The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

New homemade equipment

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

New homemade equipment

I love finding inexpensive alternatives to pricier specialty bread equipment, particularly things like bannetons that are ridiculously overpriced. I do fairly big batches of bread and also don't have a lot of room to store things. I've been proofing loaves in wireframe 'couches' that I made out of 1/2" (1 cm) garden wire fencing, lined with napkins, but they are awkward to store, have sharp pointy bits and the napkins need to be washed all the time.

So I gave the DH a new task - cut me two pieces out of 1/4" plywood or scrap boards, cut two half circles out of them and drill three holes in each one into which a dowel can be loosely inserted. The 'couches' themselves consist of bamboo placemats ($1.25 each from the dollar store) which are well-supported by the wooden frames. And the whole thing comes apart easily and stores flat.

Here is the prototype, loaded with today's bread (a nice Kamut loaf). These are fairly small loaves - a 600 gram 'chubb' you might call it, but most of my loaves are 750 grams so will fit quite well too.

Once risen, the loaves released very easily from the floured bamboo; much easier than the ones risen in floured napkins. I just lifted the placemat off the frame and placed it flat on the counter, rolled each loaf onto my hand, then onto the prepared peel (long strips of 1/4" plywood). They had a very nice pattern on them too!

Wild-Yeast's picture
Wild-Yeast

I've been eyeballing the bamboo mats for the same purpose for quite some time now - also thought about using wine bottle racks for baguette proofing. 

Wild-Yeast

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

They would work a treat as long as they were even on both ends (i.e. not designed to store bottles cork down). And how about using a wine cooler that could be kept warm instead (proofing temperature) for rising all your bread? What fun!

Something like this, perhaps? https://www.amazon.ca/HOMCOM-Bottles-Holder-Shelves-Storage/dp/B012Z0XP0Y/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&qid=1472491103&sr=8-19&keywords=wine+bottle+storage

yozzause's picture
yozzause

Well done that man, I'm with you enormous satisfaction  out of making something yourself and that works. The price of Bannetons is quite unbelievable I got my cane ones direct from China @ A$10.00 but saw the same ones in a providores store marked up at A$58.00. the plastic ones should be just cents but I have seen them for around A$30.00 too. Your invention looks like they could easily be made to stack vertically too and save more space.

regards Derek 

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

What a great idea! I'll have to try stacking them with dough in them once we get a couple more made. I already take over all the kitchen counter space and spill over onto the dining room table on bread day; stacking up the proofing loaves would be awesome!

TomK's picture
TomK

And nicely done. I think I'll steal it but make a single one as I rarely make more than one batard at a time. I especially like that you can roll the dough onto a flip board.

Tom

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

I agree with you that the price of certain things like bannetons are ridiculous! I use food safe woven plastic baskets that I got for $5 at the Real Canadian Superstore for my boules. I don't have anything for long loaves though so your idea is awesome!

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Yes, I too have accumulated lots of cheap baskets, but I find more and more that my customers (and I) prefer longer loaves that provide more evenly sized slices. They're not really batards, but more 'chubbs' (batard batards?). So I needed something with a nice texture for those longer loaves, and the long bannetons are even more ridiculous in price than the round ones!

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Sort of reminds me of my mom's kitchen towel rack.  So Clever you are!

One of those folding ones... wonder it draping one of those and using a few clothes pins to keep the matt or cloth in place would work?  Esp. for many loaves.  Wonder if it will hold the weight?

Wait, I have an aluminium (scissor folding) towel and clothes rack to mount on a wall.  Extending it for loaves and then closing it when not is use is also doable.   Could actually hold 4 extra long baguettes in it!  I'm rethinking where I want to put it.  High enough for clean towels, low enough for dough.  Perhaps make it movable...   Two mounting locations...  :)

What's nice about your design, it's simplicity.    

MarkS's picture
MarkS

Brilliant!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

money selling these than baking bread:-)  Very nice!

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Haha, that crossed my mind, actually! :) I think they'd need a bit more refinement first; they're a bit rough. But anything that works, eh?

clearlyanidiot's picture
clearlyanidiot

You know… That's kinda genius. It meets all the requirements for the job, inexpensive to make, flexible design to adapt to an individual baker's needs. To top it all off the whole thing comes apart for easy cleaning and storage.