How To Make Your Bread Dough Rise Faster Using Your Instant Pot

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Making bread is a frustrating affair for fast and furious cooks who are simply too impatient to wait for their baguettes to proof. Fortunately, there's a simple way to make bread dough rise faster using the yogurt setting on an Instant Pot. While this setting is designed for fermenting yogurt, the low temperature also creates the perfect environment for expediting the rising stage for yeasted products, like a basic Neapolitan pizza dough, brioche, challah, and more.

The rising process is an essential stage of bread making because it gives yeast the time it needs to grow and release carbon dioxide. These pockets of air are responsible for giving bread its characteristic light and fluffy texture. Generally, a low and slow rise produces breads that have a richer flavor, but if you're in a rush, you can speed up the process by placing your dough in a warm place like a proofing drawer or, now, your Instant Pot.

To get started, grease the chamber and place your dough inside. Set your Instant Pot to the yogurt function (you may need to cycle through the display until it reads "normal" rather than boil) and put a plate on top of it instead of closing the lid. If you put the regular lid on, there's a risk the dough could rise all the way up and trigger the valve at the top, preventing you from opening it later.

Allow your dough to rise until it's doubled in size — around 30 minutes or so — and then you can either knock it back and give it a second proof, or shape it and bake it. You should find that your dough rises in half the time specified in your recipe, which means you won't be twiddling your thumbs for too long while it proofs. Bear in mind that if bread dough is placed in an environment that's too warm, the yeast will expand faster than the gluten structure inside can handle it, causing all that precious air to collapse. Conversely, if the temperature is too cold, the yeast will become dormant and slow its production of carbon dioxide. As the temperature inside an Instant Pot is controlled, the dough should rise evenly and uniformly, resulting in a consistent bake.

The low temperature setting on an Instant Pot can also be used to proof fermented batters that are used to prepare Indian breakfast dishes, like dosas, uttapam, and idli, making it a particularly useful appliance. Beyond this, there are several more Instant pot hacks that can make your life easier in the kitchen, such as using it as a popcorn maker, rice cooker, or even a steamer.