May 19, 2015 - 4:38am
Miche shaping
I am thinking about baking a 2kg miche. How large a banneton would I need for that much dough? In fact, do I need a banneton at all, or can I use a bowl of some kind?
Many thanks. I am starting to 'get' the natural starter thing. It may become addictive.
Cheers,
Jim
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They make bannetons for loaves of this size. I got this from SFBI, and it works well. Alternatively, you can use a large mixing bowl with a floured couche (or large kitchen towel) as a liner.
A colander lined with a floured dish towel also works.
Ford
and stuff out the box corners with wads of newspaper... then drape with floured cloth. Another trick is to take a medium size bath/hand towel and roll up the long side half way, then shape into a donut to support the floured towel and dough. Set on a rack so air can get to the bottom and draw moisture from the dough.
You probably already have a basket about the right size. The dough should be able to almost double under the rim, deep preferred to shallow.
Thanks to everyone for the ideas and suggestions. I think I'll try the colander tip as I seem to be short on boxes right now. I'll give it a shot over the weekend.
I'll update with the results unless I really mess up.
Jim
I was lucky a while back to respond quickly to a "used banneton" sale. Yay! But otherwise I've been happy with prices at brotform.com Check them out. I like the ideas of using virtually any one of a number of bowls with floured linen (easily purchased at some cloth stores), or boxes, or whatever propped up with towels, etc. Not everything needs special equipment.
I baked my first Miche over the weekend. I used the colander idea. It seemed to work well. The crumb was good, taste a bit more sour than I like (I can adjust my fermentation temps to address that I think) but still very good. And the shaping was a bit off.
I actually laughed when I opened the oven to see how it was progressing. That was a lot of bread.
Thanks for all the help.