[fontzmark]

Greetings all. I just recieved Crust and Crumb yesterday and am ready to start making some serious breads. I have a starter that is alive and well and can completely leaven bread. I have him in a five gallon bucket, about 10 liters or so, when I use it I take out 5l and make bread with it then refeed the remainder, so far it has worked well, but probably definately not a "world class bread", but good. So where can I get some bannetons, or what could I use, will cheap bread baskets work or do I need something specific, what do you use? ANy and all info is greatly appreciaed.

[KyleW]

Isn't this stuff cool? As far as bannetons go, I bought them cuz' I think they look cool and I like the way the proofed breads look. I don't think they are necessary though. In The Bread Builders Alan Scott says he uses cheap collanders. They provide the same shape and the holes allow the needed air to get in. If you want bannetons, I have seen a wide range of shapes and prices. The cheapest I have found are at San Francisco Baking Institute. They have a bigger selection at Bridge Kitchenware.

[Kimmie]

Nobody seems to have the 16" Ring Loaf crown basket I've been looking for.



The last Ring Loaf "Couronne" I made, I used a 16" paella pan, placed a bowl on top, upside down, lined with a couple of tea towels. It worked but the bread was a little tricky to get out!

[kokopuffs]

Wrong, SFBI offers two, a 10' version and the larger 14" model:
http://www.sfbi.com/oc.shtml



[ July 18, 2001: Message edited by: kokopuffs ]

[Kimmie]

Koko,

Looking for a SIXTEEN INCH!!

[kokopuffs]

Okay! Then my next best guess is to checkout MATFER at GOOGLE.COM.

[KyleW]

Kimmie, Why not just use your elbow (well floured of course)? We made the italian version in class on Monday. Formed the dough into a disk, put the point of my elbow into the center and spun the dough around on the table, using my elbow, until the hole was about 6" across. I love to play with my food

[Kimmie]

Thanks Koko. Didn't find 16".

Found interesting site...in France!

Crown bannetons available from 500 gr. to 4 lbs. loaves. I will look into that. They are really beautiful.

[thebighat]

Fontzmark--If memory serves, you're the person who started this whole plethora of posts about starters and bread baking. I'm glad to see that the tangent we all went off on hasn't deterred you from wanting to go ahead and do this on a daily basis. Cultivate your starter according to Crust and Crumb, or the La Brea starter, and follow the formulas and you will have world class bread. The poolish on page 32 of C&C is very easy to work into a daily thing, make the poolish early in the am, let it stew for 3-5 hours, make a dough, ferment it, overnight it, then shape loaves and bake the next morning and you will have
ciabatta that looks like this

Good luck, good reading

[Kimmie]

Dear Kyle,

Sorry for the delay, I just read your post. Steve Sullivan used the "perfectly clean" floured elbow in Julia's show. I do that too.

The basket is used to proof your bread, not to make the hole!

[ July 18, 2001: Message edited by: Kimmie ]

[fontzmark]

Thanks I am going there now......


Mark

[angrychef]

To bighat: Beautiful ciabatta!

[thebighat]

Thank you. That stuff turns out to be so easy to make. If you've looked at Artisan Baking there's a ciabatta in there that's even more dramatic looking, but the dough is very wet and I'd hate to have to make 40 of them under the gun. I made an onion caraway rye today that I wish I'd taken a bigger piece of.

[Isa]

Originally posted by Kimmie:
<STRONG> Found interesting site...in France!</STRONG>

Would you mind sharing the url for that French site?

Thanks!

[Kimmie]

Mais si!

vannerie.net

View the baskets here

I haven't checked into it yet.