Jan’s Essential Gadget #5 – Bread Making Supplies

Carol has shown you the beautiful sourdough bread she makes. Her loaves are truly beautiful. I admire them. I also make bread regularly but of the regular (but delicious) crusty rustic loaf type.

Since the world changed last March, I have been baking all the bread for my husband and I. The Grandkids prefer my bread for toast and I frequently see pleading eyes in the kitchen in the mornings. 

I have found several “gadgets” that make my bread baking MUCH easier. First, I have a bread recipe from a class on Craftsy that requires little or no kneading. It can be kept as a dough in the refrigerator for several days and baked when you need it. AND, it is delicious.

I measure the ingredients by weight directly in my Dough Bucket placed on the kitchen scale. This container allows the dough to be mixed and stored in the same container. Easy clean up. It also has markings on the side that allow you to accurately judge when the dough has “doubled in size”.

Instead of struggling with a wooden spoon or spatula to mix the ingredients, I use a dough whisk. This moves easily through the ingredients to mix them. I simple finish with my hands at the end of the process to make sure all the flour in the corners of the container are incorporated.

The last gadget that I use is a bowl scraper or bench scraper. The bowl scraper makes it easy to get the dough out of the bucket, neatly cleaning the sides of the bowl. The bench scraper helps to move the dough around on the countertop, to cut the dough into portions, and to manipulate the dough into shapes.

I use these gadgets weekly to make a batch of bread. I store the extra loaves in the freezer so the are fresh when I need them throughout the week. It is a blessing.

A few extras that I use when baking bread are:

A baking stone (that is stored on the bottom of my gas oven when not in use…hence the drip marks)

And then, to safely get the loaves in and out of the oven…a pizza peel. I love this wooden one.

I have a large cooling rack that doubles as an insert for my large baking tray. It is very handy for cooling the loaves to insure a crisp crusty loaf.

And lastly, you may have noted that I bake my loaves on parchment paper. I allow the loaves to rise on the parchment. This makes it very easy to transfer the dough from the counter to the pizza peel and then to the baking stone. For years I used rolls of parchment paper which I tore into appropriate sizes. In the last year I discovered these pre-cut sheets that are just the right size to line a cookie sheet or can be easily torn in half to hold a loaf of bread.

Carol’s Essential Gadgets for Bread Making

Oh my gosh. I just reviewed Jan’s gadgets for bread making and I had just read a blog on Danish Dough Wisks this very morning. One of my favorite blogs that I read routinely is One Good Thing and today she gushed over “the most useful utensil you’ve never heard of.” In fact she was so convincing that I decided it may be something to consider adding to my repertoire!

Jan is correct. I make sour dough bread weekly. Up until now I have utilized “gadgets” that I have on hand, uncertain of the need for a Banneton (proofing) bowl, a slashing lame, and a bowl scraper. I have made due with my mixing bowls, kitchen scissors, and flat spatula. When I began the learning process I already had a kitchen scale, thermometer, bench scraper, glass jars, and a newly acquired but unutilized ceramic Dutch oven.

Over a year ago I read an alert on the availability of a cast iron pot that would be featured at Lidl. The article stated that this pot sold out immediately the last time it was featured. I purchased the pot and to tell you the truth, it sat on my counter top for quite some time. I actually wondered if I had made a mistake. This pot was too heavy and too bulky to store.

Then came the pandemic…along with the urge to return to baking sour dough bread. This pot is the absolute perfect vessel for baking my loaves of bread. It now sits prominently next to the oven ready to bake.

 Oven Proof Cast Iron Roasting Pot

At this point I am successfully getting by with the bread baking gadgets that I have on hand, although I may soon be investing in the dough whisk and dough scraper! We are loving our sour dough bread!