9 Tools to Level Up Your Bread Baking Game

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This proofer will keep your dough at the perfect temperature for bulk fermentation, and it collapses nearly flat for storage. It also comes with a handy carrying case.

If you live in a temperate climate — or have central HVAC — fermenting bread usually isn’t much of a challenge. You can just plop your bowl on the counter and wait. But if you live somewhere very cold or dry, you’ll need a way to keep the dough in the right zone while the yeast does its work.

There are plenty of products out there that can do this, but for this piece, I tested out the Brød & Taylor Folding Proofer and Slow Cooker.

The Folding Proofer is what it says it is: a collapsible box with a built-in heating element that can maintain a steady temperature between 70 and 195 ºF and a humidity level between 60 and 80%, thanks to a built-in water tray. (It doesn’t have the ability to cool, though, so if your ambient temperature is above 70 ºF, that’s your floor.) In addition to bread, it can be used to make yogurt, and it even works as a slow cooker — just put a pot of stew in there, and cook it low and slow for as long as you like.

In my testing, the Folding Proofer reliably kept a steady temperature, and it did make proofing times more predictable. I appreciate how compact it becomes when fully collapsed, which allows me to slide it into a cabinet vertically, alongside my cookie sheets.

For my sourdough starter, I also tested the Sourdough Home, which you may have seen Instagram breadfluencers championing. Essentially a repurposed makeup fridge, it’s able to heat and cool, to keep your starter in the perfect window and help you control how long it takes to become perfectly ripe for baking. But while I can confirm that it does exactly that, the process is still more fussy than I personally want to deal with. (I’m not someone who’s prepared to feed their starter every day or even every few days.) It’s also yet another thing that’ll take up space on your kitchen counter.

For years, I’ve simply kept my starter in the fridge, and over time it’s become powerful enough that it can go up to a month between feedings and bounce back in a couple of days to make beautiful bread. Is it living its best possible life? Probably not: More regular feedings would most likely produce more consistent fermentation results. Would the Sourdough Home help it get there? Indubitably. Do I think it’s something most bakers need? Definitely not. But if you get joy from fine-tuning every aspect of the fermentation process, give it a look.