical reaction, helping cakes, cookies, and other baked goods rise during baking. Unlike chemical leaveners, yeast works by slowly fermenting and consuming the sugars and enzymes in dough or batter, producing carbon dioxide and ethanol. 

The carbon dioxide gets trapped by the gluten network—protein molecules that give breads and pastries their structure and chew—helping inflate doughs and batters. This process, according to Serious Eats contributor and baker Max Bernstein's guide to breadmaking, is also what gives baked goods their "characteristic flavors and aroma." Proofing, however, takes time. Fail to proof your dough long enough and you may end up with a dense, gummy loaf or cake. 

Beyond time, temperature is also key to proofing dough well. Yeast is more active at warm room temperature (about 74 to 80°F/23 to 26°C), which is why many recipes instruct you to proof in a warm spot. Some recipes may have you start proofing your dough at a warm room temperature before instructing you to move it to the fridge for a longer, slower rise over the course of 8 to 24 hours, which can be beneficial for developing complex flavors and textures.

Many home cooks have devised various hacks—including leaving the oven light on, briefly turning on the oven, and placing a pan of hot water inside—to help create the ideal environment for proofing dough. While some of these methods can be effective, none are as consistent or reliable as my preferred method. Leaving the oven light on doesn't work for me, as my bulb isn't warm enough to make a noticeable difference. Turning the oven on briefly to warm it up and then shutting it off does work, but it requires babysitting the oven to ensure it doesn't get too hot. It also involves cycling the oven on and off during the proofing to maintain warmth, which is unnecessarily fussy. 

Placing a pan of hot water on the bottom shelf of the oven works well, but it gets messy if it spills. That brings me to my go-to method of creating a warm environment, which also happens to be the easiest: heating a cast iron skillet and placing it in the oven.

My Foolproof Method

The heat from the hot skillet passively radiates in the enclosed oven, creating a warm environment ideal for proofing dough and helping it to rise faster than it would on the counter. Thick cast iron conducts and retains heat well, so there's no need to turn the oven on and off or worry about spilling water all over the kitchen floor. If your dough requires an extended proof—anything over 90 minutes, such as for brioche—you might need to reheat the skillet halfway through. But for doughs that only require 60 to 90 minutes of proofing time, heating the skillet once is usually enough. 

Keep in mind that all ovens are different. Some are better insulated than others, some are larger or smaller. If you have an oven thermometer, you can continuously monitor the internal temperature of the oven. If you don’t, just check the oven at the halfway point to see how the dough is progressing and if you need to reheat the skillet.

The Best Skillet to Use

Large, heavy-bottomed cast iron skillets work better than small, lightweight ones, which don't retain heat as well. I use my large 12-inch Lodge pan, but if you have a smaller skillet, you might need to reheat it halfway through the proofing to maintain warmth. Do not use enamel-coated cast iron, as the enamel coating and cast iron have different rates of thermal expansion, and exposing the pan to intense heat can damage it or even crack the enamel. 

How to Easily Create a Warm Proofing Environment

1. Move one of the oven racks to the lowest position. 
2. Adjust the second oven rack to the middle position. 
3. Place the cast iron skillet on top of the stove and heat it over medium. This takes about three to five minutes on my stove, but your stovetop might be different. I know the skillet is hot and ready when I can feel heat radiating from the pan when I place my hand a couple of inches over the center of it. (Once the skillet is hot from the stove, you should always use a heatproof oven mitt to handle it.) 
4. Once the skillet is hot, use a kitchen towel or oven mitts to carefully move it to the bottom rack of the oven. 
5. Place the dough in a bowl on the middle shelf, making sure it’s covered with a damp towel or plastic wrap, then close the door and proof until ready (typically this is when the dough is puffy and nearly doubled in size, but each recipe is different).

With the cast iron skillet trick, I can make a weeknight pizza dough without worrying that it'll take forever to rise. That way, I can focus more on the toppings and less on whether I'll get dinner on the table at a reasonable hour.