Basic Bread-Making Equipment

When you’re baking, weighing your ingredients is the most accurate method of measurement. Given the choice between digital and mechanical kitchen scales, we’ll take digital any day for their easy readability and incredible precision. Look for an easy-to-read display that isn’t obscured when a big bowl (or anything else) is placed on the weighing platform. The larger the weight range (we like scales that measure from ¼ ounce up to 10 pounds at least), the more versatile your scale is and the more you’ll turn to it in the kitchen. If your scale can be zeroed, you can automatically subtract the weight of the weighing vessel to measure only the ingredients—helpful when you need to make incremental additions to your mixing bowl.

This basic tool—little more than a blunt-edged rectangular metal blade a little larger than an index card—is handy for transferring bread dough from one surface to another and for cutting dough into chunks. It's useful, too, for scraping off dough stuck to the countertop. You'll also find other kitchen uses for a bench scraper, such as scooping up chopping vegetables and herbs off the cutting board, cutting unbaked biscuits or scones into wedges, and, if you're a pastry maker, for "blocking" the edges of pastry dough as it's rolled out.

Don’t try to bake breads on a rimmed baking sheet or baking stone that hasn’t been lined with a piece of parchment. Not only does parchment eliminate the risk of sticking, but it also speeds cleanup. White and brown paper work equally well. If you bake a lot, order flat sheets cut to fit baking sheets so you can avoid having to uncurl the rolls.

We like wire racks with a woven grid as opposed to ones with bars that run in just one direction. A woven grid, with bars running perpendicularly, better supports both delicate and heavy breads.

A ceramic baking stone or metal baking steel conducts heat and transfers it evenly and steadily to the bottom of the pizza or bread being baked on it and encourages the development of thick, nicely browned bottom crusts. The stone should be placed in the oven before the oven is turned on and allowed to heat for a minimum of 30 minutes (and ideally 60 minutes) to ensure that it is thoroughly heated and will maintain its temperature once the pizza or bread is placed in the oven. In a pinch, an inverted rimmed baking sheet is an acceptable substitute.

A pizza peel, also called a baking peel, is a wide, paddle-like board or extra-large metal spatula with a long handle. It's a useful tool for sliding pizza and freeform breads (like the baguettes in this class) into and out of the oven. A rimless cookie sheet or an inverted rimmed baking sheet can stand in for a peel. The peel (or cookie or baking sheet) must be well dusted with flour so that pizza or bread easily slides off the surface onto the hot baking stone in the oven; even a small sticky patch can be big trouble, especially with pizza. If the dough is exceptionally sticky, we often form the bread on a parchment paper liner that ensures easy transfer; the bread bakes on the parchment.

One often overlooked but useful tool is the kitchen ruler. In fact, we think it’s indispensable and we reach for it constantly whether we are cutting up beef for a stew, prepping vegetables, or shaping loaves of dough for bread baking. Stainless steel models are easy to clean and dishwasher-safe. Don’t get caught short with a 12-inch ruler, and forget about longer ones better suited to carpentry. An 18-inch ruler will handle all kitchen tasks and will fit in a kitchen drawer.

For those recipes that give an internal temperature to determine the doneness of bread, an instant-read thermometer is key. Most lean, rustic breads are done when they reach 200 to 210 degrees; rich breads are fully baked at about 190 degrees.

In general, a good-quality standing mixer is the appliance of choice for mixing and kneading bread dough. Its large capacity (compared to a food processor) means that it can handle recipes calling for generous amounts of flour, and its powerful motor can knead strong doughs without overheating either the machine or the dough. Although hand kneading is an option with doughs that are workable (that is, not too wet and sticky), we find that even with these more workable doughs most home bakers end up adding too much flour to prevent sticking, and the resulting bread isn't as good as one kneaded in a mixer.