Try putting a 2 cup pyrex measure of water in your microwave, bring it to a boil, then put your dough in that warm steamy place to rise. It'll pop up really fast.
BUT...at a sacrifice in flavor. A long slow rise at a cooler temperature makes for better tasting bread.
Linda C

Some people will pre-heat their ovens for a minute or two, then turn it off, just to warm it up enough to let the bread rise. I don't bother with any of that any more. If it's too chilly in my kitchen, I'll leave my under counter halogen lights on, and put the bowl underneath one of the lights, especially if I'm going to be in the room, anyway, doing other things.

Sally

Just wondering why you want something to rise your bread in? A slower rise at room temperature (even if your room is on the cool side) will actually improve flavour and texture of your bread.

Ann

Commercial operations use a "proofing oven" for raising dough. I don't know of any that are household size.

I'd try using a heating pad set on low and some sort of rack to elevate the bowls/ pans above the heating pad. Direct contact would be too hot, I think. Rig it up on the counter & plop a cardboard box over the top.

Linking an article on a home built proofing oven:

BTW, the top of the refrigerator is usually a nice warm place.

Here is a link that might be useful: Proofing Box

I use the microwave, like Linda said. I usually make bread during the week, after I get home from work, so I try and keep the prep/rising/baking time to about three hours. I make my dough in my bread machine, so I only need the second rise.

I nuke 2 cups of water, leave it in the MW and put the bread in next to it. It rises in about 45 minutes. I also close the MW door onto a folded piece of paper towel so the light stays on, for a little extra warmth, and if I remember, since I have an OTR MW, I turn on the light on the bottom of the MW, which warms it up, too.

Happy baking

Like my Unclde use to say..."you're bored...go clean your room"...

;
Sue

I run a cool house, so I have sometimes tucked my bread into the oven and turned the oven light on. It's worked well for me.

I'm not sure why people are in such a hurry??? (LOL) A long, slow, cool rise will improve the taste and texture of bread. But saying that, I also have a cool house (62-65-degrees F) and occasionally I use my oven with the light on, like tempusflits, as a proofing box. It's a better method than the pre-heat, turn the oven off method, because it maintains a constant temperature. If you pre-heat, it may fluctuate quite a bit. You can let the oven get TOO hot on the pre-heat.

Whatever method you use, oven, microwave, etc., be sure to take the ambient temperature. That microwave oven can EASILY get hotter than 90-degrees F. Optimum proofing temperature is between 80-85-degrees F. I have to set dough as far away from the oven light as possible for optimum temperature. Close to the light is WAY too hot...

-Grainlady

I just remembered that some warming drawers have a 'proof' setting. Those are usually built in appliances.

Here is a link that might be useful: Warming Drawer

Thank you for all the responses. All were appreciated, even the go clean your room.

I get the, let it do it's thing, it will just take longer. Not looking for instant, just not all day.

There is no above the fridge, it's built in. ...wish the oven had a pilot light.

Don't have a warming drawer, if I did, that would be perfect.

Just the oven light, I don't think it will work for me. We get bad, cold wind from the vent, if the oven/stove is not on, it's really cold over there.

Probably going to try the water in microwave.

Thanks again
Bob

LOL Grainlady, your house is balmy! My heat is set on 57degrees. Now, bread can take a very long time to rise at that temp, but, as many said... I'm not in a hurry. If it can rise in my fridge it can rise in my almost frigid house. The only time I try to warm it up [the bread that is], is if it's getting near bedtime and I want to bake it the same day.

coconut-nj-

Our bedroom is usually around 55-57-degrees, probably a little colder this morning because it's 2 outside, and I don't even want to know windchill...

bob411 -
Another thought on the subject. You could use recipes that use a fast-rising yeast (Quick-Rise, Rapid-Rise, or SAF-Instant) and omit the first rise entirely. I have a number of recipes I used to use a fast-acting yeast in when life was a lot busier.

After mixing/kneading, round the dough on the counter/board/mat (whatever you use for kneading). Place the mixing bowl over the dough and let it rest for 10-minutes (which allows the gluten strands to relax) and then form (pan or free-form), final proof and bake.

-Grainlady

Those of you that use the oven light method - what do you do with the dough while the oven is pre-heating? I usually turn my oven on during the last rise, so it's good and hot for the bread.

Sally

We live in a 100+ year old house. It has big, ornate radiators. We put the dough in it's rising bowl and put it on the radiator in the dinning room. Don't have room above the fridge(to much junk up there now), and don't have or need a warming drawer. They look to shallow in size to me to use for dough rising. NancyLouise

My thermostat never goes above 55 and I often have it at 50, so my house is pretty cool.

I don't have a warming drawer, and my fridge is also a built in, so no top of the refrigerator. I work during the day so I could make bread one day and bake it the next, I suppose, but I usually want to finish it in a night, after work.

I use the bread machine, which takes care of the first rise, and then I shape the bread, turn on the oven and set the bread on top of the stove to rise. Maybe it's my very cheap stove , but it gets plenty hot enough at the back of the top of the stove for those loaves to rise within half an hour or so, and then my oven is hot for baking.

I usually try to have something else to put in the oven while it's heating, like baked oatmeal for tomorrow's breakfast, or a casserole for the week's lunches, but sometimes I'm actually preheating an empty oven and then I feel guilty and tell myself I have to plan better and be more organized. (sigh)

Annie

Oh my! I would FREEZE in your houses! My teeth start chattering around 65 in a house during the winter. I guess we don't have as cold of winters here in Oklahoma as you all. Average high for January is mid forties. Although, it was a bitter 12 deegrees F this morning! Brrrrr!!!

Fifty! Annie, that man Elery must really really love you!

sally2-

I take it out of the oven before it reaches "double" and sit it aside on the counter during pre-heating to finish the final rise.

I generally bake bread in my Sharp Convection/Microwave Oven, which requires NO preheating, in order to save energy. I bake two loaves in 25-30-minutes, NO preheating.

I also make sure I set my Polder timer on a lanyard and wear it around my neck so I don't forget the bread dough is rising in the oven (LOL).

There are also bread recipes that by design go into a COLD oven and require no preheating, as another option. In those cases the baking instructions will indicate something similar to placing the loaf in a cold oven at 400-degrees for 40-minutes.

-Grainlady

Our average high for January is 68 deg., but we have had a few days that were 10 deg. below normal, and so when I would go home for lunch, the house would be 67 deg., and I would have to reset the thermostat to 71 deg. I have it set for 60 deg. for when we leave the house during the day (of course it never gets anywhere near that cold), and the house seems to lose a lot of heat between 8:10 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. I'm still not exactly sure how to operate my thermostat, but we have it set for 68 deg. for nighttime.

I've never lived with a radiator, but I saw one when I was a child.

As for bread, I often let it rise overnight in the fridge. If I want a warm spot, I put it in my bedroom because I have SE and SW exposure, and the sun heats it up if I leave the blinds open ... except for cloudy days, which are extremely rare and much appreciated.

Lars

Bob411, if you google "proof box" you will find exactly what you are looking for, including how to make one from a styrofoam cooler and an aquarium heater.

Steve

Okie, average high in my part of Michigan is 17F in January, average low is 9F. My house was built in the 40s and isn't particularly efficient, so heating it higher than that would cost me far more than I care to think about.

CC, Elery does indeed love me, and fortunately, he's even warmer than I am, 50 makes me wear sweatshirts and insulated socks. He might put on long sleeves!

Grainlady, a couple of winters ago you said you did all your baking in a solar oven year round. Because we had 28 consecutive days with zero sunshine in February that year, it wasn't an option for me. (grin) What happened to solar? I figure if I put my dough in my south facing window, it would probably rise there too. If it wasn't dark when I got home...

Bob, as an additional method for proofing, you could put a leakproof container of warm water in a cooler, add your dough container, put on the top and cover the cooler with a towel or blanket. Voila! Counter top bread proofing oven. The cooler will retain warmth as well as cold, I used to use one regularly for making yogurt. Very low tech, available to everyone, and at no practically no energy cost.

Annie

I've been known to heat up my dryer and set it in there to rise!

Sorry Annie. I've never said I use my Solar Ovens for ALL my baking, but I DO use them all year round as much as possible in order to save on utilities - big difference. You must have misunderstood.

-Grainlady

Anybody have pet snakes? LOL

Going down the build your own proof box, "thanks skeip" road now. I understand the extra humidity from the pool of water is good, but I think I want this dry. The Alife 1000 is a thermostat, with an outlet that you can plug a heat lamp, or anything else under 1000 watts into. I was thinking heating pad on the bottom, then an oven rack a couple of inches above that to put the proofing bucket on.

Problem is, Alife 1000 is not sold by Amazon, Petco, Petsmart, or any of my usual places I buy on the Internet, without any worry. Only place I can find it is, places that specialize in snakes. So if anybody is a snake person, and you know of a good place to buy snake supplies, please chime in.

Well my girls did have a pet iguana and it had a heated electric rock, but we just got it at the pet store....

You might also be able to use a dehydrator, and then you'd have a multi use gadet instead of a single use one, becuse you could also use it to dry foods and make yogurt.

Sorry, Grainlady, I was sure we had been talking about baking bread in your solar oven. What I REALLY want is an outside, wood fired oven...

Annie