You’ve seen recipes screaming “proof for exactly 1 hour!” That’s a lie. Time is a suggestion. Your dough is done proving when it has doubled in size and a fingerprint gently pressed into it springs back slowly—not instantly, not at all. The oven’s warm environment can cut this time in half. Check after 30 minutes. If it looks like a marshmallow that’s had a few too many, you’re golden.
The "danger zone" is hilarious
If you forget your dough in the warm oven for three hours, it will over-proof. That’s when it gets all floppy, smells like a frat party, and collapses when you try to shape it. Don’t panic. You can still bake it; it just won’t be a masterpiece. Call it “rustic focaccia” and nobody will know. Rustic is code for “I messed up.”
