Start here · Bread
Everything you need to bake your first loaf. Nothing you don’t.
The kit, scored by what it’s made of. One reliable first bake. The mistakes everyone makes. Short on purpose.
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01 · EquipmentThe kit
Eight things, all scored 4 or 5 for what they’re made of. If you already own a Dutch oven, a big bowl, and a sharp knife, you have most of it.
Buy these first
| Item | Score | Why this one | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lodge 5-qt Dutch oven | 5 | Bare cast iron. The lid traps steam, which is the whole secret to crust. Preheat it empty. | Check price → |
| Digital scale (grams) | 4 | Bread is ratios. Cups are off by 20%. A 4 only for the plastic housing your food never touches. | Check price → |
| Weck glass starter jar | 5 | Starter is acidic and lives in this forever. Glass, glass lid, no plastic. | Check price → |
| Stainless mixing bowls | 5 | Nested set, dishwasher-safe, last a lifetime. Dough rises in the big one. | Check price → |
| 9″ rattan banneton | 5 | Holds the shape overnight in the fridge. Rattan and linen; flour it, never wash it. | Check price → |
| Bench scraper (stainless) | 5 | Shapes sticky dough without extra flour, cleans the counter after. | Check price → |
| Bread lame | 5 | A razor on a wooden handle. Scoring tells the loaf where to open; a knife drags. | Check price → |
| Danish dough whisk | 5 | Stainless loop on a wood handle. Mixes wet dough in a minute without a mixer. | Check price → |
Add later, if you keep going
| Item | Score | Why this one | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instant-read thermometer | 4 | Ends the “is it done?” guessing: 205–210°F inside means yes. | Check price → |
| Lodge cast iron loaf pan | 5 | Sandwich loaves and focaccia without a nonstick coating. Seasoned iron, nothing else. | Check price → |
| Wüsthof 10″ bread knife | 5 | A long serrated blade is the difference between slices and shreds. | Check price → |
| Emile Henry bread baker | 5 | Glazed ceramic with a lid, made in France, tested lead-free. The prettier Dutch oven. | Check price → |
| Challenger bread pan | 5 | Cast iron built for bread: shallow base, easy loading, big ears. The pan Ben bakes in — the upgrade, not the start. | Check price → |
Skip: nonstick loaf pans (PTFE, a 2 — your dough proofs in it and bakes at 450°F) · plastic proofing tubs and plastic starter jars (acidic dough, permanent contact, a 2) · silicone baking mats (a 3; parchment does the same job) · anything that calls itself a “bread machine” if what you want is bread you’re proud of.
02 · BakeYour first loaf
Two paths. Focaccia is the same-day win that teaches your hands what dough should feel like. Sourdough takes twelve days, ten of them waiting.
Path A · Same-day focaccia (no starter)
500 g bread flour · 400 g warm water · 10 g salt · 4 g instant yeast (1¼ tsp) · 3 tbsp olive oil · rosemary, flaky salt
- Whisk flour, salt and yeast in the big bowl. Add water and 1 tbsp oil. Mix with the dough whisk until no dry flour. It will be wet. That’s right.
- Cover. Every 30 minutes for 90 minutes, wet your hand and fold the dough over itself from four sides. Three folds total.
- Oil a 9×13 pan (glass, stainless, or cast iron) with 1 tbsp oil. Tip the dough in, fold once, cover, and leave it 45–60 minutes until puffy.
- Heat the oven to 425°F. Oil your fingers with the last tablespoon and dimple the dough all the way to the pan. Rosemary, flaky salt.
- Bake 25–30 minutes until deep gold. Cool 10 minutes on a rack, then eat some warm — this is the one bread you’re allowed to cut early.
Path B · Sourdough, the 12-day path
Starter, days 1–7: 50 g flour + 50 g water daily in the Weck jar (whole wheat or rye for the first 3 days, then bread flour). Each day, keep 50 g, throw the rest away, feed again. It’s ready when it reliably doubles within 4–6 hours of feeding — usually day 7–10, not day 3.
The loaf: 100 g active starter · 375 g water · 500 g bread flour · 10 g salt
- Morning: feed the starter. When it’s doubled (4–6 h), mix it with the water, then the flour. Rest 30 minutes, then work in the salt with wet hands.
- Over the next 2 hours, do four stretch-and-folds, 30 minutes apart. Then leave it alone until it’s grown by about half and jiggles — 3 to 5 hours in a 75°F kitchen, longer if it’s cold.
- Shape: scrape onto the counter, fold into a tight round with the bench scraper, seam up in the floured banneton. Cover, fridge overnight (12–16 hours).
- Next morning: Dutch oven in the oven, 500°F, 45 minutes. Turn the cold dough onto parchment, score one confident ½-inch slash, lower it in, lid on.
- 20 minutes covered. Lid off, oven down to 450°F, 20–25 minutes more until dark brown and 205–210°F inside. Cool on a rack a full hour before cutting.
Starter vs. discard. Your starter is the living culture you keep and feed. Discard is the part you scoop out before feeding so the jar doesn’t take over the fridge. Discard makes great pancakes and crackers. It does not raise a loaf — using it instead of an active, doubled starter is the number-one reason first loaves come out as bricks.
03 · AvoidMistakes everyone makes
Ten things that ruin first loaves, in the order people hit them. Ben’s own list is coming.
- Baking on day 3. Bubbles aren’t readiness. Wait until the starter doubles on schedule two days in a row.
- Leavening with discard. See above. Flat, dense, sour — and it wasn’t your technique.
- Measuring in cups. A cup of flour is anywhere from 120 to 150 grams. The scale fixes every recipe you’ll ever try.
- A cold kitchen. At 65°F everything takes twice as long and the recipe’s times are wrong. Proof in the oven with only the light on.
- Flouring the counter. Sticky dough wants wet hands and a bench scraper, not a snowdrift of flour that ends up in the loaf.
- Guessing the proof. Poke the dough: springs back fast, underproofed; slowly and not quite all the way, ready; stays dented, overproofed — bake it now.
- A lukewarm Dutch oven. Forty-five minutes at 500°F, empty. The blast of stored heat is what lifts the loaf.
- A timid score. One decisive ½-inch cut at a shallow angle. Hesitation drags, and the loaf tears where it wants to instead.
- Cutting it hot. The crumb is still setting for an hour after it leaves the oven. Cut early and it’s gummy; that isn’t underbaking.
- Storing it in plastic. A crust goes soft and molds fast in a bag. Cut side down on the board for two days, then slice and freeze the rest.
Chlorinated tap water can slow a young starter. If yours stalls, use filtered water — the pitchers we score handle it.
04 · ReadGo deeper
The long versions, for when you want the why.
- The sourdough starter kit, non-toxic edition — every item above, scored and explained
- Non-toxic bakeware — sheet pans, loaf pans, parchment vs. silicone
- Is Le Creuset safe? — enameled vs. bare cast iron for your Dutch oven
- Cutting boards — the board you’ll slice every loaf on
- Kitchen utensils — wood, steel, silicone, and the black spatula
- Pizza at home — same dough skills, hotter oven
- The Score Directory — every product we’ve rated, sortable
- What to replace first — the whole-kitchen starter kit
Scores are for what a product is made of, not how it performs; the full method is on How we score. Recipes are baker’s percentages we’d hand a friend, not lab-tested formulas. Last reviewed September 2026.