Reddit reviews Norpro Stainless Steel Scraper/Chopper

Only in the most dire circumstances. I almost always keep one of these tucked under the bottom right side of my board. For $6 I have all the scooping power of a Chinese cleaver while using any knife and I'm never damaging my edge.

yeah, it's just a bench knife. Maybe it has a sharpened edge, which wouldn't be too hard to do, but it's definitely just a bench knife.

Most of our gifts were replacements or upgrades of things we already owned. A really cheap and awesome gift we got was this stainless steel scraper, which makes it so much easier to transfer food from a cutting board to a pot/pan. We also got a matching set of this luggage belt with a TSA lock--I actually gifted one to my husband years ago, but we used this as an opportunity to replace his now worn-down belt. We also replaced our kitchen scale with this Amazon Basics one, which works really well. Another Amazon Basics item we received was this paper shredder, which is a kickass workhorse of a machine.
One of the first gifts we got was a Corelle dish set that I LOVE--it's so much lighter and more durable than the stoneware set we were using. We also replaced our silverware set with an Oneida set that we both picked out, which was a very sweet and meaningful experience. We already have a nice Oneida silverware set, but it belonged to my husband's late mother, and he wanted to retire it so it wouldn't take any more wear & tear.
Those are all gifts that were my hands-down favorite things we received. We were also able to buy two expensive items off our registry thanks to Amazon's completion discount. We purchased a Sonos soundbar and a Miele vacuum that were absolutely worth every penny we spent on them!

Temperatures would be helpful, if you don't have one, get an oven thermometer and make sure the oven is at the temperature it says it is.

The next thing would be, your loaves appear quite white in the photos. Are you using a flour blend for the final dough? It may just be the pictures, but it looks like you're using only white flour. Whole wheat and rye, I've found, tend to soak up more moisture and the original country loaf recipe calls for 100 g of whole wheat.

1. If you aren't used to higher hydration dough it may seem more moist than what you're used to. But you seem to have some gummy issues in your bread, which suggests to me you aren't getting proper oven spring/improper rise times.
   
   
2. I stop bulk fermentation when the dough appears poofy and is still springy. For me, this usually happens around the 3-4 hour mark as the book says.
   
   
3. My loaves came out similarly for a long time. The oven spring just wasn't happening. When I started using a dutch oven (with lid for first 20 minutes) it completely changed the end product. Using a pizza stone just doesn't cut it. I don't put any water in my oven anymore, I just pre-heat the oven with the d.o. inside, wait about 10 minutes after the oven says it's pre-heated, take out the dutch oven, put the dough directly in, put on the lid, place in oven and halfway through remove the lid.
   
   
4. This might be a gluten formation issue. When you're folding, does the dough start to become more elastic and pull together? When I'm doing final shaping, I don't flour the surface, but I do flour my hands a little (light dusting). Sprinkling flour on top of the boule works well, too. Just be careful about flour getting into the seams on the bottom. Using a dough scraper works really well to keep the surface tension when transferring the dough.
   
   
5. I don't own bannetons. I use some older kitchen towels (that don't give off lint). I place the towels in wide bowls, sprinkle generously with flour and place the dough in there. It works great.
   
   Here are some shots of my own bread:
   
   

• Picture1
  
  
• Picture2 (note that this isn't a crumb shot halfway through the loaf, it makes it appear much flatter than it was)
  
  
• Picture3 (a crumb pic closer to the center of the loaf, but not quite.... ate it too fast)

It never pops up on the "handy kitchen gadget" lists people come up with, but I would be lost without my board scraper.

I use my bench blade ALL the time. I bake a lot of pies and tarts, really couldn't do without. I use it anytime I use the cutting board to cut more than a tiny amount - find it easier to scoop up the chopped things than with my knife. It's invaluable in dealing with the aftermath of baking, use it to scrape and scoop the extra flour and dough into the sink.

I didn't have one at first but really would not want to do without. It is one of those tools I have an odd affection for, enough that I admit I sharpened the edge, and use it enough I recently resharpened it (not knife edge sharp, wouldn't cut paper).

I finally realized I was being silly in not getting a bowl scraper. Same thing: why didn't I get one sooner?

Writing this makes me realize i should just go order the danish dough whisk I've been eyeing forever. Like for years.

A suggestion: Don't get this kind: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000SSZ4Q4
Get a bench scraper with a solid handle, not one that is simply rolled over metal. I got that first and the rolled hollow one invariably collects crud in it or retains a few drops of water that get on my hands as I work with pastry dough. Eventually I got one with a solid plastic handle (that's the one I sharpened).

Make sure you are removing the two filler plates so the bag sits below the seal bar. Then I place a pastry scraper behind the seal bar. This creates a ramp from the bottom of the chamber to the top edge of the seal bar. This helps from keeping the bag from kinking and allow the air to escape.

Another kitchen tool

I did edit it. I had to think about it for a moment.

I've never used a potato ricer mainly because I'm too cheap to buy one. Yes, it does result in a slightly lumpy end product, but I don't make gnocchi often enough to care. I just mash with the usual 'murrican potato masher.

I do the flour addition in a big bowl, and keep kneading. The flour soaks up water from the potato (I boil mine, btw) and will form a dough as you knead. That's what makes it difficult - adding flour won't make the dough less sticky. You have to really mix/knead it to assess how much progress you've made. There's really no endpoint here - if you read around, some recipes ask for quadruple the amount of flour that the flour-stingiest recipes do. My guess is it depends on the exact amount of potato you have, the type of potato you're using, and your personal tolerance to stickiness. Obviously, the problem is that the more flour you use, the heavier your gnocchi will be. That said, noodles are basically all flour and everybody loves noodles, soooooo... do whatever you want.

I've never used oil. I have, however, used a bench scraper to help move the dough around. http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-577-Stainless-Scraper-Chopper/dp/B000SSZ4Q4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1372134408&sr=8-2&keywords=dough+scraper
I'll leave most of the dough in a big mixing bowl and work with a fist-sized hunk at a time, generously flouring my work station. Work with a light touch; it helps keep things from sticking too badly. Your hands will still be a potato-crusted mess by the end, but at least your table/countertop will be okay.

Also you can add a raw egg or two help bind things together. I've tried both ways (with or without) and typically do the egg thing now. I don't think it affects the final product noticeably but it does make it much easier to knead.

Finally - the "gnocchi" texture I chase in my dreams is, sadly, based on something I had on a cruise ship. It was my first time having gnocchi ever, and they incredibly light. Like, melt-in-your-mouth sort of light. I think, after heavy experimentation, that those gnocchi were likely the bastard child of food + chemical leavening agents, but I could be wrong. After all, what do I know? I'm just an Asian guy making gnocchi from cookbooks and random food websites.