Essential ingredients for stocking a baking pantry
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Stocking a baking pantry is a good idea if you are someone who bakes regularly or wants to learn.
There’s nothing worse than setting up to bake and you realize you’re out of flour or sugar.
That being said, in the world of online ordering, it’s a little too easy to order all the things. Maybe you get closeout deals on your baking supplies regularly. Whatever the case, if either of those scenarios are you, you can easily find yourself in a jam where you’ve got a closet full of obscure flours with no plan of how to use them.
I am so guilty of this myself! Don’t talk to me about quinoa flakes!
This is my attempt to help you define for yourself what kinds of things YOU need as a baker. From there, I’ll give you some good ideas on stocking a baking pantry including clear lists that’ll make it easy for you.
7 Tips for stocking a baking pantry
What kind of baker are you?
Let’s start at the beginning. If you’re someone who wants to make cake, your pantry is going to look completely different than someone only concerned with sourdough baking. Likewise, if you’re committed to gluten-free vegan baking, there are things in your pantry that will not show up in other people’s.
It’s important to think about that when you go about trying to define what kinds of ingredients you should have on hand at all times in your kitchen.
I myself dabble in a lot of things, so I’ve found it’s actually easier to define what kind of baker I am by the things that I don’t bake. For instance, I am not a gluten-free expert. The few gluten-free things I bake don’t require special flours outside of nut flours, which I use for a multitude of things anyhow.
Types of bakers you might be:
- Sourdough artisan bread lover: stock flours, mix-in ingredients like nuts and dried fruit.
- Pizza queen: 00 flour, toppings in the fridge and pantry.
- Cake master: cake flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, butter and eggs, sprinkles, food coloring.
- Macaron maven: almond flour, eggs, food coloring, butter, powdered and granulated sugar.
- Chocoholic: dark chocolate, white chocolate, chocolate chips, cocoa.
- Gluten-free gal: gluten free flours, xanthan gum.
- Vegan virtuoso: coconut oil, flaxseed for egg replacement.
- Everyday bread maker: yeast, flours, mix-in ingredients.
- Whole grain disciple: whole grain berries like rye, wheat, oat groats or rolled oats.
Do certain seasons of the year change your baking?
If you’re someone who bakes a lot at Christmas, be sure you plan ahead to stock your pantry with all the things you need. I bake at least 12 kinds of cookies at Christmas and any more I can get away with in the time frame. Plus gingerbread houses, plus what I make with my students, plus Christmas eve Vanocka, plus Christmas morning kolache… You get it. It’s a lot!
I’ve learned over many years to make a spreadsheet of all the recipes I’m planning and plot out how much of basic ingredients that takes up. Doing this seems tedious, but I save my files from year to year, and my repeated recipes are already accounted for.
What this does is save me from underbuying things like powdered sugar or worse forgetting a crucial ingredient that I really only use this time of year. Molasses I’m looking at you!
Give yourself time to observe what you use
The biggest mistake I think you can make in stocking a baking pantry is to buy everything in bulk.
In reality, you only need to buy things in bulk that you use on a regular basis.
But how do you know what you do use on a regular basis?
Give yourself one to two months after you’ve decided what type of baking you want to do. In that time, buy just what you need for all the projects you want to do. This should be enough time to figure out the things that you’re using all the the time every time.
There’s always going to be outlier ingredients you’ll use less frequently, but knowing the ingredients that you always need will be a huge time saver.
Only buy baking ingredients you like and will use
While baking ingredients (especially dry-storage ones) are LESS perishable than many items in the kitchen, they do not last forever.
It’s easy to get suckered into good sales for nuts and flours and spices and any number of other things. But before you go and buy 6 boxes of quinoa flakes, ask yourself if you think you can use them in a reasonable time frame.
On the flip side, there has NEVER been a piece of chocolate that’s not been used in my house!
Local or online?
Think about where you’ll be purchasing your supplies for stocking your baking pantry.
If you buy locally, you can often buy smaller amounts. On the other hand, if you buy online, sometimes it’s worth it price wise to buy bigger quantities of items to help justify the price of shipping.
I’m lucky where I live as there are places for me to get whole spices and whole organic grains. Thus far, I’ve not had to buy my rye or hard wheat online since I can get it at the natural foods store near me. Last year, I split a 50 pound bag of 00 flour for pizza and pasta from Central Milling. Holy cow I love that flour, but the shipping price is not something to pay for every day!
Still, there are some things that I absolutely get online. I’ve learned that Amazon is excellent for many whole spices but not so great for flours. It’s pretty fun to look for small farmers near you who might have what you’re looking for!
Think about how to store things in your baking pantry
I do not have a Pinterest beautiful pantry! I readily admit I need some help in going through and reorganizing all the things.
I only mention thinking about how you want to store things because how you store things could be determined by how you bake.
I have my all-purpose flour, sugar, and oats in clear glass jars on one shelf. I keep them filled as necessary and they are front and center on one shelf in my closet. On the other hand, I keep brown sugar in its original bag, rubber banded when it’s open. Since I live in Colorado, brown sugar will dry up faster than I can use it. Keeping it in bags saves me from wasting brown sugar.
This is another thing to pay attention to over time. The things you use often, consider getting a nice jar or a modular stackable container or basket that could help unclutter your storage.
Think about storage zones
Your baking pantry is not limited to a pantry closet or cupboards in your kitchen. We also store baking supplies in cool areas or a fridge or freezer.
Outside of things that’ll go bad quickly (fridge only items like milk), think about putting the things that you use the most in the most accessible places. Here’s some places you can store baking supplies:
- Pantry closet or cupboards: flours, sugars, baking powder, nut butters, soda, spices, nuts and grains you’ll use quickly
- Basement: bulk grains, preserves
- Refrigerator: eggs, dairy products, citrus, butter
- Freezer: nuts, butter, instant yeast, seeds
Build your own baking pantry
Here are some categories of pantry items I’m never without. Look at the category headings to see if it applies to you or not. From there, you can easily see what kinds of things you should be stocking for yourself.
Must have baking ingredients
- Flours: All-purpose (unbleached organic), Bread flour (unbleached, organic).
- Sugars: Granulated, light brown, powdered, maple syrup, honey.
- Leaveners: instant yeast, baking powder, baking soda.
- Spices (These are my essentials I buy mine whole and grind fresh, but you may do differently): cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, clove, cardamom, sweet paprika, Italian seasoning.
- Nuts and seeds: Almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, poppyseeds.
- Chocolate: 70% bars, Dutch process cocoa.
- Flavorings: Vanilla extract or paste, almond extract, salt (fine sea salt, kosher).
Special diets or health focused baking ingredients
- Dried fruits: dates, cranberries, raisins, apricots.
- Whole grains: rolled oats, hard red wheat berries, rye berries, soft wheat berries.
- Gluten free flours: almond flour, hazelnut flour, chickpea, gluten free all-purpose, potentially xanthan gum.
- Flaxseed for egg allergies or vegan baking.
Perishables for the fridge
- Eggs: Never waste eggs, especially these days!
- Dairy: milk, cream, buttermilk, yogurt, cheese
- Citrus: always have some lemon, but maybe also lime, orange
- Butter: buy butter on sale, keep 2 pounds in the fridge, then freeze the rest.
Fun baking decorations and flavorings to have that you don’t need but you might want anyway
Buy these in small quantities unless you use them frequently.
- Sprinkles: naturally colored if possible
- Pearl sugar
- Pretzel salt
- Everything bagel seasoning
- Sesame
- Alcohols**: rum, brandy, whiskey.
**I have a few liqueurs I’ll either make homemade or buy in small quantities for special projects since I do not drink. The exception is the pricey bottle of kirsch I bought that I’ll have for the next few years. Most cherry liqueurs have that “tastes like cough syrup” vibe that real kirschwasser does not have. Since I don’t live in Germany, the big honking bottle is my only option.
What can’t you live without for your baking?
