10 Essential Tools for Sourdough Bread Beginners
Sourdough bread is both an art and a science. Baking a great loaf requires the right tools for the job.
But if you’re a beginner, knowing what equipment you need can be difficult.
I’ve baked thousands of loaves and tested hundreds of tools. In this guide, I’ve taken all that experience and narrowed it down to the most essential tools you need to bake your first loaf.
If you’re a beginner, these 10 tools will make your life easier and the baking experience more enjoyable.
If you had to choose just one piece of equipment, get a kitchen scale.
Measuring ingredients by weight (in grams or ounces) is much more accurate than weighing by volume (cups or scoops).
Flour and salt can be scooped and compacted differently, resulting in inaccuracies that dramatically affect the amount of water needed to hydrate your dough. These inaccurate measurements lead to inconsistencies—something all bakers work hard to eliminate.
When you weigh ingredients with a scale, you can be sure the amount of each ingredient you’re measuring today is the same as yesterday, regardless of how it’s scooped out of the bag or container. Consistent measurements lead to consistent results.
Mixing in a bowl that’s too small can cause messy overflows from dry ingredients and spills from wet ingredients.
Save on kitchen clean-up time by using a larger bowl.
Plus, it’s durable and easy to clean.
Making your dough can get a little messy. Since it’s tacky, it tends to stick to everything it touches. These scrapers make it easy to remove sticky dough from containers, the bench, and off your fingers.
Consider getting different-sized bench knives to accommodate various-sized loaves. I like to have a 6” and 8” version on hand.
The clear sides let you see fermentation firsthand, plus they’re smooth and essentially nonstick. It’s thick enough to be durable but not so thick that it negatively impacts the dough’s temperature.
Choose a container size to suit the amount of your dough. A container that’s too large will encourage the dough to spread too much, and a too-small container will have the dough spilling over the sides.
These are used to hold the shape and structure of the loaf as it rises. Without one, your loaf will be too flat and wide.
Baskets come in different shapes and sizes depending on the type of loaf you want to make.
Use them inside your proofing basket to make your dough easy to remove. Cut them down to size if needed.
Use them to cover your dough to protect it from dirt or dust and help maintain consistent moisture levels.
It’s made from cast iron, which has excellent heat retention and distribution for even baking inside the loaf. Plus, it’s durable enough to last a lifetime.
Using an instant-read thermometer removes the guesswork, so you can be confident that conditions are correct for making delicious sourdough.
Want even more tool recommendations to help you make the perfect loaf?
Take a look at my Highly Curated Baking Tools.
It’s a list of all my favorite tools, compiled after countless tests to find the best equipment for making sourdough at home.
Thanks for reading this guide!
If we haven’t met yet, I’m Maurizio Leo, an author and software engineer turned baker who’s spent the last 10+ years striving to make the perfect sourdough loaf.
I created The Perfect Loaf to share my passion and lessons learned from baking sourdough at home. I grew up in an Italian household, and our lives revolved around real food made by hand. Good food doesn’t have to be complicated or exquisite, but there aren’t any shortcuts.
The best sourdough tastes exceptional because the baker takes their time to prepare it and lets the yeasts and bacteria work with the flour and water to create something transcendent.
Through my scientific, simplified approach, I help other bakers create mouth-watering loaves in the comfort of their own kitchens.
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