You want to start making homemade bread from scratch. What should you have ready, in your kitchen and pantry?
Picture that homemade loaf of bread sitting on the table, made (with love) for your family or guests.
What do you need to make that happen?
Starting at the table
Let’s start at serving your bread.. What do you need or what is high on the wish list?
Cutting board
Bread knife
A long knife, with a serrated edge is a must-have in my kitchen. We use it, not only for cutting bread but, also, tomatoes and meats.
The cutting board, well, it saves countertops, so I say “wish list need”.
Before serving, we bake
Bread needs to be baked and that means we need some type of heat source.
For most people, that means an oven in a stove.
Other options are pizza ovens and cooking over a campfire.
Or …. You could get yourself an automatic bread-maker machine and let it take care of everything for you.
But, let’s assume you want to get more hands-on than the machine. Back to the oven.
To hold the bread while baking, you could just place it on something like a pizza stone but, most people use some type of loaf pan. (I use cast iron ones, just because.)
For sourdough, most people prefer a cast iron Dutch oven or, what’s on my wish list: a sourdough bread pan.
Why cast iron? When making sourdough, you want that pan HOT before you put your dough in it and then you want to cover it for the first part of the cooking process. Hot, hot, hot = cast iron.
Oh and you will need oven mitts. Those pans are hot, coming out of the oven!
And, if you are cooking in a pizza oven, on a stone, then a pizza peel will come in handy.
Forming the loaf
For regular bread, the loaves are generally formed (the last rise) right in the loaf pans that they will be cooked in.
For sourdough, you can’t do that, because the cooking container will be pre-heating in the oven. So, what do you need?
Well, you really just need a bowl with a tea towel in it. When it is time to transfer the shaped dough to the oven, you lift it out with the cloth.
What do the enthusiasts use? A banneton. You can get a sourdough set on Amazon which includes a basket, for the form, a cloth liner, and a scoring lame for creating slots in the shaped dough.
You don’t need the “scoring lame” (which is basically a razor blade in a handle) but it really does make the job easier and you can get fancy with your designs. Any really sharp knife will work. You just want to cut (rather than tear) a slit in the dough to allow steam to release from the dough as it bakes.
For the basket, many will suggest that you lightly dust the cloth with rice flour before putting your dough inside. The rice flour doesn’t absorb moisture in the same way as other flours and won’t burn and change the colour of the outside of the bread when baked. Cornmeal could also be used. Or, just use flour, if that’s all you have.
Shaping your dough
For sourdough, a handy shaping tool is a scraper (plastic, metal, or wood). This allows you to scoop under the dough and gently rotate it.
For regular bread, you have your hands to do the work, but the scraper definitely comes in handy, here, as well, for getting all the dough off of your baking board or counter.
Do you need a baking board? No. You can work on a counter, a cutting board, or a plastic baking mat. You just need a surface that gives you enough space for working your dough.
Mixing the dough
Get your hands in there and work that dough. That is the “need” part.
The “kind of need” list is:
A wooden spoon
A Danish dough whisk (a real treasure, in my opinion)
And the “wish list” is a stand mixer with a dough hook.
Making the dough
Measure, measure, measure
I saw a video once where the recipe called for “a handful of … and a pinch of… ” and no measuring utensils other than your hand. Someday, I’m going to try it.
But in the meantime, I use my measuring cups and spoons.
If you want to do it right, however, a kitchen scale is a must-have. It is much more precise!
Oh, and a bowl would be nice. Preferably not metal as it can react with the ingredients, especially if you are making sourdough. I have the honour of having my grandmother’s mixing bowl. It infuses extra love into my baking.
And, then, the ingredients
Flour (white, whole wheat, rye, Einkorn, etc). A good place to start is all-purpose flour because it is what most people have in their kitchen, and, then, experiment from there
Salt (yes, you can use sea salt)
Water
Sweetener (sugar, honey) not all recipes require a sweetener but it is nice to have on hand
Yeast or sourdough starter
Baking soda (for “no yeast breads” )
Where it all begins
These are MUST-haves for making bread:
the desire
love, the most powerful ingredient of making bread or anything you make, actually
These products are what I use and all opinions expressed here are my own. This list may contain affiliate links from which, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission if you choose to use my link … and if you do, know that I appreciate you!
