Basic Breadmaking Equipment

You don’t need a lot of expensive equipment to make delicious bread at home. In this video I describe the basic things you will need, most of which you probably already have!

One of the keys to success in making bread at home is the accurate measurement of your ingredients, especially the flour and the water (or milk if you are using it). It is always more accurate to weigh your wet ingredients rather than rely on a measuring jug which may or may not be properly calibrated. Thankfully 1 millilitre of water weighs 1 gram so there are no complicated calculations to make!

To summarise, the basic things you will need are:

  • Large mixing bowl, in plastic or metal.
  • 2 litre (4 pint) glass bowl for dough rising
  • Measuring spoons (1 tbsp, 1 tsp, ½ tsp)
  • Tea strainer for sifting flour on your surfaces
  • Plastic bread scraper
  • Rolling pin
  • Kitchen scales (digital are best)
  • Loaf tin(s) – the sandwich loaf tin will give you a loaf with nice square sides.
  • Baking trays, more is better.
  • Large plastic bags.

Proving basketThere are other things you may choose to buy as you progress in your breadmaking. Proving baskets can result in attractive looking loaves and there are transparent containers you can buy which will tell you precisely when your dough has doubled in size. In my opinion these are the “nice to haves” and are usually obtained from specialist suppliers.

Stand mixer

Stand mixers take a lot of the hard work out of kneading dough, but they are generally expensive. If you do plan to get one make sure it comes with a dough hook.

I don’t use one, partly because I can’t afford one but mainly because I enjoy feeling how the dough transforms as I’m kneading it. I’ve been kneading dough for so long by hand that I can almost tell when a dough is kneaded enough just by how it feels in my hands.  But that is a topic for another video!