Bread

Bread baking at home starts with good flour, a little patience and the right bread baking supplies. In this category you will find more than 350 products for home baking: from Swiss dark flour and proving baskets to bread lames and linen bread bags. Sunday Zopf, sourdough loaf, baguette or pretzel – this is where you put together everything you need in your own kitchen.

What is in the Bread category?

The range is split into subcategories so you can quickly find the right item:

• Flour, yeast and sourdough: in Flours & Ingredients you will find white flour, half-white flour and Swiss Ruchmehl (dark wheat flour), light spelt flour, wholemeal spelt and wheat flour, dark rye flour and coarse rye meal. For the dough: dried yeast, Lievito Madre, a sourdough starter, wheat and rye sourdough powder, baking malt and baker's starch.
• Baskets and tins: round and oval proving baskets with liners, wood-pulp bannetons with ridged or spiral patterns, and matching covers. Under bread pans you will find loaf tins for sandwich bread, baguette trays, silicone bread slings and wooden baking moulds.
• Tools: bread lames for scoring plus spare blades, dough cloths, dough dockers, baking stones with pizza peel, flour scoops, a digital precision scale for yeast and salt, and the folding FP-205 bread proofer by Brod & Taylor.
• Pretzels and lye rolls: lye pearls, ready-to-use lye solution, coarse pretzel salt and lye-resistant gloves.
• Packing and storing: paper bread bags with or without a window, and linen bread bags.

For the festive season there are also panettone and colomba moulds, plus figurines and the crown for the Swiss Three Kings cake.

Tips from our bakery

The right flour: half-white flour and Ruchmehl give you the typical Swiss everyday loaf, with Ruchmehl bringing the more robust flavour. White flour suits Zopf, sandwich bread and fine rolls. Rye and wholemeal give a denser crumb and keep the bread fresh for longer – this is where a sourdough really pays off.

Caring for your proving basket: flour the basket generously before adding the dough so it releases cleanly. After baking, knock out the leftover flour, let the basket air-dry and brush it with the cleaning brush rather than washing it.

Scoring and steam: score the loaf just before it goes into the oven, quickly and at a shallow angle, so the crust opens exactly where you want it. A well-preheated baking stone gives heat from below. Pour a little water onto a hot tray in the oven as you load the bread: the steam keeps the surface moist at first, the loaf rises better and the crust turns glossy.

Baking malt: even a small amount improves colour and flavour. How to dose it and when active malt makes sense is explained in our article Baking malt: effect, dosage and alternatives.

Learn to bake bread in Adliswil

If you would rather work the dough next to a professional, our bread courses cover Zopf, pretzels, croissants and speciality breads. They take place in our bakery in Adliswil, about 20 minutes from Zurich main station. To get started at home, try our toast bread recipe – all you need is a loaf tin.

Frequently asked questions

Which flour should I use for a simple loaf?

For a classic Swiss loaf, half-white flour or Ruchmehl is the safe choice. For more bite, replace part of it with wholemeal spelt or wheat flour.

What size proving basket do I need?

As a rule of thumb, before the final prove the dough should fill the basket about half to two-thirds full. If the basket is too big the dough spreads; if it is too small it rises over the rim.

How do I store fresh bread?

Let the bread cool completely and keep it in a linen or paper bread bag. The crust stays crisp for longer than in a plastic bag.