The Baker's Dozen Kit
Neatly packed in one box are 13 items that can get you baking sourdough immediately – and continue baking it forever. This package debunks the myth that the secrets of great bread are out of your reach. Each component has been carefully selected based on years of experience to take all the guesswork – and legwork – out of baking.
Includes the starter, specialist baking sheet, two calico-lined proving baskets, baker’s lame, bread flour, spray bottle and lots more. Below is an explanation of each item. The only thing you need to provide is an oven, some patience and a little muscle-power.
NOTE: If this is a gift please be aware the starter needs to be refrigerated within 7 days and fed within 14 days. Please ensure your delivery date accommodates these timings.
Delivery within 3-5 working days of ordering
1. The starter
Your starter, or mother, is the magical ingredient that will set your sourdough apart from ordinary loaves. A living culture of natural yeasts that provides the leavening effect instead of bakers' yeast. Use half (300g) with every bake and simply replace what you take out with 200g flour and 100g water. The starter stays in your fridge - in the convenient lidded bowl provided.
2. The specialist baking sheet
Sourdough is baked directly on a flat specialist baking sheet, rather than in a bread tin. This heavy-duty non-stick sheet - as used in most commercial sourdough bakeries - fits neatly in your oven and provides the lift that will ensure you bake towering loaves. Completely flat on three sides to make sliding loaves on an off a breeze.
3. Calico-lined proving baskets
Your sourdough will spend a long time proving, or rising, and hence needs proper baskets. These high-quality wicker baskets, lined with raw calico, are purpose-built for the task and, like everything else, should last forever. The kit comes with two, which allows you to make two loaves at once, which we find to be the best approach.
4. Ovenproof ramekin
This fine ceramic ramekin sits in the bottom of the oven filled with water, which evaporates as you cook, further increasing the humidity to improve the crust.
5. Flour scoop
Handy, especially if you start buying flour in bulk, but even with smaller bags, will save you flouring the entire kitchen when baking.
6. Plastic scraper
This flexible plastic pastry scraper is perfect for removing very sticky dough from the board when kneading - a simple but surprisingly useful tool as found in all professional bakeries.
7. Bread flour
Crumb's own combination of very strong Canadian bread flour, a lighter white bread flour and about 10 per cent strong wholemeal flour for a loaf that will be light, but with a stoneground edge.
8. Baker’s lame
An exceptionally sharp scalpel that you will use to score the top of your loaf, to give it the distinctive splits and patterns you see on the crust of classic sourdough. As well as looking great, these help the loaf rise evenly as it cooks.
9. Spray bottle
Used to increase the humidity of your oven with a mist of water, which will improve the quality of your crust, or to spray directly on the loaf before baking if you want seeds to stick to the crust.
10. Starter flour
This plain strong bread flour is what you will use to recharge your starter, meaning it is ready for your next bake.
11. Semolina
Not for mixing into the dough, but for lining the bread board when you turn the loaf out of the basket, making it easier to slide the uncooked loaf onto the sheet; and providing a layer of insulation, so the loaf won’t not burn.
12. Cotton towel
Nothing fancy, but a towel is needed to drape over your proving baskets to stop the loaves drying out during proving. It is good to have one reserved for bread so you don’t have to use dirty dish cloths!
13. Spelt Flour
After much experimentation Crumb has settled on a recipe with a 75g ration of spelt. The spelt adds a lovely nutty flavour, but also acts to bind the loaf, allowing it to absorb higher water content.
