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Essential bread making tools for home bakers

Nothing beats the smell of freshly baked, homemade bread. Making your own bread is rewarding, can be done with only a few low cost and readily available ingredients, and the results taste far better than anything you can find on the supermarket shelves.

But bread-making is a skill that requires some practice, and it does take a bit of time and effort. There’s no doubt that having the right tools and equipment makes it much easier, and can make all the difference to the end products, too.

From basic tools to equipment that represents more of an investment, here are the bread-making essentials we think no passionate home baker should be without.

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Bench scraper

This handy tool is essential for lifting and folding dough as you work, shaping loaves and dividing dough into portions for rolls and braids. Made from sharp stainless steel, some bench scrapers also have measuring markers along the blade for extra precision. A bench scraper also proves useful when it’s time to tidy up, as you can use it to scrape excess dough off your work surface after you’ve been kneading or rolling it out.

Loaf pan

For perfectly shaped loaves, you’ll need a loaf pan. There are so many different styles and sizes available, but the standard rectangular pan is really versatile. Use it to bake sandwich loaves, challah and babkas, as well as loaf cakes like banana bread. Loaf pans can be metal, silicone, glass or ceramic, with different materials producing different results. Pans with a non-stick coating make it easier to pop your baked goods out in one piece, and are easier to clean, too.

Always refer to your recipe when choosing which sized loaf pan to use. If the pan is too big for the recipe’s volume it won’t rise enough; too small and the dough can spill over and burn.

Stand mixer and dough hook

If you love making bread, a stand mixer is a savvy investment; saving you time and effort and helping you to produce high quality, consistent results.

All our stand mixers have powerful motors (ranging from 1000-1500W), helping you to whizz through mixing and kneading tasks with absolute ease. The variable electronic speed dial gives you ultimate control and performance, even when mixing heavy doughs.

Every Kenwood mixer also comes with a high-performance dough tool as standard. Designed to help you incorporate ingredients into your mix evenly, it makes working with enriched or stickier doughs like brioche, ciabatta or focaccia much easier, and far less messy. Explore the full Chef series of stand mixers here.

Bowl scraper

This simple, inexpensive bit of kit makes a baker’s life so much easier. Typically made of flexible silicone or plastic, think of it as an extension of your hands. Use it to scrape every last bit of dough from your mixing bowl, or when shaping stickier doughs like brioche.

Bread lame

For Bake Off worthy loaves, get yourself a lame. Essentially like a very sharp razor blade, it’s used to score neat designs and cuts into your loaves.

As well as giving your loaf a rustic, artisanal finish, slashing the dough prior to baking allows steam to escape and the loaf to properly expand. By creating a controlled burst in the dough, you prevent it splitting and tearing elsewhere.

Kenwood Titanium Chef Patissier XL

Like all our stand mixers, the Titanium Chef Patissier XL is designed to offer you power and versatility, supporting you as you get creative in the kitchen. However, it’s when it comes to bread-making that this award-winning mixer really comes into its own.

There’s the 7L EasyWarm™ bowl which allows you to prove dough in a third less time than proving in a bowl, and the integrated weighing scales so you can weigh as you go. But it’s the SimpleTouch presets that make this mixer a baking game-changer. Simply select the dough proving or dough kneading presets on the easy-to-use touchscreen and the mixer takes care of the rest- no guesswork required. You can also connect the Titanium Chef Patissier XL to the Kenwood World app, so you can choose your favourite bread recipe and send the baking parameters direct to the machine.

Try your hand at baking bread

Ready to get your bake on? From simple loaves and rolls to focaccia, rye and soda breads, we’ve got a range of delicious bread recipes to inspire you.

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