Baking Equipment

I found fairly quickly when I started to bake that there are a few pieces of baking equipment that are must have items. All of the pieces of equipment are easy to obtain in most local shops, and speciality shops for some of the more specific equipment. 

I started out by mixing solely with an electric stand mixer. I stopped using the mixer because I found that it spent far too much time mixing the dough to the consistency that I wanted. I switched to hand mixing, at first,I found it very difficult to mix by hand to get the results I wanted. Persistence and research paid off, after all, bread had been made centuries long before the electric mixer existed.

Etekcity Digital Scale

I would highly recommend a good quality digital kitchen scale as baking bread requires exacting measurements. I would advise to weigh everything, including liquids. The scale should be able to measure up to 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) and should be accurate to a single gram.

American Weigh Scale

I also use a small digital scale to measure the finer ingredients such as yeast, salt, and Diastatic Malt flour as this will measure 10ths of a gram.

Thermowand Instant read Thermometer

A digital instant read thermometer is very important, so you can obtain the temperature quickly and accurately of your bake which will allow you to swiftly close the door/ lid of the oven or BBQ.  An oven thermometer would be useful too since most home ovens are inaccurate. I would recommend one that you can hang off the rack so it’s visible through the oven door, if it can be calibrated even better.

I use plastic food safe proving boxes that have lids to prove bagels, bread rolls and pizza balls. I use the container flipped over to sit on top of Focaccia to retard the prove in the refrigerator. 

9″ Round Banneton Proofing Basket

A cane banneton is very useful for holding the shape of loaves as they proof. I use a nine inch diameter basket which is perfect as a container for a typical single loaf recipe of around half a kilo. The cane weave leaves an impressive imprint as the dough proofs. As an alternative you can use a similar sized kitchen ceramic bowl or you can buy plastic alternatives to the cane versions too.

Wooden Pizza Peel

Pizza equipment has its own set of equipment that can help you create and place your newly formed pizza into the oven. I have a 14 inch wooden peel to dress the opened out pizza base on. I use this because it allows you to slide the newly prepared pizza smoothly onto the pizza stone to bake. Using the wooden peel it is much safer to slide a pizza onto a very hot stone and quickly close the lid of the BBQ.

Aluminium Pizza Peel

I would also recommend a 14 inch aluminium pizza peel to remove the pizza from the stone once it has been cooked.

California Pizza Stone

A good quality pizza stone is essential, I have one from the California Pizza stone company and it can sit directly on the BBQ to obtain an even heat distribution which allows it to get as hot as possible. These stones are food safe with no nasties incorporated into the manufacturing process.  Beware of using a thinner stone of around 18mm thick as they may not be able to withstand the heat when placed directly on the BBQ without cracking. To prevent cracking the stone make sure that you place it on a trivet to elevate it away from direct contact to the BBQ bed.

Weber Family ‘Q’ BBQ

I use a BBQ to cook all of my bakes. The Weber Family ‘Q” is a very versatile appliance which I have been using for 5 years. I have found that most home ovens are slow at getting to the desired temperature and they cannot achieve the high temperatures that a BBQ can reach and this helps with the doughs oven spring. BBQ’s get to very high temperatures quickly and this allows for faster cooking times which can help reduce power consumption and the recovery time when the lid has been opened. Domestic oven temperatures can be significantly off from the target temperature and this can cause many problems with baking bread. The BBQ that I use has a built in temperature probe which is easy to read and very handy to monitor the oven temperature.