Bread Making Essentials

Here is our list of bread making essentials. These items are needed to create breads such as white bread, French bread, whole wheat bread, oatmeal bread, multigrain bread, sourdough bread, etc.

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Essential Ingredients

• Yeast – Check the recipe for the exact type of yeast to use (i.e. instant or active dry yeast). They are not the same & your recipe will not come out correctly if you use the wrong yeast.
  • Bread Machine Yeast – This yeast is designed for bread machines.
  • Instant Yeast – This yeast does not have to be preactivated.
  • Active Dry Yeast – This yeast needs to be preactivated in liquid before using. Instant yeast & bread machine yeast does not have to be preactivated.
• Bread Flour – For making homemade bread, bread flour is much better than using all purpose flour. Bread flour results in a airer and taller bread because it has more gluten than all purpose flour (thus it has a greater ability to capture the CO2 put out by the yeast).
• Buttermilk Powder – Used for making buttermilk bread.
• Honey – Perfect for honey wheat bread.
• Multigrain Cereal – Used for making multigrain bread.
• Old Fashioned Oats – Used for making oatmeal bread.
• Rye Flour
• Salt
• Sourdough Starter – No sourdough starter equals no delicious sourdough bread!
• Spices – Italian seasoning for herb breads, etc.
• Sugar
• Whole Wheat Flour

Bread Making Tools & Equipment

• Baguette Pans – These pans help shape your French bread dough into proper baguettes.
• Bread Machines – Bread machines make bread making easy. They mix, knead & bake your bread.
• Bread Pans (9×5)
• Bread Pans (8.5×4.5)
• Bread Proofing Baskets
• Bread Digital Thermometers – Bread thermometers help to guarantee that the bread’s interior has been fully baked.
• Cooling Racks – These tend to be wire racks that allow bread to cool down on all sides (esp. on the bottom). This helps to avoid a bread with a “soggy” bottom.
• Cutting Boards
• Dough Mats
• Electric Stand Mixers (with Dough Hook) – You can use an electric stand mixer (with dough hook) or bread machine to mix & knead your bread dough. Much easier than doing it by hand.
• Lames – Scoring tools used to slice the top of the dough and control the expansion of the bread during baking (so the top of the bread does not crack in areas that you do not want to crack). Also used to adding intricate patterns on top of your bread.
  • To learn more about scoring your bread, you might like to read books such as The Art of Sourdough Scoring.
• Oven Mitts
• Serrated Bread Knives

Bread Making “How To” Books – Great instructional books are bread making essentials.

• Bread Illustrated: A Step-By-Step Guide to Achieving Bakery-Quality Results At Home
• Bread Baking for Beginners
• The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread

Bread Machine Cookbooks

• The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook: A Master Baker’s 300 Favorite Recipes for Perfect-Every-Time Bread-From Every Kind of Machine
• The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook: Family Recipes for Foolproof, Delicious Bakes

Sandwich & Panini Cookbooks – Great homemade breads helps to create amazing sandwiches & paninis.

• The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches: Recipes, History, and Trivia for Everything Between Sliced Bread
• Sandwiches!: More Than You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Making and Eating America’s Favorite Food
• The Essential Panini Press Cookbook: 100 Creative and Classic Recipes
• The Ultimate Panini Press Cookbook
• Grilled Cheese Kitchen: Bread + Cheese + Everything in Between

Reference Sources

• Wikipedia, Bread
• Wikipedia, Bread Machine
• Wikipedia, Sandwich