DEAR DAME EVELYN , You missed a place to proof bread. If you check your trusty old gas oven, there's usually the first mark on the dial before "Low"; some models have two marks before "Low." Just place the proofing dough, covered with a moist towel over the top, in a basket or glass bowl (don't use metal) into the oven. This is how our grandmas used to proof breads. Get a thermometer, leave it in the oven when just the pilot flame is on, check the temp. If it's too cold, then check the first mark on the dial; this should be the right temp. My grandmother passed this info on to me when I started making bread. But what ever you do, don't leave it unattended!

If you plan to make a starter for the bread, the stove top near the exhaust for the oven will do just fine. You might again have to have the oven on the first mark if the pilot light is not providing enough heat.

Staczja

Dear Dame Evelyn,

I think you did a disservice by ignoring the [bread-baking] reader's original question – how do I get dough to rise? – and instead focusing on the alternate answer by praising bread-making machines.

Including two lines akin to "Many (Luddites) find it useful to place the bowl of dough in the oven with the heat off, but oven light on. Just the right enclosed warm environment for yeast to thrive" would have improved your answer.

A Concerned Reader

Reproofers,

Dame Evelyn notes your comments with intense interest if not complete agreement. I too have tried the pilot flame-warmed oven method, without success. And not all ovens have pilot flames or even oven lights; my current, otherwise fabulous, oven has neither. (Electronic ignition, wouldn't you know!) Of course, it can't hurt to try, and I assume by suggesting these methods you are telling us they have worked for you. Moreover, I am not trying to sell bread machines. But bread machines do serve admirably as proofing boxes, and proofing is, in my experience in this cold, damp city, the most treacherous procedure for the would-be bread baker.

Flamingly,

E. G.-S.