Kitchen Tools

When you work with yeasty dough, you need a place to let your dough rise to get volume. The easiest is to use a bowl from your kitchen mixer if it is big enough, if the recipe allows you, and if you are not going to need your kitchen mixer bowl anytime soon.

If you need to find an alternative solution for a kitchen mixer bowl, you can use a regular mixing bowl covered with plastic wrap. This will work well but it is not too elegant of a solution since it is not stackable and it is harder to place it into the oven to rise if needed.

Best for proofing dough is to select a professional see-through container (sometimes called a rising bucket) with gradation and with the lid (often sold separately). These are the main advantages:

• The lid will allow you to close it easily without using plastic film.
• It is stackable and more convenient to fit into the oven in comparison to a mixing bowl.
• Because it is see-through and has gradations, it is super easy to monitor the progress of the dough rising (if the dough has doubled or tripled).
• If not used for rising, it can be also used like a practical food container.

How to select the best rising bucket?

• Always select NSF certified which will provide you with better performance and higher durability.
• Always select BPA free to make sure that you are not going to expose your body to chemicals present in non-BPA free containers. BPA containers are usually only partially see-through, but it will still provide you with good enough visibility of the contents.
• Make sure to buy one with matching lids (lids often sold separately).
• Buy square containers since it is more space efficient than round versions.
• The size and amount should match your baking habits, but it is always good to have a slightly bigger version that is a size of your dough after rising to make sure that your dough will have “no chance to escape”. Best is to have at least one 6 QT that will satisfy your needs for most baking requirements. If you bake as much as I do, you may also want to consider adding a 12 QT container that will be great for rising up to 3 larger bread doughs at one time or any other larger quantity of dough.