Two New Kitchen Gadgets

(and how I store them)

If you’re like me, you are very discerning about what new kitchen gadgets you let into your home. Like who has space for more stuff?

Much less stuff you use once a year, right?

However, my fellow sourdough friends, Denisse and Evon both bought new gadgets that feed into my high-starch baking hobby. So, of course, I ordered them for myself.

So I’m sharing them here.

And giving you my thoughts so far.

Oh, yeah, and how I manage to store them.

What new kitchen gadgets did I buy, you ask?

A bread slicer to help guide even slices for all the homemade bread I make. Bread slicer is sort of a misnomer in my opinion.

Because I am still the bread slicer. The gadget just holds the loaf in place while I supply the muscle with a knife.

A cast iron tortilla press to help me get flour tortillas thinner than I can accomplish with a rolling pin.

Recipes I Used

Fist of all, you know I love my lazy sourdough recipe, but this latest purchase inspired me to try a new recipe for sandwich bread. Still from Ultimate Food Geek, this recipe is Simple Sourdough Sandwich Bread.

More about that in a bit.

For the tortillas, I used the homemade flour tortillas recipe I posted here.

Bread Slicer

I ordered this bread slicer from Amazon for $15. That low price is a dead give away that the gadget will not be doing the work. You will.

The reason Evon purchased it in the first place, and why I followed suit, is because baking bread in a Dutch oven gives a very hard crust. Which is delicious. And hard to slice into anything the size you might want for toast or a grilled cheese sammy.

But the size of this gadget is for narrow loaves.

In order to slice bread from the Dutch oven, I had to cut the loaf in half.

This is why I decided to try the new recipe for sandwich bread. The slices are nice and uniform and just about the right width for actual sammies.

How do I know you ask? I immediately made myself a grilled cheese, of course.

My honest opinion: Using this gadget eliminates the need for a cutting board, so one less thing to clean.

It easily comes apart for cleaning and storage. And speaking of storage, the slicer comes with its own net bag.

If you’re looking for a nice guide to slice, this is your product. If you need a heavy duty actual slicing machine, you’re looking at a price range closer to $100.

Tortilla Press

Much like my reason for baking my own bread, tortillas have become expensive and have quite a lot of ingredients.

Oh. And they don’t really taste all that good.

But rolling them out? Yikes, not my super power.

So when Denisse mentioned she had purchased a tortilla press and they aren’t too expensive, I was onboard.

I purchased an 8″ cast iron press from Amazon for $18.

The idea of this press is to take your tortilla dough ball, flatten it out and then cook on a skillet.

Well, I saw where one ingenious person used the cast iron press to cook her tortillas on.

So she places her ball on a greased press, presses it down for about 10 seconds, opens the press, flips the tortilla and continues to cook.

I tried this method and while it worked okay, my tortillas turned out stiff and tough. I’m not sure if I messed up the dough or what.

So I’m a happy press customer, but still finessing this.

Kitchen Gadget Storage

Are these two new gadgets worth the real estate they require in my kitchen?

Yes, they are.

The bread slicer slips into a net bag and I hang it on a hook in my pantry with aprons.

The cast iron tortilla press’s handle unscrews easily so I lay it flat in the drawer below my oven.

Wrap Up

Do you have experience with either of these gadgets you can weigh in on?

Any other gadgets you have tried and we need to know about? Let us know.

Thank you for being here today. May God bless you and yours for a wonderful week ahead.