For this post I thought I would talk a little about tools I use. This is the first of several on this topic.
Bread knives have been an issue since I started baking crusty sourdough boules. We started out with two different bread knives. One came from a long gone bakery called Montana Mills. It was fine for slicing there bread that had a soft crust. But the blade is very flexible and it just won’t cut a crusty sourdough loaf. The second, of unknown origin, works better but still not well. It particularly has issues with the bottom crust. So I read lots of online reviews of bread knives and decided on the Victorinox 10-1/4” bread knife with rosewood handle. What a joy to use. Sliced a crusty loaf with ease.
My favorite tool for mixing dough is a danish dough whisk. They are available from King Arthur (I have no affiliation with them) and various other sources. It works extremely well for mixing the starter into water and for mixing the flour into the water up to a point. Depending on the hydration of the dough there is a point where the best tool for mixing flour into the dough are the hands. Yes, it is messy and the dough sticks to the hands, fingers and between the fingers. I use a plastic dough scraper to get most of the dough from my hands, etc.
I had started out using a spoon for mixing the dough. I did not think the spoon mixed it all that thoroughly. I also found that as the dough got stiffer, using the spoon hurt my wrist. I don’t experience that with the dough whisk.
That will do it for this post. In future posts I will cover the various containers I use for mixing and fermenting dough and the various bannetons I use for proofing dough.