Budget Sourdough: 20+ Tool Swaps for Amazing Bread

Sourdough gear is fun. But when you’re just getting started, most of it is totally optional.

Don’t let fancy equipment hold you back from making amazing bread.

In this article, you’ll discover:

• The top community-voted alternatives to expensive Dutch ovens, bannetons, and more
• Clever DIY solutions for proofing, scoring, and storing your bread
• My personal experiment baking bread with absolutely no specialized tools
• The one tool that’s actually worth investing in (and why)
• Budget-friendly tips to stretch your sourdough dollars

Let’s get into it!

Most Popular Tool Swaps (Community Favorites)

The sourdough community really showed up when I asked for budget swaps and alternatives!

I have a lovely list of ideas up next, but I also filmed a short video showing some of my own favorite swaps:

Alright, let’s get into the great budget alternatives!

1. Dutch Oven Alternatives

• Black & white speckled roasting pans (like this one that’s less than $30)
• Two loaf pans (one as a lid)

Note: my friend Joselyn from A Friend In Knead recently posted a side-by-side experiment of baking with one loaf pan vs two. She found she actually preferred just one loaf pan! Check it out and consider testing out both methods.

• Oven-safe stockpot
• Loaf pan with foil tent

Make sure whatever you use is oven-safe (doesn’t have any plastic parts) and has a lid to trap the steam.

2. Banneton Substitutes

• Glass bowls lined with kitchen towels
• Cereal bowls with cotton cloth
• Tupperware bowls with flour-dusted towels
• Dollar store plastic webbed hot dog baskets lined with a flour sack towel
• Colanders with tea towels

Note: A towel-lined bowl essentially does the same thing as a banneton: the bowl supports the shape, and the floured towel helps soak up a bit of surface moisture (and prevents sticking).

3. Dough Covering Options

• Shower caps (reusable, 100 for $1.25 at Dollar Tree)
• Dinner plates on top of glass bowls
• Tea towels

More Great Community Swaps

4. Starter Container Ideas

• Mason jars (wide mouth)
• Pickle jars and sauerkraut jars
• Talenti ice cream containers
• Restaurant soup containers (the deli containers)

5. Scoring Tools

• Box cutters
• Single-edge razor blades (100-pack)
• X-acto knife
• Scissors
• Serrated knife

6. Starter Mixing Tools

• Chopsticks (community favorite!)
• Fork
• Wooden spoon
• Butter knife
• Teaspoon

Clever DIY Solutions

7. DIY Proofing Environments

• Styrofoam cooler with temperature-controllable seed mat
• Microwave as proofing drawer
• Electric throw blanket
• Over-the-range microwave with stove light on low
• Seed warming mat (usually less than $10)

Tip: Before buying a proofing box, I used my oven! I put a cup of boiling water inside and refreshed it every so often, as needed. Many find their oven light alone provides enough heat, but mine didn’t.

8. Storage Solutions

• Cake stand with lid instead of bread bags (this is my new favorite way to store bread!)
• Dinner plate on top of glass bowls
• Rolling trolley for equipment storage (for small kitchens)

9. Other Smart Substitutions

• Grill gloves instead of oven mitts
• Silicone spatula instead of dough scraper
• Bundt pans for special shapes
• Wet hands instead of water mister

My “No-Gear” Loaf Experiment

To really test the limits of budget sourdough baking, I decided to make bread with absolutely zero specialized equipment.

Here’s how it went in a nutshell:

I asked ChatGPT to convert my usual sourdough bread recipe from grams to cups. Here’s what it came up with:

• 4 cups bread flour
• 1 ⅓ cups water 
• 1/2 cup starter
• 2 tsp salt

Let’s just say… it came up short. 1 ⅓ cups was definitely not enough water. I added a few more splashes, but even then, the dough felt dry and stiff the whole way through.

But I was committed to the no-tools sourdough challenge… even though I admit I pulled out my scale at one point to check if the water measurements were accurate.

Here’s what I used instead of fancy tools:

• Bread bags = cake stand
• Scale = measuring cups
• Danish dough whisk = fork
• Water mister = my hands
• Bench scraper = my hands
• Banneton = bowl lined with a kitchen towel
• Bread sling = parchment paper
• Bread lame = serrated knife
• Dutch oven = oven-safe stockpot

And here’s how I made the loaf:

1. I mixed everything together with a fork in a glass bowl. Right away, I could tell it needed more water, so I added three unmeasured splashes and called it good.
2. I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30–60 minutes before doing my first set of stretch and folds. The dough was so stiff that it was hard to get the full rotation of stretch and folds in.
3. I did a total of 4 sets of stretch and folds, 30 minutes apart, then let it rest for the remainder of bulk fermentation.
4. The bulk fermentation took about 11 hours at 75°F (24°C)—much longer than normal due to the lower hydration.
5. For shaping, I flicked water on my counter and used my hands to pull the dough into a ball, then did a double caddy clasp after resting.
6. I lined a glass bowl with a kitchen towel, lightly floured it, and refrigerated the dough overnight.
7. Next day, I baked in my preheated stockpot with two ice cubes for steam: 30 minutes covered, 15 minutes uncovered, and a final 5-10 minutes directly on the rack for extra browning.

The result? A good-looking loaf with solid flavor. The crumb wasn’t as open as usual, but it had great oven spring.

Overall, it was good sandwich bread—proving you don’t need fancy tools to make decent sourdough.

One Tool Worth Buying

Let me just say this loud and clear: I missed my scale.

Measuring cups are fine in a pinch, and some people only ever use them.

But for me, weighing the ingredients takes out the guesswork. It makes baking predictable. Plus, fewer dishes to wash!

If you’re going to invest in one tool, make it a scale.

You can get one, like this Amazon brand one, for around $10.

If you can’t afford it, please email me, and I’ll send you one (I beg you not to abuse this offer if you can afford it, but I do want to make this tool accessible to everyone).

Even More Ways to Stretch Your Sourdough Budget 

• Buy flour in bulk – It’s cheaper per pound and great if you bake often.
• Don’t waste discard – Use your discard in waffles, crackers, tortillas, and more.
• Thrift stores and flea markets – Great places to find baking supplies at a fraction of the cost.

Related: What’s hiding in thrift stores? Sourdough bakers are finding gold

Conclusion

You can make amazing bread with what you already have. Fancy tools can make things easier and maybe even prettier, but they’re not required to make sourdough bread. 

If you’re on a budget or just getting started and don’t want to go all-in on pricey gear, don’t let a lack of equipment hold you back.

The bread doesn’t care what tools you use!