Breadmaking Equipment

One morning after mixing batches of dough and enjoying my morning coffee in the sun, I looked over and noticed the beautiful vessels where my dough was now resting (pictured above). I have to admit, I do love bowls - like really love bowls. It's another one of those "obsessions" for me. When you have a special drawer for bowls AND a cupboard exclusively for bowls... it's a love.

What is essential equipment to one baker is a luxury to the next. In mixing another batch of dough this morning, the idea came to me that it might be worth writing a little something on the subject. When it comes to breadmaking equipment there's two categories. The first is the 'essentials,' which will help to gain consistency in your baking, and the second is the 'just nice to have' equipment - like my eclectic collection of bowls. 

Personally, I really love vintage - everything. I've been known to hunt through several thrift stores trying to find the perfect vintage find for numerous applications (like breadmaking). Luckily, I already had a healthy collection of large bowls in my kitchen just waiting for the opportunity to be put to use. So I thought to help those of you who are struggling with what equipment you might need for sourdough making, I'd offer my expertise and experience as to what is essential and what might just be nice to have. Using the same equipment every time you make bread will help you to become familiar with how your dough reacts through the entire process. So chose your favourites and stick with them. 

Let's start with the essentials...

You guessed it - bowls. 

A large mixing bowl which offers plenty of space to mix the flour and water (and leaven) without tossing flour everywhere making a huge mess. You want to have plenty of space leftover in your vessel. The type of bowl is important as well. While steel bowls are great for mixing a number of things in your kitchen, it is not advisable for anything fermented as the acid reacts with the steel and will ruin your dough. Ceramic, glass, stoneware and pottery are best, but a food grade plastic is ok too (but I'm never a big fan of plastic). My favourites are my Pyrex dishes - you know the ones your grandma had? I've got loads of those:) And I have one very special pottery bowl... Oh how I looooooove pottery! 

A scale.

Yes, this is essential. I've had numerous folks ask if they really need a scale to measure out their ingredient and the answer is always, absolutely. Does a cup of water and a cup of flour weigh the same? This is why you need a scale if you want to go from a good loaf to a great loaf. 

Small bowls.

These are needed for mixing the leaven to leave overnight for the next day's dough. Also, important to use non reacting metal bowls - so no steel.

Measuring bowls. 

Useful for weighing and adding water and salt to dough during the bulking stage. I'm quite attached to my little pottery pourer; useful for adding small amounts of water to dough and for feeding Ruby.

A wire rack. 

Those loaves come straight out of a very hot oven and need a place to cool. For the longest time I didn't have one and improvised with a rack from the bottom of a turkey roaster!

Dutch Oven. 

One is good, and enough of an investment. A pot with a lid or Corningware dish with a lid works great too. But the Dutch oven will make your bread go from a good loaf to a great loaf. 

A Scraper.

Helps to lift the dough from the work top, divide dough into portions and help shape your dough. Also extremely useful for cleaning up the work surface after you're done working with your dough. Metal dough scrapers work great for some surfaces, but for my countertop, plastic does the trick. 

Baskets and Tea Towels.
A special bread basket called a Couche is essentially a basket with a linen cloth which provides support for your dough while it is proving and helps to wick away moisture in it's second ferment (the fridge part). A round (or oval) basket lined with a cotton tea towel will work just as good and is a much cheaper investment - especially if you have as many baskets as I do!
Cotton or linen tea towels are used to cover the dough during the bulk proving stage.


A Lame.
I'm going to put this in the essential section only because you do need a very shape blade to score your bread before it goes in the oven. Now, if you don't want to spend $80 plus on a super thin, extremely sharp Japanese blade,  a razor blade or box cutter blade will do the trick; a much less expensive alternative.

Now for the 'just nice to have' breadmaking equipement...

Thermometer. 

Helps to monitor temperatures of water and can have a huge impact on the fermentation process. Can it be done without? Yes, but I've found once I switched to checking temperatures of my water it changed my timing and fermentation. So worth looking into.

A container for your starter.

Of course this is essential, but the type of container isn't necessarily. A crock with a lid, mason jar, glass bowl, pottery container are all options; and it may switch when you need to clean it and start with a fresh one. It may change from week to week. I personally use a collection of mason jars - new and vintage;)

Some other breadmaking equipment you may consider are;

A baking stone - also great for homemade pizzas!

Baking Parchment - for freeform loaves and final proving

Kitchen Timer - but really, who doesn't have a phone. "Hey Siri, set timer for..."

Notebook - helps you keep record of your makes and bakes. 

Measuring bowls and cups - measuring salts, inclusions and flours.

Loaf tins - for Tin loaf sourdough recipe;)

Spray bottle - for adding steam to oven when loaves go in and help with crust formation. 

Wooden spoon(s) - used initially for 'sticky' dough mixing. I love using my hands though!

Bread bag - a linen or cloth bread bag is perfect for storing crusty loaves - up to a week!

With all these recommendations let me suggest that you start with what you have and go from there. Invest as you go and don't get too caught up in the details. The fact that you are making your own sourdough, reguardless of the equipment you use, is amazing. The rest is just details;)

Happy baking all!

xoheather