Sachi's Top 10 Essentials to Create Sourdough Art

This is the book I used to learn how to make sourdough. Along with watching tons of YouTube videos, watching King Arthur Facebook Live baking episodes, and poring over countless recipes, I finally settled on and grew comfortable with the Tartine Country loaf recipe. 

I'm lucky to have eaten so many delicious treats and dishes at the Tartine bakeries in San Francisco that of course I was drawn to this cookbook. It's a really inspiring read about Chad Robertson's sourdough journey and includes beautiful step-by-step photos of his sourdough-making technique.

This is a great starter kit if you are new to baking sourdough. It has a wonderfully deep banneton (proofing basket) to keep your dough from spreading out which helps with nice and tall, poofy loaves. 

The bowl scraper is a necessity for mixing, the bench scraper is helpful to shape the dough and also in cutting the proofed dough when I make my bread sculptures. It also has a flour sifter wand to evenly distribute rice flour and make your scored designs pop. It has the traditional curved lame if you are making the traditional scores.

This is a very reasonably priced Dutch oven that I use to bake my breads in. I actually flip it over and use it upside down. The dough, on parchment paper, slides into the lid easily so I don't have to worry about burning my hands or deflating the dough if I had to drop it down into a deep pot. 

I also love that I can reserve it just for my breads. I don't have to worry about the baked-on spots that were driving me crazy on my pricey enameled Dutch ovens.

I purchased these oven mitts because of an article I read that gave it top scores when compared to other mitts and gloves on the market. Because I'm constantly flipping heavy and piping hot lids and pans (500 degrees Fahrenheit), I need gloves that can withstand high heat while also allowing dexterity to grab little Dutch oven handles. 

I like that the outer surface is wipeable and I can hold pots for a longer amount of time without feeling the heat creep through. I previously had woven gloves that withstood high heat but started unraveling and wearing because of the constant wear from flipping cast iron lids. I also don't worry about getting holes in my mitts with this silicone option.

There are a lot of kitchen scales in the market, but because of my limited counter space, I wanted a scale with a low profile so I could store it filed next to my cutting boards. This one has a flat wipeable surface and since it uses common AAA batteries, I'm not worried about having to figure out replacement button batteries like other low profile scales. 

I highly recommend using a kitchen scale for building or maintaining your starter. Plus, recipes for sourdough are either in percentages or gram weights so you need a scale that can weigh accordingly.

This is my favorite sourdough tool. It allows me to make intricate scoring patterns and allows me to draw on dough as easily as a pencil. I love the sleek design and the company offers multiple styles of lames. The UFO Corbeau Lame is nice because it is waterproof and dishwasher-safe. With a smooth surface, there are fewer crevices for flour to collect. 

I have the beautiful wood UFO Zero Lame, which you should make sure to oil and condition. Wire Monkey has a new lame called the Poco that has a retractable razor. It has the feel of scoring with a naked razor but it is safer to store when not in use. 

I love supporting small businesses, and Wire Monkey Shop uses eco-friendly packaging, pays fair wages, is made in the USA, and Tyler and Bennett have always been so supportive of the sourdough community as well.

A mortar and pestle is a great tool to use if you want to use colored rice flour to decorate your loaves. I learned from Annie of Oak City Sourdough to use gel food coloring ground up with rice flour to disperse the color. 

I have this cute little ceramic set from Crate & Barrel because it was inexpensive (I asked for it for Christmas) and since I only mix up a little rice flour at a time, so it's the perfect size. I store my colored rice flour in the little restaurant condiment containers to limit plastic waste. They work perfectly!

I use Wilton's gel food coloring to color the rice flour designs for my bread because I've always used it in the past for mixing Royal icing for sugar cookies. They make vibrant colors and I like having little tubs versus squeeze bottles so I can control the amount of gel that I use. 

There's a huge array of colors to choose from and I always found them readily at my local crafting supply store. You can use it to color your water before you mix your dough if you want to create rainbow or marbled bread as well.

This is a great spray bottle for water. It allows for a continuous and very fine mist. This fine mist adheres rice flour to your bread in a thin and even coating which creates a smooth and unblemished canvas for my bread art and designs. 

I've used a couple of other spray bottles in the past with bigger droplets of water and that results in a splotchy distribution of flour which becomes prominent after the dough is baked. If I want an even background for scoring, then a fine mister is the way to go.

A rotating cake stand makes scoring your proofed dough easier and less clumsy. It allows for a quicker score too, and sometimes time is an important factor in how much oven spring you'll get during the bake (if you have ever over-proofed dough, then you know what I mean). 

This marble cake stand was a lovely splurge for me. Although I already had a rotating cake decorating stand, I was tired of having to take it out of storage and put it away after every use. I love this cake stand because it's pretty enough that I can leave it out on the counter or table.