A complete list of tools I use for gluten-free sourdough bread baking
When I share my baking tools on Instagram stories, I often get asked where did I get them from, and if it’s a tin or a banneton basket, I also get asked for the size and measurements. In response to your messages, I thought it would be a great idea to put together this blog post sharing all the baking tools that I use to make my gluten-free sourdough breads.
The list I’m sharing below has not been sponsored by any of the brands I mention. This is genuinely what I use for my every day baking and find that works best for me.
NOTE. I did not include simple things like bowls, jars or kitchen scales which you most likely already have in your kitchen.
So here it is!
FLOUR MILL - MOCKMILL 100
This light and fairly small mill does a great job and brings a lot of value to my daily baking (see image above). I bake almost every day and I love to bake gluten-free sourdough bread with freshly milled flour. I also enjoy experimenting with uncommon grains like black rice or wild rice, which would be hard to buy milled. For these reasons, this flour mill is a very handy tool to have. Would I recommend anyone to get exactly the same mill? Overall, it’s a really good quality tool and fairly cheap, but there are a few things that sometimes bother me and I share it all in detail in this post on my Instagram.
EMILE HENRY CERAMIC BREAD CLOCHE
Compared to a cast iron dutch oven, this Emile Henry bread cloche is much lighter, very easy to clean and requires little care. I had it for more than two years now and it does a really great job to trap the steam and create a perfect environment for bread baking. You can also use the base of the cloche to cook pizza.
EMILE HENRY LOAF BAKER
Can you tell I am a big Emile Henry fan? This bread loaf baker is great option for an oval shaped bread. Plus, it fits perfectly in my oven next to the bread cloche!
CAST IRON DUTCH OVEN
This Kitchenly cast iron dutch oven is something I purchased recently to compare it with the Emile Henry ceramic cloche. I haven’t run enough experiments to compare them just yet and share my conclusions, but this is definitely a much cheaper option and generally will give you very similar results. However, this dutch oven is much heavier and requires more care after it has been used.
STELLAR HORWOORD LOAD TIN
This is my favourite loaf tin to achieve rounded sourdough sandwich loaves. In this tin I tend to bake 300g total flour loaves using 100% (bakers percentage) of sourdough starter and they fit perfectly! Anything bigger may be a struggle. I particularly chose this tin because it fits perfectly under my Emile Henry cloche, which allows me to bake gluten-free bread for longer without browning the crust too quickly.
PROOFING BASKETS
MINI BANNETON BASKETS FOR EXPERIMENTING
When I experiment with different ingredients and gluten-free sourdough starters, I tend to use these small banneton baskets to proof the dough. These are perfect for 150-200g total flour when using 30% of starter (bakers percentage).
ROUND BANNETON
Similarly to my sandwich loaves, I tend to use about 300g of flour to make my gluten-free sourdough boules and this banneton is just perfect sized for my bakes, but even if it was a 400g total flour dough, this banneton would be great to use!
MY FAVOURITE OVAL BANNETON BASKET
This is the proofing basket I received a week ago and I’m loving it! Previously, I had a much bigger oval proofing basket and I had to add extra layers of fabric to make it smaller to proof the dough. If you like to make big loaves, then probably my previous banneton basket would be better for the type of bread you make.
NAKED RAZOR BLADES
I find that bare-naked razor blades seem to work best for smaller/decorative cuts, while a curved lame does a great job for the main slash to get a more open crust.
When making smaller/detailed cuts into the dough, I get a much better feel for angles and depth while using a bare-naked razor, which ultimately gives me better results. If you choose to go with this option, please be careful not to cut yourself.
LAME
I chose this particular lame because of it’s beautiful wooden handle, which is also a great addition to my food photography props. It’s a beautiful tool and does a great job!
METAL DOUGH CUTTER & PLASTIC DOUGH CUTTER/SCRAPER
While I find the metal one great for cutting the dough, I love using the plastic scraper for cleaning out bowls and work surfaces. The Forno Allegro metal dough cutter that I have is no longer available to buy, but this pizza dough cutter is exactly the same size and design. My plastic scraper came with one of the banneton baskets that I bought long time ago.
WHISK
The dough whisk that I use to mix my ingredients before the actual kneading happens.
DIGITAL THERMOMETER
Just a simple digital cooking thermometer that I have to check the temperature of the water that I use to mix the dough, the temperature of the dough and the temperature of the bread once it’s baked.
