Just a Few Sourdough Baking Essentials can Make Bread Baking a Breeze!
After years of baking bread in my kitchen, I have accumulated some sourdough baking essentials that I have come to really love and rely on. While I strongly believe that you can make a great loaf of sourdough bread with nothing more than a good bowl and your hands, there are some gadgets that can make the process a little easier and less intimidating. My goal has always been to make bread baking a quick and joyful part of my weekly routine, and as a result it is something I stick with.
If your intention is to make sourdough bread a staple in your life, then I would recommend grabbing a couple of these essentials to help you get started on the right foot. These tools have helped to make bread baking one of my favorite parts of the week!
A Good Bowl
Like I said, all you really need to make amazing bread is a good mixing bowl and your hands. But what is a good mixing bowl? Years ago, my grandma gifted me an antique ceramic bowl that was actually meant for mixing pie crust. It came with a lid that doubled as a pie plate and I thought it was so neat! For long time I used it as a decoration on a shelf. When I finally tried it out for bread dough I realized I had been missing out. It’s been my favorite mixing bowl for bread baking ever since. It’s heavy enough that it stays put while I’m mixing and stretching and folding my bread dough. Also, the glazed surface makes it easy to clean. Another thing to consider is the depth of the bowl. If you can find a slightly shallow mixing bowl that is still large enough to hold your dough as it rises, it’s much easier to manipulate your dough.
A Kitchen Scale is Not Just a Sourdough Baking Essential
I can’t tell you how often I pull out my kitchen scale in the course of the day! If you haven’t switched out your measuring cups for a kitchen scale, then may this is your opportunity! When you’re working with sourdough starter, it can be difficult to measure out consistent amounts. Sourdough starter is sticky and the amount of active starter in one cup can vary greatly depending on how full your starter is of air bubbles. Using a kitchen scale ensures that your ingredients are consistent each time you bake, and there are also a lot less dishes to wash!
This awesome scale is so easy to store!
Using a Danish Dough Whisk
If you’ve ever wondered what the function of this crazy looking kitchen tool was, it’s used for bread dough! (It’s also really nice for making pancake batter!) The special design of the wire in a Dutch Whisk ensures that it doesn’t get clogged up with dough and makes it easier to clean off. It also does a nice job of incorporating air into your dough and eliminating clumps of dry flour. It’s another one of those kitchen tools I’m always finding more uses for.
Silicone Lids
This might seem like an unusual sourdough essential, but if you’re like me and maybe don’t always have plastic wrap around, these silicone lids are a life saver. They work perfectly to cover both your dough while it’s rising and your starter.
Bread Lame
While you can use a sharp knife or scissors to score your bread loaves, if you want to create intricate a beautiful patterns you may want to invest in a bread lame. They use a sharp blade on a longer handle to make it easier for you to be creative!
Dutch Oven
If you look at artisan bread recipes you can find a million different suggestions on how to create steam in your oven, but I haven’t found any that work as well as simply baking your sourdough bread in a Dutch oven. I like a pretty basic cast iron Dutch oven for baking bread because it’s heavy and holds heat well. Also, baking at such a high temperature can cause enamled Dutch ovens to look worn and discolored.
This is a great, economical option!
Silicone Baking Mat
When baking your bread, you place it on a sheet of parchment paper to transfer it to the Dutch oven. However, we are baking at such a high temperature that the parchment gets a little crispy making it hard to use to remove your bread from the pot. Also, the parchment cannot be reused. To solve these problems, I’ve been using reusable silicone baking mats that are designed to fit nicely down into your pot! They are a perfect solution that I wish I had invested in sooner!
Thermapen
I love my Thermapen. Every time I watch the Great British Baking show, I’m always sitting there in frustration thinking, “Why don’t they just use a Thermapen!” Sourdough bread is done when the internal temperature reads 200 degrees. If you do not have a Thermapen, you are really just judging the doneness of your bread by the color of the crust which can be unreliable. Read more about our love of the Thermapen, as well as the internal temperature for different baked goods HERE.
Sourdough Baking Essentials Can Change your Kitchen
What I love about this list of Sourdough Essentials is that they are really kitchen essentials! I think you’ll find they really help you to fall more in love with cooking and baking for your family. If you’re determined to do more cooking from scratch, give yourself every advantage to be successful! It’s such a worthy goal and these tools will really help you to get started on the right foot!
