A French patissier emptied oven to see how dough is before rising (8)
I believe the answer is:
unproven
'see how dough is before rising' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'a french patissier emptied oven' is the wordplay.
'a french' becomes 'un' ('a' in French).
'emptied' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'patissier' with its centre removed is 'pr'.
'un'+'pr'+'oven'='UNPROVEN'
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for unproven that I've seen before include "Not demonstrated as true or factual" , "Verdict" , "flat bread?" , "Not established as fact" .)