I’ve been seeing a lot of my friends being more productive since they’ve started staying at home. Whether they’ve started exercising more, gardening, puzzling, whatever, it seems like everyone is up to something new and exciting. And to be honest, it has been a little disheartening—I for one, really haven’t been doing much, other than watching that tiger documentary everyone’s talking about and wanting to curl up into a ball. But then, a friend suggested something I’d thought about doing for a while, but had never had the time to do: baking bread. It turns out you don’t need much to become a successful bread baker. Other than flour, yeast, and salt, here’s what you need to start filling your home with the delicious scent, and taste, of fresh baked bread.
I love my measuring scale and I use it for pretty much everything I can. Baking by weight is essential for bread baking, where exactness really is everything. I recommend this one, which has a tare setting that subtracts the weight of the bowl from your measurement so you’re always starting at zero, with no math involved.
But some recipes will ask you to measure your ingredients out still, like the yeast, and these visual measuring cups go a step further in transforming bread baking into a kid friendly activity. It’s a great way to introduce some fractions, and some chemistry if you want to go there.
This silicone mat has changed everything for me. I don’t want to dust the whole countertop with flour, so this creates a perfect, non-stick workspace to just dust with a little flour. It can also be used instead of wax paper when baking cookies.
I’m recommending a dutch oven here. You need a really big bowl to let your dough rise in and the dutch oven is big enough for that. But I really try to avoid having things in my kitchen that only serve one purpose. I love that this doubles as a bowl and my favorite thing to cook pretty much anything. And, if you take proper care of it, it will literally last your entire life, and then some.
Holy Sheet! Focaccia has never looked so good on this Great Jones baking sheet. It’s stylish, fun, made out of great materials, and I never really knew I could love a baking sheet as much as I love mine. If you don’t have one you feel strong feelings towards, I highly recommend investing in one like this.
We’re not all using wood fire ovens. A dutch oven creates a similar effect to a baking stone, but if you don’t want to go that far, the baking stone is an excellent way to get a crusty bottom. It gets really hot and stays really hot. I recommend preheating the stone for about an hour beforehand.
Some recipes call for you to take the internal temperature of the bread you’re baking. Look no further for the perfect thermometer. This one is instant, so you just have to be in there for a second or two, and has long range so your hand won’t get burned in the oven.
If you leave the bread in your dutch oven or your baking sheet, the bottom will continue to cook, and the loaf won’t cool at the same time. This cooling rack solves that problem, by allowing air to flow all around the bread, even the bottom. It’s non-stick and is great for meats, too.
I mean, your home baked bread deserves to be sliced with only the finest. Slice into your fresh baked loaf with this fabulous Wusthof knife and watch as it barely makes crumbs crumble everywhere. Instead, it will give you the nice, clean slice you deserve after all of that hard work.
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