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.
Jump to a section:
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.
733 Comments
Hi Maurizio
The 10″ bannetons you show that will work with the DO. The banneton site says they are good for 1.5lb of dough. Your recipes often run closer to 2lb. Will they fit in the 10″ banneton and work in the DO?
Yes, they should fit as long as you don’t make them out too far above 900g. If you’re worried, you could divide at 700-800g per basket just to be sure, but as long as your dough is shaped tightly enough it should fit!
Fixed!
I personally have the 1/2-inch version, but I think any of them will work very well!
John — I’d be worried that wouldn’t be tall enough…
Hi Maurizio, Looks like the breadbox you recommend is “Currently Unavailable”
Hi Maurizio, Looking into baking steel. Do you recommend the 1/2 inch thick over the thinner ones.
Hi Maurizio, I am thinking of using my baking stone plus this. Sort of a modification of the DO. Think it is big enough? https://www.amazon.com/Super-Stainless-Steel-12-0283-Category/dp/B0001MSF3Q/ref=sr_1_26?keywords=stainless+steel+pan+covers&qid=1581459347&s=home-garden&sr=1-26
Hi Maurizio, I’m wondering about a proofing oven. My regular over has a proof setting but it only gets to 75, at most (I’m not sure it works at all). I’m struggling with proofing temperature in my kitchen. It’s not a huge investment ($170) so I’m wondering if this will help with consistency. Our kitchen temp. is pretty inconsistent. (By the way, hello! I’m in Albuquerque… would love to know how you adjust for altitude… but perhaps that’s another thread).
The ability to increase proofing temperature is certainly a valuable thing in baking. I use my B&T folding proofer all day every single day to hold my starter and also my dough when in bulk (if the quantity is around 2kg or so). If you’re looking to increase your baking consistency, a proofer is extremely helpful.
It’s great to hear from another person in ABQ! All of my recipes here are tested here so they should work quite well for you. Generally I notice I have to bake hotter (and usually longer) and have to increase hydration (still dependent on the flour, though) when baking from other sources.
Happy baking, Emily!
Thanks–this is really helpful. I got a B&T folding proofer for Valentine’s Day, and it does seem to be making a difference… wish it was twice as big, though…. Re: altitude, I’I’ll try a little hotter, longer, and increased hydration. I’m using KA Bread Flour right now, but you are inspiring me to branch out.
It’s a large Boos Block made from maple, it’s fantastic and highly recommended. I bought it a long time ago, I think from cuttingboard.com. It’s quite large but still movable by hand.
Hi Maurizio, what is the board that you fold and shape your bread on in your shaping videos?
Yes, I did pre-heat! The _only_ thing I realize I did not control for in this bake was the scoring. I made 4 loaves, two in my old DO and two in the new combo cooker. I unfortunately don’t have pictures, but for the two in the new combo cooker, I did 4 slashes (with a square in the middle); for the old DO, I just did a single slash (to attempt to get an ear). I guess it’s possible I also scored too deeply for the former pattern, since there are 4 slashes rather than just 2? That may have prevented it from getting a good oven spring with too many openings for gas to escape.
Either way, I’ll report back after my next bake!
Ah, yes. More scores (and deeper, too) can mean more spread depending on the dough. Think about each cut as a chance for the dough to relax out from — which is what we want — but if there are too many it can cause excessive spreading. Good luck on the next go!
That’s interesting. I always get pretty similar results between my Lodge and my Staub. But yes, try the deeper side, it is a little more narrow as it tapers outward as it goes up. I’m also assuming you’re preheating your Lodge just like your DO.
If you do give it a try, I’d love to hear how it works out (and what brand your DO is)!
You’re very welcome, Adam.
I usually use a bread box to store my bread after it’s been cut. If I’m using a bread box I won’t place the bread in anything — just straight into the box. The purpose of the box is to keep just enough humidity in there to keep the bread soft but not too soft. If I’m not using my bread box then I’ll either be sure to keep the crumb side of the loaf down on the cutting board so the crust naturally surrounds the entire loaf. Imagine cutting a loaf directly in half and then turning those halves down.
When freezing, I’ll wrap an entire loaf several times in plastic wrap and then place it into a freezer ziplock. When I want to eat it I’ll take it out the night before and let it thaw in the fridge. Then, you could pop it into the oven to warm up the next day or slice and toast the slices.
If you plan to eat it somewhat in the near term, you could slice the entire loaf then place the slices in a freezer ziplock bag. Using a toaster (like this awesome toaster from Breville) you can thaw and toast the slices in one step and they come out fantastic.
Hope that helps!
Perfect! I’m hoping to make four 900g loaves, so hopefully 3.6kg will fit… 🙂
Hey, Joshua. I know in my 11qt or 12qt I can easily fit 4kg, probably all the way up to almost 8kg. So I’d say half that — see how it goes and adjust for the future 🙂
Also – another unrelated question. I recently purchased the lodge combo cooker to supplement my existing cast iron dutch oven. Compared to what I have, the boules I bake in the lodge combo cooker seem to spread more and not have as much of a rise / oven spring. I have been sliding the parchment paper / dough into the shallower side of the combo cooker, but perhaps it’d be worth using the deeper side since the diameter looks a bit smaller. But other than that, I’m out of ideas. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Hi Maurizio! Quick question – how many grams of dough could comfortably fit in the 6 qt bulk container for bulk fermentation? (I’m wondering how big of a batch I can do with that container versus the larger bulk container you linked to.)
Hi Maurizio! Your blog has been an amazing resource for my sourdough journey, and if it wasn’t for you I would have given up sourdough in the first few months when I started just over 3 years ago! I have made many of your recipes with great success, and make your Best Sourdough weekly! But…I am struggling with cutting loaves. I actually bought the knife under your baking tools here, and it was a major improvement over the terrible bread knife I had. But, I still always struggle with cutting the bottom of the loaf. I end up applying a lot of pressure and rock the blade back and forth until it finally cuts. Normally this is fine, but I am sharing bread with company all the time, and watching them struggle even worse than me makes me want to invest in a better knife. Especially for perfect sandwich slices. Do you have any other knives you recommend or love? I was looking at the Shun Classic Bread Knife, which is spendy, but if it makes my life much easier, it would be worth it! Thank you! 🙂 Val
Hey, Valerie — thanks so much, I really appreciate that, happy my site has helped you keep at it! I know what you mean about the bottom crust being a little on the thick side, and if you’re baking in a Dutch oven it might be a little too thick. If you haven’t yet read my guide to baking bread in a Dutch oven check that out first, there’s several tips in there to try and help reduce the thickness (and potential scorch) on that bottom crust from the cast iron.
After that, I’d say that Kai knife I have linked above is pretty darn fantastic, especially for the price. In fact, I think it’s probably my second-best knife I own. My best knife, hands down, is my Shun Premier Bread Knife. I’ve had it for ages now and love it so much I even sent it back recently to be resharpened by Shun directly (for free). It’s an amazing blade, but very expensive. An investment to be sure.
So my advice would first be to check out your baking process to see if you can reduce that thickness with some of the tips I have there, then see whether a Shun is an option for you!
Hope that helps!
Thank you so much, Maurizio! I go back and forth between my Dutch oven for my round loaves and something similar to the steam method you have wrote about for my batard loaves (I use my two Emile Henry rectangular pizza stones). I definitely think the Dutch oven loaves I make have a thicker crust at the bottom, now that you mention it! But…it seems the oven spring on my Dutch oven loaves is usually a bit better…so it’s a toss up! I will definitely read this post more closely and work on my crust a bit! And I’ll likely invest in the Shun! Thank you again for everything! -Val
Glad to hear that, Joshua! Still at work on it, but something will be done this year sometime (hopefully sooner than later!).
Do you recommend a certain baking stone for a regular residential oven?
I’m a big fan of the Baking Steel linked above, but for a traditional stone I’d probably go with something like this pizza stone.
I have a few: a KitchenAid 550 Pro (for small batches, other baking tasks, and enriched doughs like bomboloni), a Haussler Alpha (HA) large spiral (which is an incredible mixer and I highly recommend it), and finally a Famag IM 8S (this is also a really well made mixer!). The HA and Famag are really fantastic mixers for bread dough, they have larger motors and can really crank through the dough. The Famag also has a breaker bar which helps keep the dough from climbing up the hook, handy for many of the bread recipes you’ll see here at my site. I love the HA, though, because it is very high quality construction and the shape of the bowl is wider than it is tall, which is convenient. Hard to say which is “better” between the two, either one are great. I bought them both at pleasanthillgrain.com.
I’m working on a post at my site going over all these but it’s taken me a while to get to it — hopefully I’ll have something up soon.
Hi Marizio, I’ve been following your blog for a few years now (thank you for all the tips!) and am finally going to purchase a stand mixer. I found a good deal on a 4.5 quart KitchenAid. Is that too small for say your sourdough cinnamon roll recipe?
Hey Maurizio, just wondering if you have any recommendations on home spiral mixers?
Final question on sieves: I just received my Mockmill 100 and am looking at the Korin sieves. I have searched extensively on the Internet and can’t really find information on what mesh sizes are needed for different types of flour. Do you have an opinion on which Korin mesh sizes would be needed if I want to emulate flour like 00 Normal, Type 85, All Purpose Flour, and basically any of the flours you use in your recipes? I know you said the 65 is good for Type 85 flour but I am not sure what other sizes I need, and how to determine which one to use, and for what desired results. Thanks as always for the help.
Unfortunately it’s very hard to get at that information. What I’ve done is test with the screens I have and see how much of the milled grain is extracted and then blend that with whole grain fresh milled or 60-65% extraction fresh milled flour to get closer to what I’m after. It’s likely possible to find exactly the right screen to get the extraction percentage you’re looking for, but it’ll be hard in practice. I simply use the screen (I have them all) that gets me the closest. These days, though, when I fresh mill my flour, I just use it at 100% extraction (whole grain).
I usually recommend a blend of flour when substituting out the Type 85: try 40% whole wheat flour and 60% bread flour (higher protein white).
In one of your articles I recall that you are baking at high altitude around 6000 ft. I am baking at sea level in Florida. Initially I had difficulty with your high hydration sourdough fresh milled recipes. The dough became very difficult to shape let alone creating skin tension. After some research I learned that baking in high altitude requires higher hydration due to the relative air thinness and dryness. “Wheat Montana” published an article on its website addressing altitude baking and adjustments. Using their formula my loaves came out perfectly!
Sounds like an appropriate adjustment, Walter! It’s also likely that your environment in FL is much, much more humid than here in New Mexico — this would also point to reducing hydration. Keep in mind that when baking, hydration percentage is an ever-changing element, it depends on the weather, the flour, and the location. Thanks for that feedback and happy baking!
Sorry for all the questions, but here is another one: I am about out of CM Type 85 Malted Flour and looking to reorder but with the shipping, for a 5 lb. bag it is REALLY expensive. Buying 50 lbs. is reasonable in terms of cost per pound, but I don’t know how long it would take me to use that much Type 85 flour. Can it be substituted in recipes for part of the Bread Flour, or in some other way? Or, is there another flour substitute for Type 85 that you know of that would work? I am going to get a Mockmill 100 and the sieves from Korin, but I am waiting on Korin to get the Sieve holders back in stock as they have been on backorder for a while. Thanks again for your answers and for your very informative site.