There are new (to me) tools for baking! I always think there's nothing new under the sun but I stand corrected! How about you? Any new toys and tools?

I've been having fun with the KitchenAid Bread Bowl with Baking Lid. It's high quality stoneware and does a good job. Being that it has to fit the Artisan mixer, it's rather deep and narrow, and for using it as designed, baking the loaf on the lid with the bowl upended as a dome, you have a limited sized loaf. I usually bake about a pound-ish, which is too big to fit comfortably. BUT, I tried baking in the bowl itself, like I do with my terracotta banneton. Really good! What I like about it, for machine kneaded bread, is you can do the dough hook and rise and shape and bake all in the bowl. I do a preferment in a smaller bowl and transfer the dough to that between stages, to scrape down the mix/bake bowl and oil it. I might not need to oil it, but I'm used to that. Baking in the bowl, as with the banneton, gives an open crust and a molded loaf. Otherwise, it's bread. :) But the great thing is I can over-stuff it with mix-ins and not worry about over-hydration or supplementing the gluten or its "legs" in general. I did a way too wet loaf and it did fall--a quarter of an inch (i.e., barely at all and doesn't affect the crumb). Even though the bowl is really slick, the dough likes holding it much better than glass.

But then I saw the Rosti Margarethe bread bowl on sale. It's over 6 quarts and shallow x wide, with a handle and pouring spout like a batter bowl. Love at first sight! It's melamine, which is not my favorite, but on the other hand, it's light, dishwasher safe, and has a rubbery non-slip ring on the bottom. It also feels weighted in the bottom and it's not tippy.

Besides being a generally useful work bowl, I think it's going to be great for making sourdough, and anything else I knead by hand. The shape is fairly flat then dished in the center. It seems great for use like a kneading trough. And my big Polish stoneware bread bowl is 13 qt. and way too big for a single loaf! So, yesterday, I used the Rosti just as a resting place for my loaf to rise and it was great. The dough wasn't high hydration, but didn't have legs and the boule I stretched became more of a powder puff shape. The curve of the bowl, I think, kept it from spreading more and staying bread shaped and contained.

So, I also bought some 9" round silicone mats at the same sale, not for any particular purpose, but they seemed useful, perhaps for use with the springform, or to hold and move cake layers, or whatever. That tickled the algorithms and all of a sudden I was seeing silicone mat slings for transfering high hydration loaves into hot pots. Mind blown! Wowza! A friend, who uses the offspring of my starter, was just saying she didn't mind the weird creases that parchment leaves (I hate them). Her birthday is coming up, so I bought some to try, and test out.

That was the other thing with yesterday's loaf. I put the shaped dough on the mat that fits in the Staub 4 qt. Sleevendog pointed us to several years ago, which was on sale for baking in. In general, it has been a bit big for my normal loaves, but my spicy pickle bread is a little larger. I didn't have quite enough discard so compensated with flour and water, but then it was a bit tight, and without good legs. I put the ne boule shape turned powder puff on the sling mat, and set it in the middle of the Rosti bowl, and it seemed fine. It lifted right off without shifting, sticking, falling off or anything, and the whole thing went right in the not-hot pot. I do cold start covered all through, but bake at 42t°F, and wasn't sure what to with the handles, and eventually just let them fall across the dough. Nothing bad happened! I got a great oven spring dome and the handles came right up (with mitts) to lift it out of the pot, and roll it free onto the cooling rack. Fabulous results! Friend's are already on order. :)

Do you have new toys? Do tell!