The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [160]
The usual method for keeping the dough from drying out on the top is to cover the bowl with a damp towel. Usually we have a lot of respect for such conventions, but this one is a mystery. What happens every time is that either the towel dries out and doesn’t do the job, or the dough rises into it, and becomes one with the towel forever. A platter, a lid, a matching bowl inverted on top—any of these is much better.
When you are covering the shaped loaf, if the dough is ripe so that there is no trace of stickiness to it, a damp towel will not adhere to the loaf—but it can still dry out. Keeping the loaf in a closed plastic bag or in some other closed space like a big covered pan or canning kettle will protect the shaped dough during its final rise. Provide extra humidity if it is needed by putting a little hot water in the bag or kettle.
Halfway through the final rise, the time comes when you have to preheat the oven. The bread’s inside: what to do? Here are some ideas:
Set the nearly risen loaves in a draft-free place, turn on the oven, and don’t worry about it.
Float the loaves in their loaf pans in a dishpan of warm water, covered over with another dishpan. This astonishing idea is super-effective because of the humidity; the water will stay warm for as long as half an hour if there is enough of it. Add some boiling water should the bread need more time after that.
When the bread is about three-quarters risen, simply turn the oven on with the proofing loaves inside. They will continue to rise while the oven preheats. Start a little sooner if your oven takes a long time to get up to temperature, a little later if it preheats very quickly. This is definitely a daredevil technique, but it can work well if your timing is just right. Note that for breads that require high initial heat, especially heat plus steam, this method won’t do; save it for recipes that include milk or plenty of sweetener. (Please remember to remove the plastic bag or whatever you have used to keep the bread from crusting over while it was rising. Thermometers, too. You’d be amazed at how hard it is to get melted plastic off the oven rack.)
You can set the loaves on a heating pad for the last part of the rise. A hot-water bottle will work too; it is good for about half an hour. Since it will be very hot at the beginning, cover it with towels to even out the heat and protect the bread.
KEEPING COOL
So far all this has had to do with finding or devising a Warm Place, but if you are making Desem or French Bread or want to have a long cool fermentation for an eight- or ten-hour dough or a long-rising sponge, what you want is a Cool Place. This can be much harder to find, unless your climate is temperate and there is a porch, cellar, or garage that stays cool without being drafty. Sometimes a low cupboard on the shady side of the house is just right.
French bread requires dry proofing, which makes it a poor choice for any humid day even on a cool porch. For other doughs, here is an option that sounds fantastic but works: make a secure bundle of the dough tied up in a muslin or linen cloth and float it in a tub of cool water. When you return to it the bundle will have become a soccer ball, bouncy and nicely fermented. The timing has to be careful, because there is no finger-poke testing! Less spectacular, also effective: just leave the dough in its bowl and place it in in an ice chest, keeping its temperature steady and proper with cool water around the bowl. Again, a thermometer is most helpful in adjusting all these.
Paraphernalia
MECHANICAL HELP
There is nothing like the satisfaction of making bread by hand, feeling the dough develop its own life and supple strength as you knead it in a rhythm as old as mankind, etc.—but. If you need to make a lot of bread, or have a time schedule that is snugger than tight, or if