Get bread to rise properly
An independent reference of working temperatures, times and percentages for home bread and cake baking, organised as procedures with numbers.
Not a bakery, shop or brand site, not a recipe collection, and not affiliated with any business of a similar name — nothing here is sold or ordered.
A loaf rises when dough temperature, proof volume and oven heat line up — here is the sequence in order.
Everything in this guide hangs on one habit: measure the dough, not the room. Instant dry yeast is fastest when the dough itself reaches 30–35 °C. Below 15 °C it slows sharply, and above 54 °C it stops working altogether, so water that feels comfortable to a finger can end the rise before it starts.
Once mixed, the dough bulks for 3–5 hours at 24–26 °C. The target is a 50–70% rise, not a doubling — the dough should look grown and feel elastic, with strength left for the oven.
After shaping, the final proof runs 1–2 hours. A dough that is fully proofed before it reaches the oven has spent its rise and bakes into a flat loaf — the most common failure in home baking and the easiest to prevent with a clock.
Hydration is water as a percentage of flour weight, and it sets the crumb before anything else does.
Bread dough hydration runs from 60% for a firm tin loaf to 80% for an open crumb. At the low end the dough is easy to handle and slices tight; at the high end it is slack, sticky and bakes with large holes.
Above 85% the balance tips: the flour turns to paste and the dough stops responding to a warm, fast bulk. At that point it needs a long, cold bulk proof to build structure slowly.
Salt sits outside the hydration ladder but changes how the dough feels at every level. At 2% of flour weight it tightens the gluten and seasons the crumb; above 3% the crumb tightens and the dough stiffens noticeably.
| Stage or bake | Target | What it prevents |
|---|---|---|
| Dough after mixing (instant yeast) | 30–35 °C | Below 15 °C the yeast slows sharply; above 54 °C it stops |
| Bulk fermentation | 3–5 h at 24–26 °C | Stop at 50–70% risen, not doubled |
| Final proof after shaping | 1–2 h | A fully proofed dough bakes into a flat loaf |
| Wet loaf in the oven | 230–250 °C, steam first 20 min | Steam keeps the crust soft so the loaf can expand |
| Baguettes and rolls | 240–260 °C, little or no steam | Dry heat sets a thin, crisp crust |
| Lean bread doneness | 96–99 °C internal | The probe beats judging by crust colour |
| Enriched or butter bread doneness | 93–95 °C internal | Egg and butter darken the crust before the centre is done |
| Cake layers | 160–180 °C | Above 180 °C the outside sets before the batter rises |
Bread wants fierce heat, cake wants moderate heat — and steam decides how far a loaf can expand.
A wet loaf goes into a 230–250 °C oven with steam for the first 20 minutes. The steam keeps the surface soft long enough for the loaf to finish expanding before the crust sets.
A dry baguette or a tray of rolls wants the opposite treatment: 240–260 °C with little or no steam, so the crust sets thin and crisp rather than thick and chewy.
Cakes sit much lower, at 160–180 °C. Above 180 °C the outside of the batter sets before it has finished rising, and the crumb comes out dense and tunneled.
The numbers in this guide are the standard working ranges of bread and cake baking, given as spans rather than single targets.