Gifts for the home baker: 10 things they'll use every week
A steel scraper, a basket for proofing, a pot for crackling crusts. Ten gifts for the baker in your life, from stocking filler to splurge.
Bakers are easy to please and hard to surprise. They usually own the bowls and the tins already. What they love are the small things that make a dough behave, and the one big thing they keep telling themselves they do not need.
Here are ten ideas, from stocking filler to splurge, with rough prices in kronor. With the Christmas baking season about to start, any of them will be used before New Year. If they bake bread, my guide to kneading and proofing goes nicely with the lot. If they mostly bake cakes and buns, look at the small tools first. They are the ones people forget to buy.
Guide: kneading proofing
The picks
Ten gifts for the baker
- A bench scraper (about 100 kr): A flat steel blade for cutting dough, lifting sticky loaves and clearing the counter in seconds. I use mine more than any knife.
- An oven thermometer (about 100 to 200 kr): Many home ovens run hotter or cooler than the dial says. A little thermometer hanging on the rack tells them the truth.
- A Danish dough whisk (about 150 kr): A wooden handle with a stiff wire loop that mixes heavy bread dough without clogging. It looks odd and works brilliantly.
- A banneton proofing basket (about 200 kr): A rattan basket that holds a round loaf while it rises and leaves pretty flour rings on the crust.
- A digital scale that reads single grams (about 200 to 400 kr): Baking by weight changed my bread completely. Single grams matter for salt and yeast.
- A Microplane zester (about 250 to 350 kr): For lemon zest in cakes, nutmeg in cinnamon buns and dark chocolate shaved over everything.
- Real vanilla pods: A small tube of plump pods, the treat bakers rarely buy for themselves. Split one into custard and the whole kitchen smells of Christmas.
- A cast-iron pot for bread (from about 700 kr): A heavy lidded pot traps steam around the loaf, the best home trick for a crackling crust. A Lodge is the honest choice, a Le Creuset the beautiful one.
- A baking steel (about 800 to 1,500 kr): A thick steel plate that stores heat and gives pizza and flatbreads a crisp base in a home oven. Heavy, and it will last for ever.
- A KitchenAid stand mixer (about 5,000 to 7,000 kr): It kneads brioche, whips meringue and saves their arms through the whole saffron bun season. Built to last, and lovely on the counter.
Something homemade
Give them a jar of your sourdough starter. Feed it the day before, fill a clean Weck jar halfway so it has room to grow, and close it loosely. Tie on a card with feeding instructions: equal weights of flour and water, once a week from the fridge, and the night before baking.
Add a bag of good rye flour and point them to my rye sourdough. It is a gift that keeps going for years, as long as they remember to feed it.
Recipe: sourdough bread with rye flour
Bella's tip: If they are new to sourdough, bake one loaf with them before Christmas. Watching the dough once teaches more than any recipe card, and you get to share the first warm slice.
