Learn to bake bread - shopping list
Essential Equipment List
- Mixing bowl
- Measuring jug (500ml is perfect)
- Measuring spoons (specifically a teaspoon)
- Kitchen scales
- and/or measuring cup (though all recipes here use scales)
- Spatula
- Proofing cloth (also called a couche)
- or a line/cotton tea towel. Not terry, plush or microfibre.
- Baker’s Lame – Sharp knife or blade
- Baking tray
This list is the essentials, as you bake more, you will add to your equipment
First Shopping List
- Strong white flour
- Fast Action Dried Yeast
- fine salt (prefereably fine sea salt)
There are many types of flour and we will be looking at their uses in different types of bread.
Yeast: there are other types of yeast and we will also be learning about these but first of all we will be using Fast Action Dried Yeast
Tips
Why you don't wash a couche cloth
“Couche” (the baker’s linen) is pronounced like “koosh”. Rhymes with whoosh
It comes from the French verb coucher — “to lay down” — because dough is laid to rest in the cloth
A couche is traditionally thick, untreated linen, sometimes flax or heavy canvas. When you buy one, it often feels rigid or slightly waxy because:
Unwashed, unprocessed fibres
The linen has not been softened or treated. This keeps the fibres strong.Natural oils left in the fabric
Raw linen contains plant oils that improve its non-stick qualities. Washing or bleaching would remove these.
Measuring spoons
A teaspoon from your cutlery drawer is not a “tsp” measuring spoon because it has no standard volume.
Here’s why:
Everyday teaspoons are designed for stirring tea or coffee, not for precision.
A drawer teaspoon might hold anywhere from 2.5 ml to 7 ml depending on style, country, and manufacturer.
A measuring tsp is fixed at 5 ml.
Lame
Pronounced like “lahm” — rhymes with calm or psalm. It comes from French, so the final -e is silent.
Many English speakers say “laym” (like lame) but bakers generally use the French pronunciation: lahm.
A lame is used to cut or slash the surface of the dough before baking and helps the rise of the bread.
While a sharp knife is suggested as a substitute, it is not a good substitute. None of my knives are that sharp, I recommend buying a lame from the start.