Essential Tools for Bread Baking

A good set of mixing bowls is essential to bread baking. When making fancy breads or the simpler quick breads, you will often need more than one bowl for mixing the ingredients. Bowl sets that have three different size bowls are what you’ll want to cover your baking needs.

Loaf pans hold the shape of the loaf while it’s baking. The pans can be made of glass, metal, silicone, stoneware, and even paper. Glass loaf pans are generally inexpensive but may chip if stored improperly. Metal pans are inexpensive but do not generally last a lifetime. Silicone loaf pans are fairly new for the home baker and can be easily stored in tight storage areas. Stoneware lasts for longer than a lifetime but can be expensive. Finally, paper loaf pans are for gift breads.

Plastic spoons break when used to mix bread dough and metal spoons should never be used to make bread. Wooden spoons are essential for bread baking and, if you buy a good set, they will last you a lifetime with proper care.

Many bread recipes call for lemon or orange zest (grated peel). Zesters are easy to use and the breads you make from fresh lemon or orange peel will taste unbelievably delicious.

Cheese breads are always popular. You will need a good cheese grater for the blocks of cheese you buy (its cheaper to buy blocks than packages or dry, grated cheese).

Whether your making sticky buns or cinnamon swirls, you’ll need a good, trusty rolling pin to roll out the dough. Always choose a sturdy wood rolling pin. The one I use was my grandmother’s rolling pin and was given to me by my mother. I have no doubt that it’ll be around for at least another 2 generations.

You need a pastry brush to cover loaves with butter or egg white before the loaf goes into the oven. The butter brushed loaves have extra buttery flavor while the egg white is used to hold poppy seeds or sesame seeds in place.

I’ve gone through many different kinds of cutting boards over the years and I always return to my favorite wood board. Unlike the plastic boards that last for a short while, a good quality wood board lasts a lifetime. Cutting boards are needed for chopping ingredients, kneading dough, and shaping dough.

A dull bread knife can ruin a lovely loaf of bread. Get a good quality, sharp bread knife that you will only use for bread cutting.

After you bake your bread, you’ll need a place to store it. Bread bins keep your loaf of bread safely away from pets and handy for eating. You’ll want a quality bread bin that keeps drafts out and is easy to clean.