My (Non-)Bannetons
A while ago I wrote about brotforms, the German coiled cane proofing baskets that leave a spiral pattern on the crust of your loaf. What if you don’t have a brotform, or don’t want that spiral pattern? A banneton, French cousin to the brotform, is a woven wicker basket that usually has a linen fabric liner sewn into it.
A basket provides support for a proofing loaf; the linen liner reduces sticking and yields a smoother crust than an unlined basket. While I do proof most of my boules and batards in linen-lined baskets, they’re not official bannetons. Instead, I use loose pieces of natural unbleached linen that I lay inside of whatever basket or other vessel I want to use use for proofing. This works very well and has quite a few advantages over sewn-in liners:
It’s flexible. Any basket or bowl can be used; you don’t need special “proofing baskets.” I have been known to use decorative wicker or sisal baskets; the basket from my salad spinner; plastic chip baskets; and salad and mixing bowls made from wood, ceramic, plastic, or metal. Whatever size you need, you probably already have it around the house. Of course if you already have a brotform, you can lay a linen liner in that too, if you feel like it.
Sticking issues are reduced. Sometimes a sticky dough wants to glue itself even to floured linen. Being able to invert a loaf-and-linen unit out of the basket and onto your baking peel, and then gently coaxing the fabric away from the dough, is infinitely easier than awkwardly trying to pry a recalcitrant boule out of a basket.
The linen is easier to flour. Do you have trouble flouring the sides of your proofing baskets because the sides are too steep? Try this: lay a piece of free linen flat across the top of the basket, flour it in that horizontal position, then place the shaped loaf in and let the loaf conform the linen to the basket.
The linen is washable. Although I don’t usually wash my linens, I can do so easily if I need to. When the linen is sewn to the basket, nothing doing. (Generally I just brush away excess flour and hang the linen to dry before storing.)
It’s inexpensive. One yard of 54-inch-wide fabric makes six 18-inch squares, a good size for most uses. I couldn’t find any natural linen (you want undyed, to be food-safe) in my local fabric stores, so I ordered from fabrics-store.com, at about $15 for a yard, including shipping. (I washed it and sewed a zigzag machine stitch around the cut edges of each piece before using them.) And if for some reason you don’t have a single suitable bowl or basket lying around the house, you can get wicker baskets for a couple of bucks at most craft supply stores.
So there you have it, the frugal baker’s version of the banneton. Now go forth and proof!
Susan,
whoa are those all of your proofing basket? They are gorgeous! Thanks again for the tips, this really help a lot. I made your sweet potato bread to day, in fact I’m eating it right now. OMG, it’s so delicious…. it’s chewy, and the crust also very crusty. I actually mix the technique from sweet potato and the norwich. I proofed one of them in my brotform, I guess it was a bit too wet, so it didn’t slide nicely when I transfered it to my peel. I will use linen next time if my dough is a bit sticky. Thanks Susan, I know I can always rely on your recipes and the tips too!
The first photograph is gorgeous!
What a fantastic post. I don’t have a brotform and though I do think it would be really neat to have one, my baskets and mixing bowls work just swimmingly with linen draped in them. When I’m proofing really wet doughs I like to dust mine with rye flour – I feel like it’s less likely to absorb it so readily.
Hi there, apart from cooking, I like baking bread too, lovely to find your blog. Cheers, Janet
Now do I feel stupid…
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve removed the folded up linens from the BANNETON AND BROTFORM pile to flour the darn things and never once did it occur to me to line them with the linens. DOH!!!!
Nice tips… Pretty crazy what some stores charge for bannetons and proofing baskets.
I especially like the comment about stickiness. It SUCKS when that happens and using removable linen really helps.
Thanks for this post – I’ve been wondering how important the form was to structure, and now you’ve made me see that some experimenting with different types of baskets is fine. Whew!
I’d love to know if unbleached muslin could be used in place of linen . . .
I don’t even actually own an authentic banneton because they are so darn expensive and I love my homemade ones for all the reasons you have listed. I go to the equivalent of the Sally Ann and buy all the nice bread baskets in all different shapes for around 50 cents. I even found the linen napkins there that are the perfect size for doing small couches or fitting the bannetons. Who needs preofessional equipment? Your baskets are beautiful!
Great post, Susan! I love the tip about putting the dough on the horizontally floured linen and let its weight lower it gently into the basket.
Thanks all, I’m glad I’m not the only one doing proofing baskets by the seat of my pants.
Sandy, yes, muslin is a good stand-in for linen, as are cotton napkins and tea towels. Just make sure it’s well-floured as I think cotton might have a bit more tendency to stick than linen (or I might just be making that up).
Great ideas. I spotted a lettuce spinner among the “bannetons”! I love the idea of multi tasking kitchen items. Great use of time and money and space!
Pane al cioccolato II « Toxo Bread on January 19 2009 at 09:06 pm:
[...] other major change was to proof it in a makeshift proofing basket, aptly discussed by Susan at Wild Yeast. I sprinkled flour on top of linen that lined a [...]