Great British Baking Show Proving Drawer

The Great British Baking Show proving drawer is the Neff N17HH20N0B 60 x 29 cm Stainless Steel Warming Drawer (Amazon UK Link). This is a "warming drawer" also known as a "proving drawer" that is a sister appliance to the Neff N90 Slide And Hide Oven, which I reviewed previously.

The proving drawer is used in almost every episode and quite heavily in the bread episodes. The warming drawers seem to serve one purpose on The Great British Baking show, and that is to prove doughs.

The Neff proving drawers are the push & pull versions, which keeps the look very stream line. Basically they open and close by gently pressing on them. They have 5 heating settings for various warming methods. The first and lowest setting is used for proving dough. Warmer settings can be used for keeping things warm, thawing frozen products, melting things like chocolate and gelatin, and lastly preheating cockery before it goes in the oven.

The interior is stainless steel with warming elements under a glass deck. The temperature can range from 30 to 80 °C (86 to 176 °F) in 5 different increments. The Great British Baking Show has the larger warming drawer, which is 29 cm (roughly a foot tall) as opposed to the much thinner 14mm (roughly 6 inch) model.

Lets get this out of the way - these drawers are not great. They clock in on Neff's site with a 1.8 star rating out of nearly 60 reviews, most are 1 star. They have almost no ratings on Amazon so I don't trust their ratings (1 star but not many). Honestly I think the XKCD comic about ratings sums this up quite well.

The drawers seem to have quality control issues, with them quite frequently not heating at all. Secondly they don't have a gauge to monitor the internal temperature. They only toggle between 5 preset settings (want exactly 50 °C on a thermometer you stick in there? good luck!), and there is no internal light. For as amazing as the Neff Ovens are these seem to be their antithesis.

They only have a few nice things going on for them. Sometimes they work, they have a nice open/close mechanism, and the front of them looks gorgeous. And thus why they're on the show, pure aesthetics on a 1 trick pony. The bakers only need the first setting to prove their dough. 1 and done.

So as much as I love the look, would I get one of these? Are there better options? And why would you stick your dough in a proving drawer anyway?

Let's answer that last question before we look into some better proving drawer options. Why would you stick your dough in a proving drawer?

Well according to Paul Hollywood - don't.

Let's briefly nerd out - in a very simplified manner! Proving is a process where the yeast in the dough eats the sugars in the flour, and enzymes break down complex carbohydrates into simpler sugars. During this time gluten is also formed which gives the bread structure. The carbohydrates in flour can be thought of as really long wound up strings. When we put them in our mouths, these long strings taste flat, our mouths can not really break them down or detect them. The enzymes essentially cut these really long strings into smaller pieces. These smaller pieces we can taste - and they taste sweet! They're basically sugars.

So we essentially have 3 things going on. The yeast is eating things and making gas, gluten is forming, and the enzymes breaking down carbohydrates. When you're looking for the dough to double in size that is from the gasses produced by the yeast, not so much the carbohydrates breaking down (flavor improving).

Let's also over simplify the proving process once again and play with some ball park numbers. Lets say that your dough will double in size at room temperature (70 °F) in roughly 2 hours. Well as the temperature increases the rate of the yeast making gas increases as well! So much so that every 17 °F (8 °C) increase in temperature decreases the prove time by half. So at 87 °F instead of taking 2 hours it will take 1 hour. At 104 °F it will be halved again and take 30 minutes. This is why you'll see 'oven spring' when bread starts baking it jumps in size as it heats up, then stops growing. However, be aware, the yeast begins to slow down and then die between 98 and 140°F.

Below 68 °F the yeast effectively stops working. However, the enzymes do not! That means you can bulk ferment bread in the fridge and the enzymes will keep making sugars (delicious) but the yeast will be going really slow.

So what does all this mean? Well simply put - don't prove your bread in a proving drawer unless you're in a time crunch (Like the bakers! - Now it all makes sense!). In which case you will have bread, but not the delicious bread you could have had.

If you're after some truly delicious bread why not add more of that enzyme that is making the sugar? Its found in barley malt! Diastatic malt powder (Amazon - UK) and liquid malt (Amazon - UK) are both amazing additions to your bread. And if you have the ability to do so, start your bulk ferment at room temperature for like 30 minutes and then throw it in the fridge (covered of course) over night. I've made some of the most delicious bread I've ever had in this manner. If you're curious The Bread Bakers Apprentice by Peter Reinhart (Amazon - UK) explains all this much more eloquently than I ever could and has some delicious recipes.

I currently do not have a proving drawer, if I hosted large parties and liked keeping food warm, sure - I'd want one. But I'd definitely not go with the Neff. It looks nice, but looks are not everything, plus there are some attractive competitors.

Kitchenaid makes a 27 inch warming drawer (Bestbuy) that clocks in with some good reviews. However, they're expensive. And if you're looking to spend the money on an all-out setup you may as well go all out.

To that end Wolf makes an incredibly nice warming drawer, though as always with Wolf, you're going to pay for your amazing quality. If you need or really want one and have the budget it has everything you want - even the front mounts different facades to 100% match your dream kitchen - check out their pictures. Oh and it can warm towels and robes as well if you need the fanciest bathroom ever. Like - wow - now I guess I do want one... from Wolf.