I’m upping my bread baking game in 2025 with these 5 affordable gadgets and apps
There’s nothing like a warm piece of home-made bread with a drizzle of butter: absolute heaven. However, making your own bread is not always heavenly.
Luckily, there are some great gadgets and apps available to take your bread baking game to the next level, and I’ve tried many of them. So if your New Year’s resolution is to master the art of making perfect loaves – without a bread maker – then you’ve come to the right place.
These gadgets and apps won’t make you a bread master overnight. It can take some time and practice to perfect the art of bread baking, and in the meantime, you may end up with some sunburnt tiger loaves, soft bloomers, and baguettes that are compact enough to take to the battlefield.
However, they will do some of the work for you by proofing, kneading and slicing your homemade bread – and giving you some inspiration for what to prepare next. So put on your apron, it’s time to bake…
1. App inspiration
Let’s start at the beginning, okay? You want to start making bread, but need recipes to try or inspiration. There are many cooking websites and apps out there, but there are a few that really stand out when it comes to baking and bread.
3 quick break tips
1. Perfection proofing
When using the proofer for a standard white bloomer, I set the minimum to 30 and the maximum to 30.1, and place my dough (in a bowl covered with cling film) in it for at least two hours. Once your dough has doubled in size, take it out and you can easily fold the proofer into a cupboard. Alternatively, you can place the risen dough in the refrigerator overnight, which improves the taste!
2. Knead your dough
When kneading a white flour dough in the Aucma, I turn it on to setting two for about five minutes.
3. Don’t weigh the bowl!
Make sure you put your bowl (or whatever you’re weighing the ingredients in) on the scale sprucet, then set it to zero so that the weight of the bowl is not included in your ingredients.
First there is To get upan app perfect for those who want to learn how to make sourdough bread. While some recipes are available for free, this app’s main features are locked behind a pretty reasonable subscription: $3.99 / £3.99 / AU $5.99 per month, $14.99 / £14.99 / AU $29.99 per year, or a one-off payment of $19.99/£19.99/AU$22.99.
Not only does this app contain many recipes for sourdough and other breads, but the paid version also lets you schedule reminders to feed your sourdough starter, access recipes from other users, and estimate how long your dough will need to rise based on factors like hydration , salt and temperature. However, if you’re just starting out, there are free resources for making a sourdough starter and folding and shaping dough.
If you’re less concerned about sourdough, check it out Malleable. This is also a subscription service, but there are 50 recipes available for free, including recipes for bocce, ciabattas, baguettes and more.
Kneady Pro’s subscription costs are a bit confusing, but the current offer is £1 (about $1.27 / AU$1.98) per week for three months, £1.61 (about $2.05 / AU$3 .18) per week for a month, or £0.58 ($0.74 / AU$1.15) per week for a year. This unlocks over 500 professional recipes, a ton of baking tutorials, and even the ability to ask the recipe author any questions you may have.
2. Accurate kitchen scale
You have your recipe and now you need to measure everything. This may seem very basic, but a good kitchen scale is crucial in my opinion – when baking bread and anything else you cook.
While traditional kitchen scales can do the job, electronic scales are often more accurate and don’t require constant resetting. If you have a slightly shaky electronic kitchen scale, it’s worth considering replacement or checking the batteries.
Fortunately, a good scale doesn’t cost the earth and they don’t have to be super luxurious. I recommend the Accuweight 201 digital kitchen scale from Amazonwhich has a suggested retail price of $24.99 / £11.99 / AU$29.44 and will do the job well.
Weighing your ingredients incorrectly will have a big impact on your dough, making everything else much more difficult.
3. A stand mixer with dough hook attachment
A stand mixer isn’t essential for making bread, but if you have a recipe that requires kneading dough, a stand mixer with a dough hook will do the job. a lot of easier.
I recently got this Aucma 6.5 liter stand mixer from Amazon (for $169.99 / £129.99 / about AU$257), with a whisk, beater and dough hook attachment. This isn’t a super fancy stand mixer, but it does the job very well, is very easy to clean and has suction cups on the bottom so it doesn’t slide on your countertop.
If you want something more professional (and expensive), I recommend the Kenwood Titanium Chef Bakerprobably the only mixer you’ll ever need, but it’s quite large and costs £529.99 (about $672 / AU$1,046).
4. A handy proofer
When I was little, my mother would put a towel over her bread dough and put it in the dryer to rise. While this method works, it can be temperamental, so it’s worth buying a proofing machine if you want to make dough that needs to rise/rise.
When I decided I needed a proofer (because it’s winter and my old Victorian house isn’t the best environment for proofing), I was concerned about the cost, but then I found my secret weapon.
This Versatile dough proofing machine from Molgayol costs $39.99 / £39 / AU$82 on Amazon and has been my bread making savior. Now it doesn’t look exactly like the pictures, but it works.
Essentially it’s a yellow, foldable box (kind of like a picnic cooler bag) that comes with a heating pad, thermometer and temperature controller. Simply place the heating pad together with the thermometer at the bottom of the box, plug it in and then set the controller to the desired maximum and minimum temperatures.
5. An electric carving knife
You’ve baked your bread and it’s cooled – so it’s time to see if your hard work has paid off.
While a standard bread knife can cut bread with no problem, if, like me, you make an absolute mess with a bread knife – with everyone getting a different sized slice – you can make your life easier with an electric carving knife.
An electric carving knife is not essential, but can be a useful kitchen gadget, especially at Christmas. I’m a fan of this one Russel Hobbs that’s just £18.99 (about $24.16 / AU$37.57). Make sure you watch your fingers!