100F is too warm. Yeast likes it at around 80F. Too cold, no rise, too hot
and the some yeast cells die off. What I do is turn my oven on to 200F, for
1 minute, and then turn it off. I have a thermapen that i use to check the
dough temperature, and that's worked for me. My first rise is 2 hours, and
the dough stays close to 80F.

My second rise is 45 minutes, and that's on the counter. I get the bottom
from a plastic storage box (shallow, but large and rectangular), invert it
over the baguettes. Then I take a measuring cup full of boiling water, and
stick it in there. The moisture and heat help the dough rise. The rolls are
laying in a piece of muslin that's been floured and waved to make little
rising beds. I still cover the rolls with plastic wrap though.

A method I learned from _The Best Bread Ever_, is to measure the temperature
of your flour. Take 145F - flour temp = water temp. After mixing in the food
processor, you'll be spot on your target temp (at least in mine). Check your
process and adjust as necessary.

Buy instant yeast instead of active yeast to bypass "activating" your yeast
in warm water. Just mix it with your dry ingredients. Instant yeast contains
very few dead yeasts, unlike active yeast, so you need less of it. I don't
have the conversion factor between the two types with me, but I could look
it up. You can use either in any recipe with the right conversion. Cook's
Illustrated had an article on it. BTW, I got a large brick of instant yeast
at a restaurant supply store for a lot less than those jars in the chain
stores (safeway, albertsons, etc). Must be about 5 or six jars worth. I
filled up a couple of jars, vacuum sealed and refrigerated the rest.

Check out this link:
http://www.gardenguides.com/recipes/...tbreadever.htm


Happy baking.

"Vox Humana" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Kent H." > wrote in message
> ...
> > Do you know which ovens go low enough to proof? I'm guessing the gas
> > oven won't temp that low. Will the Dacor?
> > Thanks
> > Kent
>
> My JennAir starts at 100F. My mother's KitchenAid oven has a special
proof
> setting (as do the newer JennAirs among others) that is programmed at
100F.
> My new Sharp Convection/Microwave also has a 100F setting that they
> recommend for proofing. I would imagine that most newer ovens with
> electronic controls can be set at 100F. You can get product information
for
> Dacor at their website.
>
>