I discovered that sous vide makes for a perfect proofing setup. I fill my sous vide container with water, set my Anova to 30 degrees C and place a ceramic Bain Marie in it filled with my levain (sourdough starter). Just the ticket for these unusually cold Florida days. Set and forget!
One word of caution if you are looking for optimal starter performance. At 30°C the starter is very active and will feed rapidly. If you don’t watch it closely it will peak and start to fall and not perform as well when you mix your dough. I feed my starter and let it proof overnight in a cool room about 18°C. At his temperature it will peak and hold the peak for a couple of hours. This is a good tip if you are in a hurry.
Thanks for the tip, John. My 15 years old starter died in the fridge from neglect and I have been resurrecting it with TLC. It is happy now, as am I. I have always just fed it and left it on the counter at the usual ambient temperature around here of 77 or so. Bread-making is one of the best therapies, yes? It is a refuge from our pervasively technological world.
I have been doing sourdough for years and one tip is to dehydrate your starter once it is healthy. A little jar will last forever and takes only a few days to revive.
In a homage to Paul Simon dehydration techniques are described in an online video named “50 Ways to Kill Your Starter.” I will dehydrate a batch to serve as a backup. Hardy little buggers, yeast.