SOURDOUGH TOOLS FOR BEGINNER ARTISAN BREAD BAKERS
HERE ARE THE ITMES YOU’LL WANT TO HAVE ON HAND FOR A DELIGHTFUL BREAD BAKING EXPERIENCE |
You don’t need the best sourdough tools to make good sourdough bread. But, investing my time into my starter and a bit of funds into better bannetons, my manual grain mill and local wheat berries, my sourdough experience has evolved into JOY, passion & overall, better bread!
Here’s a list of what I use in my present sourdough bread baking era.
#1. A HEALTHY SOURDOUGH STARTER |
The more I bake with my starter, the more I use it and the more I use it the healthier it is. I learned this from The Sourdough Journey, on YouTube. They have so many helpful resources that talks all about sourdough starter. Here are some videos, if you wish to watch.
https://youtu.be/PBhCXlSq6G8?si=VwThl7Pi2JdZPoDM
You can download my sourdough starter guide, here — if
#2. A GOOD SIZED MIXING BOWL |
If you’re using metal, make sure it’s non-reactive. I use ceramic and you can find my mixing blows by following this link. I encourage a good sized bowl because as the fermentation process occurs, your dough will rise. Also, I always enough making 2 loaves. Whether to give one away or have it on hand for soup night, bread making can be a lengthy process & we use the refrigerator for the 2nd loaf, so it can sit in there, extending fermentation & this producing a less glutinous loaf.
#3. FLOUR + WATER + SALT |
We’re dealing with live microbes who love the carbs in flour. Gluten are protein compounds that get activated when water and flour are combined. My theory is that higher protein flours illicit fluffier bread, because of its protein dominance.
I use all-purpose flour and a red wheat that’s sourced locally to me. Flour is an entire topic to dive into, if you’re interested! I’ll share a blog post on this, with resources, soon!
Water that comes from sources, like the city, may have purifying agents in it. We are dealing with microbes & don’t want them to be disturbed by these agents. So, best to use a water that hasn’t altered.
We use pink Himalayan sea salt or just sea salt and I have had positive results with both! Maybe even a bit of better tasting bread with the PHSS, now come to think of it. I have used iodized salt with my bread and it does give it a different taste than salt without iodine. Best to play around with different options and brands of products to see which you prefer the most! We’re going for about 2% salt when baking sourdough bread, so not a large amount, & probably why I don’t stress too much about having a special salt that’s more specific to bread baking.
#4. DUTCH OVEN |
I have a theory that I get a wild, dark crust because I’m using cast iron. I found this option that is similar to my Lodge pan Dutch oven, on Amazon.
Experiment with different pan options, ensuring it’s one that chambers steam and see which one illicits the results you were seeking.
#5. HIGH HEAT PARCHMENT PAPER.
I have this one & it’s perfect for my oven temps.
#6. A CLEAN SPACE TO SHAPE YOUR DOUGH |
A tabletop or countertop.
#7. A SIMPLE BREAD LAME |
Scoring your bread is one way to allow the loaf to expand, while baking, as well as give an opportunity to get creative and make it look pretty if you’re gifting it away. Here is a simple bread lame I found on Amazon.
#8. PROOFING BASKETS OR BANNETON BASKETS |
#9. BENCH SCRAPER |
I found this one, from a small business, on Amazon.
I use this tool, for SO MANY THINGS. I cut baked goods with it, scrape sourdough starter off of my jars with it and use it to cut my dough. I didn’t know I would need it as much as I do. I’m happy that it came in my sourdough tool kit, from Ballerina Farm.
#10. BREAD KNIFE |
You can find the bread knife, we have — by following this link. I’ve had a bread saw and it was just okay. I prefer this knife, because IT GETS THE JOB DONE, but I’m sure there are other bread knife (& saws!$ that work wonders. Have fun with this purchase!
#11. A KITCHEN SCALE |
I found this one that looks suitable for bread & it’s stainless steel!
Like any hobby, there are many things that you can subscribe to and purchase. I use these tools at every bread baking sessions, so I know they are my tried and true tools. If you have a tried and true tool that you use over + over when working with sourdough, please share in the comments!!!
We all somehow stumbled upon sourdough. Whether a loaf was brought to your church’s community group, as an offering of community. Or, maybe it was given as a gift to you from a friend or family member. Quite possibly a bread one or video stopped you in your social media scroll because of its beauty and simplicity. Whatever experience it was that brought you here — thank you for stopping in! Sourdough is that — an experience and each experience with your dough becomes the story you’ll share!
My husband actually introduced me to sourdough. He happened to be listening to a podcast one day that hosted a comedian. Said comedian mentioned that he had to go home and feed his ‘starter’ & mentioned that it was like his second child and apparently was being funny & compelling enough to encourage my husband to bring home an idea — that we should start making sourdough bread.
I hadn’t yet been introduced to the craze of sourdough brought on by the Covid crisis, but I was a tad bit curious whilst my husband was super serious about the whole idea.
At that time, I frequented a nearby homestead to buy eggs and veggies straight from their garden and inquired about a ‘sourdough starter’. She didn’t have any, but offered to make me some.
I exchanged a $5 bill for a heavy, handmade jar of sourdough starter and went on my way.
A detailed YouTube video and my confidence pushed me into the adventure of baking my first loaf. It was flat as a pancake, dense and lacked taste.
I re-watched the video and learned that I had forgotten to add salt. So, I tried again, and got a same result as the first time. A bit more flavor, but the loaf that came out of the oven was again — as flat as a pancake.
Some time went by and I ended up discarded all of that sourdough starter, including the jar, because I was certain something had died inside of it. Not only was it not giving me bread, its smell was funky and the sight of it was a bit discouraging. So, gone it went — into the trash can. I hated the wastefulness of it, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted that infiltrating my refrigerator any longer.
Although a big discouraged that I ‘killed’ my starter, I had decided that ‘sourdough’ was in fact interesting to me. I couldn’t kick the need to figure it out.
I did some YouTube binging (or what I call research!) and stumbled upon Ballerina Farm! I bought her sourdough kit, which had specific instructions on how to revive her dried sourdough starter. I followed the instructions & wallah sourdough starter! Active & bubbly! The kit came with a bread recipe & so again, I followed the recipe. Alas — bread!!!!!!!
I don’t know if my journey would have been different had I researched more & watched more videos prior to actually trying to maintain my sourdough starter & bake bread. But sometimes, more isn’t always better, sometimes more is overwhelming.
What I know about bread, is that baking it again & again, is what begets the ‘artisanship’ of it all. Each loaf of bread is a work of art from the bread baker.
So, if you’re new on this journey — welcome! When starting, take note of the temperature of your home, look of your sourdough starter, the time of day & temperature of your home. If you get the results that you wanted, try mimicking that environment & let it become your bread baking rhythm.
Was it my endurance that got me bread? Was it Ballerina Farm’s sourdough starter kit? Or was it both? I’m not sure. But I know having specific, easy to follow instructions on how to feed my sourdough starter, was a complete game changer! If you’re needing help with your sourdough starter, you can purchase my sourdough starter e-book by following this link. You can purchase sourdough starter by following this link.
You can find Ballerina Farm’s complete sourdough kit here — https://ballerinafarm.com/products/sourdough-kit-with-a-free-danish-hook .
Her entire website is jam packed with sourdough resources, as well as individual items that you can purchase, for sourdough bread baking. The quality is insane! I could easily use the items I purchased from their website, for forever! Plus, I love supporting small(er) businesses.
I’ve shopped similar sourdough bread baking items, to the items on her site, on Amazon and I’ve linked them here.
I should mention that I’m not getting paid to tell you how wonderful Ballerina Farm is, it’s just that her content and tools that she sells were a big part of my sourdough story. Me sharing her stuff, it out of pure gratitude. I should also mention that I am an affiliate of Amazon, so if you make a purchase using any of the links I’m providing below, it may result in a small commission to me.
I’ve tried to link American made and/or small shops on Amazon, throughout this post. Making a purchase through one of these links may result in a small commission to me.
Thank you for reading! I hope that I am not influencing anything other than ease & knowledge in your bread baking experience. There are alternatives to these options & I share them in this YOUTUBE VIDEO.
With grace & coffee,
Waynna