December 22, 2018 - 6:47am
Banneton: naked or with linen?
In the videos I've been watching, some bakers proof in a banneton (heavily) dusted with bread flower (or rice flour or cornmeal) and some line the banneton with linen and dust that. Most new bannetons come with a linen liner having an elastic rim.
For sticky high-hydration doughs, which would be better? Intuitively it seems naked would be, but my intuition in these matters is undeveloped.
(Newbie? Moi?)
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In my experience, linen and unlined cane bannetons & brotforms perform equally well (or poorly at first) for high hydration doughs. The choice between them depends more on what size and shape of bread you're baking. Both require generous dusting prior to first use, lest your dough stick. I've seen online videos of pros' fingers gently coaxing stuck doughs out of brotforms before oven loading. So don't assume the videos of doughs gaily flopping out of brotforms is necessarily the norm. Sticking is not a sign of amateurism. It happens.
After the first use, more and more dust remains in the form and less needs to be added upon subsequent uses until you can practically use them without adding any more (although I've never tried that, only suspected). At some point (before spots of mold begin to appear, for me), both types need to be fully cleaned out with water and a stiff nylon bristle scrub brush. I've often wondered if a light spray of water prior to addition of dust to a virgin brotform or banneton might make dusting more effective on that first use. Never tried it though.
Re: Dust. The standard formulation is 50% rice flour + 50% wheat flour. Maize flour can be sticky. I've lately been milling brown rice + hard red wheat for my form dust. But that certainly isn't necessary -- store bought rice flour (from the gluten free section usually) + AP works fine.
Happy Holiday Baking,
Tom
My question was in part motivated by an instructional video by a pro who had difficulty freeing a 100%-hydration whole wheat dough from its proofing basket.
(After consulting our glossary, I've concluded that most of what Amazon.com, at least, calls bannetons are really brotforms.)
I did buy some rice flour. Why would combining it with wheat flour make it a better lubricant?
Thanks! (Is freshloaf.com the best place to get quick experience-based answers or what?)
Good question. Rice is pretty un-sticky and I think it doesn't adhere very well to the walls of the brotform or banneton without wheat's greater stickiness contributing to your coating's staying-power.
Tom
and bannetons: I've done the "light spray of water prior to addition of dust" and it worked very well for me. But I do only have two of each, so my experiences may not amount to much ;-). Joe
As it happened I just bought a sprayer this morning to moisten the top of today's loaf before it goes into the oven. Now I have an additional use for it!