If you are new to the world of sourdough, I'm sure you are asking yourself, "what tools do I really need to be successful?"
While there are many sourdough tools out there, not all of them are essential. So don't worry, you don't need to spend a fortune on kitchen gadgets in order to bake sourdough bread successfully.
Here's a list of essential sourdough bread baking tools needed for the easiest and best results!
A SOURDOUGH STARTER: first things first, you'll need a sourdough starter, and if you don't have one, you'll need to find someone who does and is willing to gift you some, or let you purchase it from them. If you don't want to do that, you'll need to make one yourself. Head over to my Simple Sourdough Starter Recipe and get going!
Or you can purchase my very active Dehydrated Starter if you want to skip this step.
CONTAINERS: your starter will need to have a home. It can live in glass, plastic or ceramic - I personally prefer glass.
Some of my favorites are:
Whatever you choose for your sourdough starter home, make sure that it is big enough to allow the starter to grow.
BAKER'S SCALE: most sourdough recipes call for grams of water and flour, so I highly recommend a kitchen scale - it's the best method for getting accurate measurements. You can find them very cheap on Amazon - I have a Taylor Digital Scale (which I LOVE), but you can find them cheaper.
MIXING BOWLS + BOWL COVERS: you will want at least one large mixing bowl to mix your dough in. Plus something to cover it while it's proofing - I love the reusable bowl covers from One World Zero Waste! They are so adorable and you can use them over and over.
BENCH SCRAPER: a tool I never thought I'd use, but now I can't live without. A bench scraper can be used to shape the dough, divide the dough, keep it from sticking to the work surface, turn the dough, and much more.
BANNETON or PROOFING BASKET: the proofing bowl provides structure to the sides of the dough as it rises - this allows it to keep its shape. The bowl can be lined with a kitchen towel or floured to prevent the dough from sticking as it rises. Any similar size bowl can be used as a proofing bowl.
BREAD LAME: A bread lame is a stick-shaped tool that holds a razor on one end that is used to score or slash the dough before it bakes. A very sharp knife can also be used to score the dough as well - this is what I used when I started making sourdough, but I was happy after I invested in a lame.
DOUGH WHISK: a dough whisk consists of three differently-sized coils stacked around each other designed to cut through dough without over-mixing or getting stuck. While these are not required, they do make the autolyse step much simpler!
DUTCH OVEN: a Dutch oven is used in sourdough bread baking because it mimics a commercial steam oven. During the first several minutes of baking, steam is released from the dough and trapped inside the dutch oven which gives the dough a better rise.
PARCHMENT PAPER: makes it easier for transferring the dough in and out of the Dutch oven and also helps prevent sticking to the Dutch oven.
OTHER USEFUL TOOLS:
LONG SILICONE GLOVES
BREAD KNIFE
MORE SOURDOUGH RESOURCES:
If you're unsure where to purchase some of these tools, I have some GREAT NEWS! My Sourdough Kits are now available for purchase (LOCAL PICK UP ONLY) on my website (click photo below). Or if you plan to attend one of my Basic Sourdough Classes, I will have them available there (at a discounted price!).
**If you have already taken one of my classes and would like to purchase a kit, I will also offer the discounted price.
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