Here are a few of my favorite sourdough tools:
These are products I use and love!
You may already have some of these items in your kitchen:
- a medium-large size mixing bowl
- a large mixing spoon
- a tea towel( I sent you my favorite non stick liner to use instead)
- spatula
- rubber bands
- a small straight sided 3-4 oz jar or container with a lid
- small jar(1 pint)or bowl with lid to feed your starter
- filtered water
- fine salt
- high quality parchment paper(don’t use dollar store parchment paper- I learned that lesson the hard way) for baking your bread (Sam’s Club, Costco and Reynolds will work)
- a sharp knife or razor blade for slashing the dough before baking.
Things you’ll most likely need to purchase if you don’t already own:
- digital food scale I prefer any brand except Taylor),
- Mixing bowl
- A large mixing spoon or Danish dough whisk (optional)
- A tea towel to line your mixing bowl or a banneton (optional)
- Two canning jars one pint and one half pint or starter jar
- A straight razor blade or lame (my favorite)
- Rubberbands
- A small spatula and dough scraper (optional but helpful)
- Dark rye flour (optional)
- White Rice flour (optional)
- Bread flour King Arthur is good or the Kirkland Organic all-purpose flour works great for this recipe too.
- Filtered water
- Fine salt
- If you don’t have a pot with a lid you’ll need to pick one up
- Dollar General sells an 18 inch Dollar General pan in their stores for $22 that works well if you’re looking for a budget option.
- Active sourdough starter (I have sent you a dehydrated starter and instructions to activate before class)
- A small straight sided jar and rubber band to use as a dough clock or an aliquot jar (optional)
The items below are optional but fun to have if you plan to bake sourdough often
This sourdough tool kit (optional) is an excellent choice and has nearly everything you will need. If you purchase this kit the only other things you’ll need are bread flour, salt, filtered water, a small dough clock container and a pot with a lid to bake the bread in.
- Danish dough whisk (optional)
- A tea towel to line your mixing bowl or a banneton (optional)
- Two canning jars with lids or something similar (one pint and 1/2 pint are good sizes) or a starter jar (optional)
- A small spatula (optional) and dough scraper (optional but helpful)
- Dark rye flour (optional) I use a small portion of this mixed with bread flour to feed my starter
- White Rice flour (optional) I use a small portion of this mixed with bread flour to sprinkle on my dough before baking to help the scoring design to show up
- A small straight sided jar and rubber band to use as a dough clock or an aliquot jar (optional) Used to help monitor the rise of our main dough.
If you don’t already own a digital food scale, I’d highly recommend this one on Amazon. I love it and use it almost everyday and it never lets me down.
If you want to invest in a heavy duty scale that should last a lifetime this one is amazing!
A counter thermometer is crucial to your success as a sourdough baker. I use mine every time I bake!
Another one of my favorite baking tools is this awesome roaster pan It’s lightweight, nonstick and roomy enough to bake round and oval shaped loaves! It’s also only $35 for the medium size. I actually have two of these so I can bake two loaves at a time. =) Make sure to order the medium size. Update: Unfortunately this pan has been out of stock for a while but if you are looking for something similar the Dollar General 18in roaster pan works well too.
You can also use a cast iron Dutch oven if you have one a six quart or larger will work best. You’ll get great results with that as well!
Here are some other great options.
Bulka Bread Oven (this bakes gorgeous bread without the heavy weight or extra oven preheating of cast iron)
28 cm light weight roasting pan
There are also a couple different flours that you may want to have on hand.
The first flour is bread flour. It is ideal because it has more protein in it than all-purpose flour to help form stronger gluten strands that will make your bread better. If you are buying your bread flour from the store King Arthur, Bob’s Red Mill or White Lily bread flours are a decent option.
However I have recently learned that most non organic contains glyphosate(aka roundup.) =( You can read more about it here .
If you are interested in getting one of the healthiest and most nutritious flours on the market, I would suggest a heritage wheat flour from Sunrise flour mill.com. Their flour is non GMO and free from chemicals, pesticides and herbicides. This affiliate link will give you 20% off your first purchase. I love their bread flour blend!
The second is rye flour. You only need a small amount but using about 10% rye and 90% bread flour to feed your starter will help keep it strong and healthy.
The third flour is white rice flour. After baking hundreds of loaves, I’ve learned that a mixture of 60% rice flour and 40% bread flour is the perfect blend to sprinkle over the loaves before cutting the pretty designs into them aka “scoring”.
I’ve tried just rice flour and just bread flour plus many other flours and come to the realization that this is the best combo for getting the designs to show up after baking.
Here are a few other tools that aren’t totally necessary but are fun and pretty.
Sourdough can be a bit tough to cut through so a long sturdy bread knife is very helpful. I love this one!
These weck jars are beautiful and very nice for storing and mixing the starter. The wide mouth makes it easy to mix everything really well(You can also use wide mouth pint and quart canning jars, I use them all the time.)
Here is a lame for scoring the designs into the cold dough(you can use a sharp knife or a straight razor blade.)
Bannetons or proofing baskets for the fridge (you can also use bowls and tea towels.)
Here are instructions on how to season your banneton before it’s first use
If you don’t want to worry about liners for your bannetons these wood pulp bannetons don’t need liners and work very well.
A Danish dough whisk for mixing up your initial dough(you can also use a mixer, your hands or a wooden spoon.)
These bread bags are my favorite way to store sourdough on the counter, fridge and freezer.
I sometimes use these for covering the dough( you can also use plastic wrap)
I use these to line my bannetons so that the dough never sticks!
This is my favorite scraper.
My favorite sandwich bread pans are USA pans
Painting sourdough is so fun here are the artificial dye free food colorings that I use.
I also always mix the paint gels with this white food paint to make it go on thicker and smoother.
Mixing up a double batch(2 loaves)of sourdough can be a bit challenging for your arm so I usually use my heavy duty Kitchen Aid mixer for larger batches. I can mix up three loaves at once in my 6 quart bowl!
If you are having trouble finding a warm spot in your house to proof your starter and bread dough, you may need to invest in an electric proofing box. I have this one and LOVE it!
If you need a budget solution this proofing mat works great too.
Here are some links to my favorite baking gloves(affliate link)
silicon baking mats (get 10% off when you use this affiliate link) and waterproof reusable bowl covers.
Freshly Milled Flour Tools and Where to Buy Wheat Grinders
My recommendation is the Nutrimill Classic
Mockmill 100 (search Mockmill100 from this link )
Where to buy organic grains 
This is my favorite company to order from. Their grains are very clean, glyphosate, free, organic, and regeneratively grown.
I love the option of a more farm to table supplier, Grand Teton is a wonderful small business, growing organic grain in Idaho and shipping straight to you:
They also offer free shipping if you buy in bulk!
MY FAVORITE PlACE TO BUY CLEAN ORGANIC GRAINS
These are the grains that I’m currently baking with.
Organic Hard White Wheat Berries – 24lbs
Certified glyphosate-free, non-GMO, and desiccant-free hard white wheat
Grand Teton Ancient Grains – 100% Organic Einkorn Berries
Grand Teton – Ancient Grains Khorasan Wheat Berries
Grand Teton Ancient Grains – 100% Organic Spelt Berries
Grand Teton – Ancient Grains Emmer Wheat Berries
Thank you for your support!
Please let me know of you have any questions.
Happy Baking,
Bethany
The links I that I listed above will take you to my amazon associate account and give me a very small commission if you decide to purchase any of them however that doesn’t increase the price that you pay.
