January 8, 2015 - 1:54pm
brotforms; wicker vs. Plastic?
Baking for a year now and wanted to experiment with bannetons or brotforms.
I was considering purchasing one of these round coiled baskets http://www.tmbbaking.com/supplies.html
But I am confused on which to buy, plastic or wicker? Anyone have any insight? Also, cloth liner or no liner? When would a person use a cloth liner with a banneton or brotform?
I would like to bake bread that has that coiled flour design ontop of crust.
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I have some plastic ones and they ALWAYS stick. Always!!!! So I use a liner in them. I have not tried the wicker/cane one. The liner negates the cool design on the plastic one.
I prefer the wicker. I think they pull a bit of the moisture out of the dough and help keep a nice shape.
or wicker?
I'd call the ones on that website cane. The wicker ones are woven from finer woody stuff - the chunkier coiled ones are cane. The wicker ones usually need a liner while the cane ones don't - as long as you give them a good dusting of flour (try Rye flour if they're sticking).
I have a dozen or so cane ones - mostly ovals but a couple of rounds. It seems there's many places making them as the ovals are different shapes, although all about the same volume.
e.g. Cane Bannetons: http://bakerybits.co.uk/bakery-equipment/proving-baskets-and-cloths.html?cat=85
Wicker baskets: http://bakerybits.co.uk/bakery-equipment/proving-baskets-and-cloths/wicker-baskets.html
A lot of people like to "season" the cane ones before use - simply by spraying a fine mist of water into them then dusting with flour. I just use plenty of flour and often brush the flour away from the loaf when I turn it out before slashing if I feel there's too much.
Not sure of the origin of the name - I think Brotform might be German, but I see Brotform and Banneton used interchangeably.
Quick edit just to say that I don't use liners!
-Gordon
I like to use broth forms with liner the reason using them is the it do not need lot of flour and the air moves easer while the liner helps to get rid of moisture.
There are pressed paper pulp ones as well.
Think about your dough going into the form. It is there temporarily while you wait for that last rise before baking. The idea behind it that the skin of the dough will thicken slightly in the form as moisture is being removed by the walls, cloth, flour, of the form. Just enough to create a memory and to fix areas of crust while the escaping steam tears and pulls on the loaf. Obviously a cloth is needed if the holes in the basket are large enough to allow dough to squish thru them. Cloth doesn't have to be plain either, patterns and textures often show up in the baked crumb.
If the line pattern is all you're after, you can also lay a wet string or rack gently onto the risen loaf and quickly dust it with flour, remove the stencil (string or rack) score and pop into the oven to bake.
wood pulp! (ok, so I pulverized my wood a bit more... )
Dove nests? So that's the heaven where the old rising baskets go. No wonder there are no antique baskets. :)