I’ve spent years vetting the following equipment. This list is has my favorite bread-making tools to help you make the best sourdough bread at home.
Also, check out my Amazon storefront, where I have all my favorite tools (and baking books!) on one page.
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Sourdough Starter Tools
These are the best tools to help create and maintain your sourdough starter.
Beginning Baker Tools
A list of a few tools to help you get started baking sourdough bread at home.
More Tools For Better Results
Use these baking tools to help you increase your baking consistency in your home kitchen.
Keeps my starter, levain, and dough at the perfect temperature.
(See my guide.)
The perfect rectangular tub (14″x15″x5″) for 4kg+ batches of dough when you make more dough.
Some recipes here call for “high extraction flour,” this helps sift out some bran/germ.
Flour and Grain
The list below are my most-used flours here at home, but look local first! There are many great farmers and millers scattered all over with incredible flour options.
A custom flour blend I created for any sourdough recipe (here’s mine)!
CM has some incredible flour; this is a workhorse flour for any bread.
Pans and Storage
These tools will help you bake pan loaves and are a collection of excellent storage options for flour and grain.
Grain Mills
Below is a list of my favorite grain mills used to mill fresh flour in my home kitchen regularly. They are all built extremely well and are capable of producing excellent flour.
Mixers and Larger Equipment
Other useful tools when baking sourdough bread at home.
An incredibly well-made oven for larger bakes. My current oven.
(See my guide.)
This sealed oven lets me bake 4 or more loaves at a time from home.
(See my guide.)
Didn't Find What You're Looking For?
Check out my deep dive into the best baking tools with a look at why I’ve picked each one (and how they’ve helped with my baking).
Or, check out my Amazon storefront, where I have all my favorite tools (and baking books!) on one page.
734 Comments
I like to bake pretty hot but this temperature might be totally fine for your bread. Make sure you preheat your oven 1 to 1.5 hours to ensure your baking stones, baking steel, or Dutch oven is super hot and ready to go. Then, extend the baking time as necessary to ensure your loaves are fully baked (around 210ºF interior temp an nice coloring on the outside). Hope that helps!
My oven only allows maximum temp of 446 degree Fahrenheit (230 degree Celsius), will it affect the baking time for a loaf of the same weight?
I just have to say that the small spatula changed my life.
It’s crazy, right? That one simple thing makes such a huge difference!
I really want to make those cinnamon buns but I don’t have a mixer. Can I do it all by hand? And what mixer do you use?
You can certainly make the cinnamon buns without a stand mixer! The dough might be a bit challenging as you’ll have to mix for more time than I list here but keep at it until it comes together, incorporates all the butter, and looks like I have in my pictures on the post. I’ve had reports from other readers who have made these successfully without a mixer.
I have this KitchenAid mixer and love it!
Another good option is to see if you have a restaurant supply store in your town. Prices are often better/on par with Amazon and you can see the options in person, allowing you to take spacial considerations into account.
Where is a good place to buy most of these tools.
Colleen, almost all of the tools above have links to them for where you can purchase. Most of them, thankfully, are pretty easy to get on Amazon! Hope that helps, happy baking!
Bret, have a look at my Sourdough Starter Maintenance Routine post, it has some really good info and pictures on when to use your levain and feed your starter (similar conditions)!
How long does levain last at room temperature? Is there a way of telling it’s past its use-by date?
I’m struggling to get my head around how to make levin using my sourdough starter. So 20% is 20% of the 500g flour i use or the total weight of all other ingredients?
Yes, so 20% levain in the final dough mix would be 20% of all the flour used in your dough mix. For example, if your mix had 1000g of flour in total you would mix in 200g levain (20%).
Really hard to answer that question… It depends on a lot of factors and what you’re after. I find a good benchmark to start with, though is 20% levain in your formula. Adjust up/down from there as needed (usually down for me).
If I was to make a simple white loaf using 500g plain flour, how much starter is best to use?
I really like the Baking Steel, I think it not only does a great job for bread but also it’s fantastic for pizza. If you already have a set of baking stones it might not be necessary for you but again, since I’ve picked it up I use it constantly (even for pan loaves) and now prefer it. I do just leave it in my oven! Another side benefit from it is that it is much shorter compared to the thick stones I used (which gives me more room for bread and maneuverability) and there is no fear of it cracking.
Happy to hear you’re enjoying my site, thanks so much and happy baking!
Hi Maurizio,
Jay from Hong Kong agin. I have been looking at baking steels on Amazon. Unfortunately the postage will be as much as the price but I’d really love to get one anyway. Does it really make a difference to your loaves? And could I also use it to bake pan loaves. You don’t mention using the steel in your Sandwich Loaf recipe but I would imagine you probably just leave it in your oven. Thank you for your great website. I have learned a lot about sourdough baking from you.
Hi Maurizio.
I was wondering wich tipe of table do you use for made your breads, and where can i buy one?
Hi! I prefer to use wood but some bakers equally like stainless steel (and some granite). I’m not sure why I like wood, there’s something about the way the dough moves on it, or perhaps the way my bench knife interacts with it. I have a large piece of Boos Block maple that I picked up online, you can find many outlets for this. I highly recommend you purchase maple over other wood types as it has a very tight grain and is almost nonstick (when properly cared for).
Hope this helps!
I’m using a standard home electric oven made by Thermador. It’s a double oven and I use the bottom oven since it does not have convection (no fan hole where steam can escape). The rails in my oven are incredibly strong and never show signs of bending or warping. When I roast a whole turkey or the like the pot and food is pretty heavy as well, never been an issue!
Maurizio, thanks for your comments on my wet dough incident. I will reduce the hydration level as you suggest and see what happens. Aside from my hydration incident, thought I’d mention that I constructed a proofing “oven” that was holding the ambient temp to around 79 F during the first rise, rest, and proofing before bake. The oven is fairly tight and doesn’t allow much evaporation. Any comment on whether this environment is a benefit or disadvantage for the bread making process? Tom
That’s great! Definitely an advantage to having a nice, stable environment like that. The more we can do to keep the dough as stable as possible the better. Large fluctuations in temperature and humidity can cause issues and make it very hard to diagnose problems should they occur.
Happy baking, Tom!
Tom — you’re welcome, glad I could help! Yes, the discrepancy between leaven amounts (23g) is quite a bit, but really only about half of that is water. I would try reducing the overall hydration of the recipe you’re using, perhaps by 10%, and see if your flour is able to handle that. Once you’re comfortable at that point then you can slowly move up as things become more and more comfortable for you. I use KA flour occasionally and I push hydration into the mid-70’s so I’m somewhat confident it should be able to handle it. However, my environment is also very dry and that does play into it. Give that a shot and see if the dough is more manageable for you!
The “autolyse” period, as it’s called, is when just flour and water are combined (no leaven, no salt) at the beginning of the whole process. During this time enzymes begin to work with the protein in flour to start conditioning and realigning gluten bonds. An autolyse is also purported to help ease mixing but it’s biggest impact on the dough, in my opinion, is to increase extensibility (the ability for the dough to stretch out before offering resistance). You want the dough to be able to stretch out sufficiently so it can rise high in the oven. However, a balance is needed there as you also want enough strength and elasticity in the dough to hold its shape and not spread too much in the oven.
Hope that helps, let me know how the next bake goes!
Hi Maurizio, Thanks for all of your guidance posted regarding proper tools and sources. After two months, I’ve gathered all of the tools needed to make some awesome bread! Have also read Tartine and your information..
Attempted my first batch of Basic Country Bread yesterday. I made the leaven the night before and proceeded to do all of the remaining steps yesterday. A long day with one major issue. The dough was very wet. This problem was first noted after rest of water, dough and leaven and carried through for the rest of the process, resulting in 1 1/2 inch tall very dense bread. It was apparent that the flour couldn’t hardly absorb all of the water. Used the Tartine Basic Country Bread ingredient recipe (75% hydration) and was careful to add the exact quantity of ingredients. One exception: Rather than use the Tartine recipe for starter I used your 7 day process starter. I thought the starter process worked very well. The night before baking, I took 1 tlb of the mature starter and mixed with 200g water and 200g of 50/50 mix (AP and whole grain rye) for the leaven. Did this 11pm the night before. Starter passed the float test the next morning. Per Tartane recipe I added 200g of leaven. Actually put in 207g. I now realize that your Beginner’s Sourdough recipe calls for 184g.
Ready to try baking again but I don’t yet know what to change to avoid the problem described above. Is it possible that the leaven quantity could have inflluenced the level of dough hydration? I used KA brand flour. Also, what is the advantage of adding the leaven after the rest? Thanks!
Hey, Stanley — thanks! I use a variety of baskets, but yes I still use the ones listed here sometimes. When you see loaves on my site that might be a little longer I’m using 12″-14″ long bannetons. Lately I’ve started shaping my dough a little tighter and then using longer bannetons so they can fully relax out and have plenty of space before hitting the top and bottom.
I’ll update this page with the various bannetons I use and it might be a great idea for me to list the tools I use in each post. I’ll start doing that soon!
Maurizio,
I love the shape of your loaves, and want to try making batards rather than boules. One question: are you still using the oval bannetons you list as one of your baking tools? I ask because it looks to me like the baskets in your pictures are a bit longer and thinner, but it’s hard to tell for sure from the pictures.
Thanks!
Stan
Happy to help!
Hi there! I do use a grain mill (I will be adding it to this tools page soon), I have the GrainMaker 116 hand crank mill — it’s fantastic. It does take quite a bit of time to mill a lot of grain, but for smaller bakes it’s a marvelous piece of machinery. Happy baking!
Great – thanks! And thank you for this whole blog. It is so full of information, especially what other sources lack. Your experience and willingness to share your knowledge is really wonderful. -Kim
Hi Maurizio, I’m wondering if you use a grain mill, and if so, which kind you recommend. Thanks! Kim
You’re welcome, so glad to help!
Maurizio and Tobias,
Thanks for your response on the cooker options. Based on your successes I’ll get a Combo Cooker on order. Really great to have this discussion site available for novices like me!
Hey, Tom! As @tobiasdeckard:disqus mentioned below the larger one will just make it a bit easier to load the dough. I really like the 3.2 qt version, though, and have yet to really desire the larger one. The smaller one is great around the kitchen for tons of things as well (egg hash, French toast, roasted chicken, etc).
Up to you! Happy baking, Tom.
I have been using the lodge combo cooker with good results. The larger size will just be easier to get a larger loaf in there.
Hi Maurizio,
Just discovered your site yesterday and am truly inspired to begin my sourdough journey. Since I haven’t used anything like the Lodge Combo Cooker was wondering if there is any benefit to buying a larger size. Lodge also has a 5 qt double dutch oven with a lid that can be used like a skillet. Sounds like it would function in the same way but I don’t know if there is an advantage or disadvantage to buying the larger one. Haven’t purchased either yet. Thanks!
Hi! King Arthur’s Organic Bread Flour is great flour, but yes you could sub in CM ABC or Giusto’s Artisan BF for it. KA BF has a higher protein percentage than the other two, but they perform similarly. You might notice a little less of a rise with the CM or Giusto’s but nothing super significant.
Hope that helps!
Hi Maurizio,
I have a question about the flours you are using. I use King Arthur’s organic bread flour.
Can I use CM artisan bakers craft flour and Guisto artisan malted bread flour in place of King Arthur’s bread flour?
Thank you.
Hi!
I just got hooked on your site and after i finally got my starter to where i want it im going to try one of your recipes this week. I wanted to ask you about the temperature specifications- Ive seen the comments before about monitoring the bread temp in the oven but piercing the breads crust always scared me a little. Do you simply poke a hole in the crust with your thermometer? Where on the bread should i do this and how deep in to the loaf should i go? Thanks!
Hey there! Really glad you’re enjoying my website, super happy to hear that.
Yes, if you want to take temperature of your baked loaf just poke a hole with your thermometer. I hardly ever do this (never, actually) anymore but you could poke just below where the ear opens up on top of the bread, this should be a soft spot and most likely won’t be noticeable. Once you get a feel for how the bread looks when fully cooked you won’t need to take temp anymore.
Hope that helps, sorry for the late reply!
Thanks for the kind words, really appreciate that!
I’ve never used a La Cloche but yeah, I would just use that and hold off on buying a combo cooker — they are very similar vessels and as long as it traps steam well enough will work out just fine. No need to buy anything new right now!
Happy baking and good luck!
Maurizio,
I’m trying to get going with sourdough bread baking, and your site is the best reference I have found on the subject. Thanks so much for all the work you put into it!
I have a question about the Lodge combo cooker you recommend. The way you use it — putting the dough in the shallow pan and covering with the deep one — seems very similar to using a La Cloche. I bought a La Cloche several years ago, but didn’t know enough about bread to make good use of it. I’m wondering if I would get similar results with it, or whether I should buy a combo cooker. Do you have any recommendations about that?
Thanks for your time,
Stan
Hi Maurizio … How well does the Bread Box work? I normally keep my loaves cut side down on a cutting board and covered with a linen cloth. Do you wrap your bread? Store it cut side down just in the Bread Box. Thanks! I really appreciate your thoughts, and you site is beyond awesome!!
I like the bread box, it keeps in a little more moisture and here in my extremely dry climate that’s an important thing. I find the bread stays a little longer in the box, but that’s what works for me here. I don’t wrap my loaves in anything, I just keep it cut side down in the box. If I have too much bread to fit in the box I’ll put as much as I can in there and then place the rest on my cutting board in the same fashion (but I use this bread first before slicing whats in the box).
Thank for the kind words and happy baking!
Can I ask what rags you use? I’ve been trying to find a bunch of cheap but good quality rags, and your’s are such a nice linen!
Hi, Abby! I use a few different things in my kitchen. The white rags you’ll see in older posts are cotton tea towels from Amazon (those are listed above under “Proofing Liners”). I also have a few sets of linen towels from Fog Linen that are really great quality and use these mostly just for day to day stuff around the kitchen (I don’t use them in bread baskets).