How long does yeast dough need to rise?

There are a lot of variables in bread making. An hour is probably an average. You can speed the time by putting the dough in a very low temp oven, or setting the pan it is in over a pot of lightly steaming water. Use a wire rack across the top of the water pan. A single batch of dough can be forced to rise in 20 to 30 minutes. Generally, the faster the dough rises the coarser the end product is going to be.