September 13, 2009 - 9:02pm
If you had $2,000 for supplies.....
Assume you are a relatively novice but passionate bread baker, you love whole wheat and sourdough, and have been functioning on VERY basic equipment. No scales, grinders, mixers, breadforms, banneton-to-oven transfer tools, or nice mixing bowls. Assume also that you have just received $2,000 with which to equip yourself and pursue your passion. What would you buy, and of which brand? Please let your imaginations run away with you :)
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How about two one way tickets to a tropical island where I can lie on the beach and forget about baking?
Actually I enjoy not having all the right equipment, makes me think and substitute and try different ideas.
Mini
The above post from Mini is wisdom speaking if I have ever heard wisdom. Tools and gadgets do not make bread, people do.
Jeff
1. How much are you trying to make at a time?
2.Do you have a decent oven now?
3. Do you want to knead by hand?
Regardless of those answers, some stuff I have found useful
1. Cambro 8 quart square containers. The square ones fit the firge better than the rounds, and they are good for bulk ferments.
2. A decent thermometer. I had a CDN I really liked that was about 18 bucks. From what I Can tell, the thermapen is the best thing going if cost is no object
3. A decent scale. I don't think it matters much what brand, but it should be accurate to 1 gram and 1/8 oz measurements. Also, it is better if they have sealed buttons, as dough and flour tend to accumulate in the crevicies if you aren't careful.You also need a tare function. If you are making big batches, something witha 10lb capacity is a good idea.
4. a couple silpats or miles of parchment
5. Decent pans and baking sheets, or maybe some oven stones
6, A bunch of good books.
If you aren't baking much and want a mixer, I like the kitchenaid pro 600, but it has definite limits to capacity.
If you are planing on making a bunch at a time
1. Decent large capacity mixer. Not sure for reccomendations here. Maybe a used hobart or a Doyon or something.
2.A big cooling rack. We got a 6 shelf NSF rack from sams for 100 bucks.
3. if you are baking in loaf pans, I really like the ones that are 4 strapped together. with 2, you can bake 8 loaves at a time in a typical home oven
1. A good scale. I have the KD-7000
2. A bowl scraper or 2
3. A pastry scraper
4. A good LARGE mixing bowl. Get a good mixing spoon as well
5. A set of measuring cups and spoons. Down to 1/8 tsp
6. Microwave safe liquid measuring cup. Like pyrex 4 cup
7. A good quality baking stone. There are TONS of discussions on here about which stone is the best. But you will need one. Get a good Peel as well.
8. An assortment of pans and baking sheets.
9. Get some parchment paper and plastic wrap.
10. Non-Stick spray.
11. 2 thermometers. One instant read probe type, and an oven thermometer, a lot of ovens are not calibrated correctly.
you do not need to spend a pile on a mixer. Your grandmother didn't need one, nor her mother. Mine died a couple months ago and it has greatly improved the quality of my breads.
Spend the rest on flour and get in the kitchen and bake. ;O)
Sorry for the loss of your mom - I hope you've learned well from her and can still make quality bread.... :-)
I think I would only add to the above minimalist lists a small, good, temperature/humidity controlled proofing cabinet, especially for my sourdough passion. I live in the central valley of California and when it is 105F+ outside/80F+ inside, we have to turn on the AC, which is bad for proofing bread, or suffer for the sake of the bread, which is unpopular with everyone (including the baker!).
Did you buy your proofing cabinet or make it? I have been thinking about that too, but don't really know where to start. If you bought it, where? If you made it, would you mind posting some pictures? I live in the hot, dry west too and would love to see what has worked for you.
I would have to add about 3 grand to that so I could get the KA Steam Assist oven. Right now with the exception of a few formig things like a few more brotforms or baskets I have what I need unless I become a commercial baker of some kind.
If you say you already have everything you really need, what is it that you have that fills your needs? I'm looking to spend my money on essentials, things that will really be well used so I would love to hear what other people feel fills their baking needs.
I am just beginning with artisan breads, but I have lots of baking equipment and have made loaf sandwich bread most of my life.
I have just ordered a plastic bowl scraper and a Danish dough whisk. With these two things I will probably not be using my Kitchen Aid mixer much for bread. I have not been so happy with the kneading it did and look forward to using the hand held whisk.
The tools I have that I feel are very valuable are:
There may be more siimple things I use, but those are the ones I can think of now. It would be fun to have fancy bannetons and molds, I suppose, especially the round reed one that makes that nice round bread with the circular ridges and rings of flour... That is one of the whimsies I might like if I were spending money, but with two people in the house, it's a lot of bread to eat at once.
Catherine
this is too funny. I, too, just received the Danish dough whisk and two bowl scrapers, both are wonderful. I also went to Target and purchased a not-so-expensive 8 qt stainless steel mixing bowl to do the whisk and scraper justice :)
I would love to fly to Vermont and take a baking course at King Arthur.
is smaller than I expected it to be. Still, it's okay for smaller bowls, like when I'm just doing a pre-ferment or something. I finally was able to get a couple large ones from a baker so I'm set now. I couldn't find any online without having to buy a lot or pay way too much shipping for a tiny item.
It would be fun to take a KA course...or a P. Reinhart one!
My entire bread baking setup is a random mug for 'measuring', a bowl and spoon for mixing, a plastic bag for covering and a tin for loaf baking. No tools, no scales.
I eyeball near enough all the ingredients all the time. If I cant do it by eye I cant do it at all, I say.
It turns out you CAN eyeball everything (after your 3 cups flour and 1 water) and have perfect bread every time. (Subjective ofc)
eyeball that too? Or just skip it?
Never skip the salt! Yep I eyeball that too. You get a feel for it as you see it hitting the flour.
The real test of baking by eye is doing it in someone elses kitchen with their ingredients, equipment etc
My whole baking experience came from trying to feed 5 children. I started with Pizza, thinking It could be 'quick'. Its possible but *was I wrong*!
My pizza is good. We never order out any more. So this whole lack of bread at the stores (pandemic) got me tempted to try loaves etc and I havent looked back. I had to get creative due to the lack of yeast and sometimes that lack of strong flour.
So I found baking by eye to be pivotal in making daily bread a possibility. The practise means now I can make milk bread by eye!
I got the scales out last week to see what 8-14g of fresh yeast looks like. Now Ill never need to do that again :p
milk is 10 to 13.6 % less water than water. So in using milk instead of water you need a splash more milk. :)
Glad you mentioned that. I always end up using 1/5 cup more milk than water. Im using super strong flour... it seems to drink more water too, compared to regular old 'strong'.
For loaves the method of correct hydration by eye is to judge how much flour remains in the bottom of the bowl when you give a quick mix with a spoon. For drier dough a handful remains, for wetter dough, little to none remains. But for something like milk bread there is a lot of blind faith in not adding more flour, which pays off. After a few minutes its clear if adjustments need to be made even if hand mixing/kneading.