A list of words and phrases used in recipes, and what they really mean

Word or Phrase

Leave to rise

What it means

Some recipes want you to leave the mixture alone for while. The recipe will tell you to allow the dough to rest for a certain amount of time so that some cooking magic can happen. In recipes that include yeast you need to give the dough some time to rise, or get bigger. Yeast makes thousands of tiny bubbles in the dough and if you don't allow it to rest your buns or cakes will be rock hard and flat rather than fluffy and bun shaped!