If you use just a towel, I would oil the top of the dough first to help keep it from drying out. Foil would probably be better.

I've always used a damp non terry cloth dish towel, an oiled bowl and a light rub on the top of the dough. Do you have any cotton flour cloth towels? They are perfect for the job.

For short rises I use a damp tea towel. For an overnight rise, where the towel would dry out, I put the dough in a large, oiled, tupperware with a lid. The container has to be about four or five times the volume of your risen dough, or the lid will constantly pop open as the dough produces the gas that makes it rise.

I haven't tried resting dough in a plain covered casserole ... I wonder if the gas would escape and the lid would settle back naturally? I feel an experiment coming on :-)

Like the others, I use a tea towel for my normal breads and rolls. Overnight I use a plastic bowl with a lid.

I wonder what you ended up using, and how your experiment worked. I would have used a plate to cover the bowl.

Moni

For a quick rise, most recipes recommend covering with a damp towel. If your recipe calls for plastic wrap, it probably needs a tight seal. I would invest in a small box of plastic wrap to use just for bread rising.

I used a damp towel. It worked fine. I made sure it was pretty wet, not dripping but good and wet. It is still wet over 12 hours later. The muffins are now cut and sitting for the final rise.

Use a plate. You can even use a lid. You can round up your dough in an oiled bowl or just oil the top of the dough if you are worried about it drying out but I don't have that problem. I practically never use plastic wrap or foil. I use lids. I cover things on a board with an upside down bowl. I go to lengths to not waste money on throwaway coverings. I don't even use a clean bowl, I raise my dough in the very same bowl I mixed it in.

Well, they are okay but I still like Thomas's English muffins better. Maybe next time I will coat the outside with cornmeal like they do. Some of them are so thick too. The first one I cut into (a thinner normal looking one) it was under cooked so I put the others back in the pan for a few more minutes. I'll probably toast them in the toaster oven before eating too. That may be why the texture feels a little too mushy for me.

Well, they look good!

Don't know how they taste, but they sure look great!

They do look great! I'll bet toasting will fix them right up.

Looks good! butter, strawberry jam, yum!

Don't slice with a knife, pull apart with a fork-poke the fork in all around the perimeter and then pry apart. Toasting finishes the cooking.

I did try another one just now, after toasting it. Much better. The flavor is wonderful.

LOL see we are sooo entrenched in disposable we don't even know plastic wrap is for sure not NECESSARY!!! Cotton dish-drying towel, damp is all you need.

Muffins look delish.

I use a clean recycled plastic grocery bags for covering dough. Either tent it over the bowl or plop the entire bowl inside the bag.

Or you could turn a much larger empty bowl upside down over the bowl of rising dough.

They look yummy! Glad you tried them. It might inspire you to try more bread baking.....?

Nicole, my next attempt will be white bread of some sort. No kneed type.