Being consistent helps, that way you know whether its a technique problem or under/over-proofing. I live in a poorly insulated house and baking bread over winte

Being consistent helps, that way you know whether its a technique problem or under/over-proofing. I live in a poorly insulated house and baking bread over winter is a pain. I ended up making my own proofing box - way cheaper than buying an off-the-shelf chamber (some of which are $100+). Get an expanded polystyrene crate [1], the sort of things market traders use, a seedling mat and a relay thermostat. Wire together and you have a reasonably accurate climate controlled box. The box will be the most expensive thing, but I bought a very large one (too large, to be honest) and it was about £35. For a single loaf, you only need an interior volume enough to fit something a standard plastic food container [3]. A 4L container will barely do a 1kg batch, so size up. This is essentially the design that Noma use in their fermentation book [2]. Hint: you can see the design in the preview on Google Books (page 42). I set mine around 26-27C for bread, seems to work quite well. I've not bothered to measure how accurate the setpoint is. [1] https://hydropac.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/deluxe-1.jpg https://hydropac.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/deluxe-1.j... [2] https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Noma_Guide_to_Fermentation.html?id=-iJ9DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Noma_Guide_to_Fer... [3] https://www.nisbets.co.uk/cambro-square-polycarbonate-food-storage-container-5700ml/db010 https://www.nisbets.co.uk/cambro-square-polycarbonate-food-s...