How To Buy The Right Supplies To Bake Sour Dough Bread With Success!

News Flash: I have at long last made my first batch of sour dough bread, a good year after actually purchasing cast iron pots! I decided to do it together with a friend in order to keep myself accountable, and that idea was the key to crossing the finish line! That and asking a friend who successfully bakes sour dough bread in large quantities every week to teach us. This was invaluable, and thanks so much Talya for your time and effort, greatly appreciated! Best of all, the results were actually quite good for a first try, and I did serve the bread on shabbos to a full table (together with my traditional beloved white challah) and some of the guests (together with my husband) actually loved it, phew!

There were a few ideas that occurred to me during the process, tips that I have not seen written elsewhere, and surely would have helped me before hand. So, sharing with you How To Buy The Right Supplies To Bake Sour Dough Bread With Success, ready? I’m not going to go into the specifics of the starter and prep/baking process, (I’ll leave that up to someone with much more experience) but rather some helpful things that I learned during the process, from purchasing the supplies to baking. Do take the time to read this it will surely save time down the road. And with Black Friday sales coming up or already in progress, the timing might just be perfect!

Purchasing Supplies For Sour Dough Bread Baking

While there are many many sour dough bread baking supplies out there, not everything is necessary. First get into the process and then figure out if those extras would be helpful. Here is a list of items that are recommended:

1. Cast iron pots (more on that below) also called dutch ovens
2. Proofing baskets (called bannetons) made from natural material (more on that below)
3. A digital kitchen scale
4. Danish dough hook
5. A razor blade with round blade holder
6. Flour duster (I don’t have one and wish I did!)
7. Dough scraper, plastic or silicone
8. A very large bowl if making 2 kilos plus (I made 3 kilos)
9. Parchment paper
10. Disposable plastic bowl covers (that you can wash and re-use at least a few times)
11. Disposable gloves

Here is a very short list of items I found unnecessary:

1. Silicone dough slings: nice but it is one more thing to wash, the silicone may or may not be the healthiest thing to bake with at high temps, and they don’t last all that long, apparently. You can easily cut a sling shape (meaning a plus sign with two longer arms) from parchment paper or just use a larger sheet of paper and trim once loaf is in the pot. You don’t need a sling to remove baked loaves.
2. Plastic/glass jar dedicated to starter. (I did not purchase this.) You don’t know exactly how large a jar you’ll need until you get started, and you can always measure starter rise with a piece of masking tape.
3. A lame bread scorer is nice, but since it curves the blade this can be more difficult to work with than a straight razor blade for a beginner. Holding a razor blade as is in your hand is not recommended, so the basic round blade holder is a good idea. I do plan on investing time into artful bread scoring, so I’m glad I have the lame, but you may not need it.

Above: Highly recommend that your decor matches your loaves, ha ha. But seriously, I was really happy to see how great the rustic loaves looked next to my gallery of cross stitch art (that I have yet to share, because maybe a book is in order, then again, who has time with the sour dough bread baking adventure?)

How To Choose Cast Iron Pots For Sour Dough Bread Baking

If you are lucky, you already own some (or even one) cast iron pots that will be more than enough as you are getting started. If you are like me and you do not own the right kind of pots, here are some helpful tips:

1. Loaves are transferred to pots right before baking, so regarding the number of pots you’ll need: you ONLY need the number of pots that can fit in your oven at one time. So measure your oven, and do the math, even with a little sketch of the oven tray, and the pots at the right size (top rim measurements, taking into consideration handles!) I got lucky, and the three pots I own fit into my 90cm (really 80 inside) oven at one time.
2. Consider what size loaves will work for your family, and baking more than you need and freezing is a good idea. So maybe 3 small pots would work for you? Or a small pot and a medium sized pot? Also keep in mind that a lot less sour dough is consumed than regular challah, for example, as it is very dense and filling. And that loaves that are smaller in size than the pot can be baked in a larger pot. I baked a very small oval and a medium sized oval loaf in my large round pot, separating them with baking paper, and it worked, though the edges that were touching did not develop a nice crust.
3. The pots are VERY heavy, so if think you can order them on Amazon, have them sent to a US address and then ask someone to bring them to you, say in Israel, think again, not a great idea with the exception of a 16cm small pot. I still have two pots waiting for me in the USA a year later, and would only have the nerve to ask someone to bring me the small pot.
4. You don’t have to spend a fortune, though in Israel the pots are about double the price than in the USA. I bought the pots mentioned above from Amazon, and they are Amazon Basics pots, and are just fine. I then ordered another pot for myself and two pots for a friend from Temu, and the 26cm pot cost around 220 shekels. The pots are basic and non-seasoned which is preferable, just don’t be surprised when they rust before seasoning them yourself!
5. Consider buying pots with handles, not knobs on lid, as then when you need to remove the lid after 40 minutes of baking you can easily lift the lid off by inserting the utensil under the handle. A hot, crowded oven and very hot pots means exercising care when handling lids and pots!
6. You don’t need enamel coated wrought iron pots, though they do look lovely, and a creme pot will likely get browned over time. I say go with the classic all black iron pots, they’ll always look good, in my humble opinion. But if you live in the USA where there are so many options, just do what makes you happy!
7. Buy a standard wrought iron pot, not the ones made for bread baking, as if you decide to upgrade or the baking doesn’t end up working for you, at least you’ll have a normal wrought iron pot that you can use for cooking/camping etc.
8. My friend/teacher recommends (made in the USA) Lodge brand pots, just sayin. Of course she also loves Le Crueset, but that is not in my budget by a long shot.
9. Ask friends and family if they have an old very heavy cast iron pot(s) with a lid (in the basement/garage/attic/under the sink) that they are not using before investing!
10. If the pots you purchase are pre-seasoned and you keep a kosher kitchen, do ask your local Rabbi whether you need to do anything. Online I understood that I need to do “libun” to the pots, and became frantic as I don’t have a self cleaning oven. It turns out that at the most I needed to do “libun kal” meaning pouring hot boiling water over the pot. Also, the halacha differs between Ashkenazim and Sephardim.
11. If your pots are not pre-seasoned, like those i ordered from Temu, you will have to season by coating with olive oil and putting in oven at high temp for an hour.

How To Choose Proofing Baskets (Bannetons) For Sour Dough Bread Baking

I purchased a range of basket sizes and shapes, and did end up using them all as I made 3 kilos of flour, but you can plan ahead (unlike me) and purchase almost exactly what you need!

1. First buy your pots and then purchase the proofing baskets.
2. Proofing baskets should be slightly smaller than diameter of pots
3. Proofing baskets are traditionally made from a natural material that breathes, allowing air circulation, which is preferable for our living, breathing loaves, and apparently helps get a good crust.
4. Loaves are placed in the baskets, covered, and cold-proofed overnight, so you’ll need at the least twice as many, (and maybe three times as many, baskets as pots for 3 kilos), depending on the quantity you are baking. Better safe than sorry, so buy extra baskets. The friend whom I helped buy supplies had two pots and four baskets for her 2 kilo quantity, and this worked out just fine.
5. If you opt for the ratan coil baskets, because you want the coiled pattern on the loaves, you’ll need to wash the baskets and dry in the sun so that when flouring the baskets the flour will stick. If you forget to do this (me) you can use the bread liners/covers that come with the baskets possibly as the liner, or use parchment paper.
6. What ever is on the bottom of the basket will leave marks on the loaf, so even putting a doily on the bottom can be great. I’m thinking of putting some of my cotton crocheted stars in the basket next time to see how that goes, stay tuned!
7. If you use cloth liners/covers do look into how to wash them and how often, as you don’t want to bake soap into your loaves, right? ( I have yet to figure this out…….) Also, if you don’t opt to wash them after the first time, put them in the freezer as flour sitting out attracts bugs and worms, even tiny ones that we don’t want to eat.
8. You can bake small rolls in a large pot, but they may spread out a bit. Experiment!

Additional Tips For Sour Dough Bread Baking Novices

1. Starter, starter, starter. Either buy your starter from a local bakery (many will happily sell you some) or get some from a friend. Do this a week before you plan to bake to make sure that your starter is behaving as it should, as this is one element of the equation that is close to the most important factor.
2. Feed your starter the same flour that it was fed by the previous owner for best success, or plan on nurturing it a bit with the new diet you’ll be giving it.
3. The kind and combination of flour you’ll use will affect the outcome! I used 2 kilos of whole wheat and one kilo of white flour, and the loaves came out to be very heavy, likely because the starter wasn’t as active as it needed to be.
4. Make sure to use non-chlorinated, filtered water to feed starter and make dough. For me that means bottled water or getting some from a neighbor with a filter, or at long last getting a filter or water bar that filters the water. (But takes up too much counter space for my kitchen?)
5. Look into scoring techniques before you start the whole process. The scoring needs to be done relatively quickly before the loaves collapse! Of course this is something you can develop over time, or go with tried and true techniques. The two loaves in the foreground of my photo both were a success, meaning either a simple grid, or an X with leaves on each quarter. If you prefer a traditional “ear” which indicates the success of the rising of your loaves with its size, just make a half moon on one side of the loaf and a pattern of some kind on the opposite side of the loaf, or none at all.
6. When scoring the half moon shape from #5, which is done more to the side than the top, hold the blade almost parallel to the table to make a slit sort of like cutting an opening in the side of a pita bread.
7. DO NOT EVER dispose of sour dough bread starter, dough or excess of any kind in the sink, as these things can apparently become like rocks and cause lots of problems in your pipes. Let dough in bowls dry and then scrape off and put in garbage. Excess dough on bread hook should be removed as much as possible with a paper towel.
8. I do not like the wastefulness of disposable gloves, that said do NOT attempt to mix with your hands, the resulting mess is not worth it, believe me I tried it!
9. I found that the sour dough bread stays so much fresher than my regular challah, so save the leftovers even to be eaten un-toasted, though toasted sour dough is fabulous.
10. I made American style French toast motzi shabbos with whole wheat left-overs, and it was fabulous, and a great way to get the nay-sayers to benefit from the whole grain bread!
11. You could bake sour dough bread from white flour, but I encourage you to give your family the superior health benefits of whole grain bread rather than saying “well at least it doesn’t have sugar or oil.” What we eat is so very important, and introducing whole grains with home baked sour dough bread is a great way to start!

Okay, that is it for now, will update this as I learn more! If you have any tips to add please leave a comment on this post.