2.1 Bread Making

The following can be done without, but I consider them to be all but essential.

  1. A stand mixer. The two cookbooks I recommend in the Bread section have different takes on this. Reinhart calls for using one in almost every recipe, while I’m pretty sure that Robertson (Tartine Bread) doesn’t even mention them. I happen to use one wherever possible, even when the recipe doesn’t call for it (and will do do so throughout the recipes). Ours is a Viking that, as far as I can tell, is no longer being manufactured (although you may find a used one available on ebay or some similar site). The much more common ones, of course, are those of Kitchenaid, definitely fine machines. They come in two sizes , 4 qt. and 5.5 qt. I received one of the former as a wedding present 40 years ago, and it served all of my needs at the time just fine (indeed, it is now at my lakefront cottage in the Finger Lakes and still going strong). Were I to buy one today (or if our Viking dies), I would probably go with the larger one.
  2. A kitchen scale. Most breadmakers will recommend that weight be used to measure ingredients. This is particularly important for flour, since even different bags of the same brand can have different densities. It is also useful for weighing other ingredients as well. You can get a decent electronic one for around $25.
  3. For Essential Tartine Bread, proofing baskets are a must. I use oval ones, which were used to shape the loaves shown above.
  4. Also for tartine bread, a dutch oven or a covered roasting pan is required. By doing the inital bake in one with the cover on, you get the high humidity environment that commercial bakers get by injecting steam into the baking oven.
  5. A pizza stone or steel is useful for baking rolls and freestanding loaves in addition to pizza. Do get a heavy duty one - the more inexpensive round ones sold at grocery and department stores do not stand up to the high heat used in some of these recipes.
  6. For making essential tartine bread you will need a dutch oven or an oven roaster, one which can be inverted for cooking.
  7. You will need to cut the dough with a knife during the shaping process. If you have a large (8-10 inch) chef’s knife, that will work fine, however a bench knife is useful not only for cutting but also for manipulating dough pieces. We already had a pizza knife that serves these purposes well.