12 Bread Making Tools for Better Loaves at Home

What tools do you need to start making bread?

For a first sandwich loaf, a mixing bowl, a loaf pan and a kitchen scale. Weighing flour and water instead of using cups is the change that makes recipes come out the same twice, and almost every serious bread recipe is written in grams. A bench scraper comes next, because it lifts sticky dough off the counter better than your hands do.

Sourdough adds a few more: a jar to keep the starter in, a banneton to proof the shaped loaf, a lame to score it and a covered pot to bake it in. You can start with a bowl lined with a floured towel and a sharp knife, and plenty of people do, but these are the tools that make the result more predictable.

Is a sourdough starter kit worth it?

If you have none of the pieces, a kit is usually the cheaper way to get a basket, a jar, a whisk and a lame that fit together. If you already own a good glass jar and a whisk, buying a single banneton and a lame makes more sense. Check what each kit actually includes. Some count the cloth liner and the recipe booklet as pieces, and none of the kits here include flour or a ready-made starter, so you will still need to grow one or get some from a friend.

How do you choose a banneton?

Match the size to your recipe. A 9-inch round basket suits the single-loaf recipes most beginner sourdough guides start with. Oval baskets give a longer loaf that slices more evenly for sandwiches. Rattan absorbs a little moisture from the dough surface, which helps the crust, and the spiral pattern it leaves is the classic look. Use a liner if your dough is very wet or if you do not want the pattern.

Before the first use, dust the basket heavily with rice flour. It sticks less than wheat flour and is the usual fix when dough glues itself to a new basket.

Why bake bread in a Dutch oven?

Steam. For the first part of the bake the loaf needs a humid oven so the crust stays soft while the bread expands. Professional ovens inject steam, home ovens do not, and a preheated covered pot creates the same effect with the water from the dough itself. Then the lid comes off and the crust browns. Cast iron works best because it holds heat well. Check the maximum temperature of the knob on any enameled pot, since some are rated lower than the pot.

Do you need a proofing box?

Only if your kitchen is cold for part of the year. Yeast and sourdough cultures slow down in the cold, so the rising times in a recipe can stretch a lot in winter. An oven with just the light on or a microwave with a mug of hot water does the same job for free, less precisely. A proofing box earns its counter space if you bake every week, or if you keep a starter and want it on a schedule.

What we'd skip

Bread machines if what you want is crusty artisan bread, since they bake a different, softer loaf. Silicone loaf pans, which brown poorly compared with metal. Lame sets with a dozen fancy handles when one handle and spare razor blades do the job. And a proofing box before you have baked a few loaves and know your kitchen is the problem.

We tried to include a classic digital kitchen scale, but it had no buy option on amazon.com when we checked, and the white version of the Lodge pot was unavailable too, so we picked the blue one.

Our pick for a first sourdough is one of the starter kits plus the Dutch oven. For sandwich bread, the loaf pan, the bench scraper and the dough whisk are enough to start.

Related guides

• Must-have gadgets for the home bread baker, our longer article on baking at home.
• Kitchen tools for fermenting at home, for the starter's cousins: yogurt, kefir and pickles.
• Pasta making tools and cheese making kits, two more projects that start with flour or milk.