Hi everybody,

I've been following this wonderful forum for a while now and got some teriffic tips from you guys. I'm new to writing on the forum and to bread baking itself. I got Peter Reinmhart's BBA for Christmas and already made a TERIFFIC focaccia. Now i'm on to French bread, and there's my question:

I bought a bannetton to shape dough into nice boules (I like those better than baguettes), but when reading the recipe in BBA it calls for an additional resting and proofing of the dough (45 to 75 minutes) after shaping it. But since I plan to ferment the dough in the bannetton, there will be very little shaping.

Should I stick to the first two hours of fermenting, or should I proof the dough a little longer (and maybe degass it a little bit)? And....... How much time should be added when baking to correct for the boule shape?

Thanks in advance!

After a couple of weeks break, I resume baking the breads in Peter Reinhart's book -

Just made his French Bread, if anyone is interested I have photos in here

http://bewitchingkitchen.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/bba14-french-baguette/

Now, I wonder....  The more I make bread, the more I am convinced that "the folding thing" is what works best for me. Maybe some people prefer to beat the dough into submission, either with a Kitchen Aid or their own hands, but I never seem to have the same success I do with folding, a la Hamelman, Lepard, and others.

After making the French Bread, watching the dough mixing for many minutes in the machine, checking the temperature, crossing the fingers for a windowpane pass, beating a little more.... everything seems ok, but it is not as good as other French style breads I've made following recipes here, that call for the folding method.

My question for the experts - can ANY recipe with a reasonably high content of water work by folding? What I am considering is repeating the French Bread, with the EXACT same recipe, but just changing from kneading to folding, just to satisfy my curiosity about the method.

if I do that, should I allow the dough to rest for, say,,,, 20 minutes, then fold it twice, maybe 45 minutes apart,  then shape?

if there are threads here comparing a given recipe with different methods of kneading, feel free to point me in that direction... if not, any advice, suggestion, input is more than appreciated!

Thank you!