Tah-dah! Here are the first two loaves made with my new bannetons!
I still need to work on my slashes – I’m yet to master controlling the oven spring with my razor cuts. But overall, I’m pretty happy with how these turned out!
I dusted the proofing baskets like a mad woman – there was about half a cup of excess rye flour after the loaves were turned out…
I tried slashing a cross on the top of one loaf…
…and a fancy star shape on the other.
The cross-slashed loaf rose tall and round, bursting a little in the middle…
…whereas the star-slashed loaf expanded in a more controlled, but less vigorous fashion.
I tweaked my usual sourdough recipe to lower the hydration slightly, and added in a little semolina flour. The dough was bulk proved overnight on the kitchen bench (it’s late autumn here, and quite cool at night), before being shaped first thing this morning. Each loaf had a starting dough weight of just under 1kg.
- 300g sourdough starter (fed at a ratio of 1 cup water to 1 cup flour)
- 550g water
- 50g olive oil
- 200g semolina flour
- 600g bakers/bread flour
- 250g white spelt flour
- 16g fine sea salt
More loaves to come!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Wow, you were fast to put them to test! Fantastic loaves, you will have a ton of fun “perfecting the slashes”, a process that might take me a lifetime ;-)
They’re beautiful, Celia! I think your slashes look perfect.
I was dying to see what you would produce and I am so impressed. These loaves are just perfect.
Welcome to the world of flying flour and mysterious patterns atop loaves! They look simply wonderful :D
Very impressive! And what fun to play with a new toy. I am very interested to hear that different slashes caused different behaviour in the oven. I am looking forward to the detailed scientific appraisal of each style of slashing. Your boys would really get into that I am sure!
your bread looks fab… mine are on order and I can’t wait to try!
They are stunning!
I am so jealous! I’m going to have to go in search of the elusive banneton!
Celia- you are a bread mistress/master.
Gorgeous Celia! Was there a flutter of excitment when you tipped them ? :-) That basket still makes me smile.
…where are you going to keep them?
I’m cheering over here Celia. Between you & Brydie with your show stoppers of loaves – so beautiful, I can almost smell these fresh from the oven.
One day when I grow up I’m going to bake bread…. one day. But for now I’m just cheerin’ you on girl :)
Absolutely beautiful Celia! I would be very proud if those were my first loaves from new bannetons. I love the star pattern one; it looks perfect! I’m hoping I get a banneton for my birthday next month.
Well done, Celia. Stunning looking loaves – I can just about smell them!
*squeal!* oh, Celia, they are superb!! Loving that star slashed loaf.
I would be so worried about the dough sticking to the crevices. What fun you will have playing with these bannetons!
They look wonderful! I would love to have bread like that coming out of my oven.
Just love how those look! You did a really awesome job….
Beautiful loves your have there Celia, those bannetons create such great patterns and yes you are the master – I bow to you! :-)
How simply perfect!…I’m green with envy and rushing off to get bannetons now x
Thank you for all being so excited with me! :)
I am intrigued at how differently the loaves rose because of the slashing – will have to experiment some more!
Chris, I was terrified the dough would stick, so I used a slightly lower hydration than I normally do, and a bucket of rye flour (as you can see). They came our perfectly though, and there’s no dough stuck at all! I didn’t wash the bannetons, and they’re quite clean – I’m now on the quest to find a good brush to brush out the excess flour with!
Brydie, at the moment I have them in the dining room. The gas heater is on, so I’m hoping they’ll stay nice and dry.. :)
Today I’m going to try my very wet ciabatta dough in them – wish me luck! :)
Ooh Celia they look great especially the star design. Yum!
WooHoo – go Celia.
They look great. Good luck with the Ciabatta!
Craig
Celia, your first 2 banneton loaves are incredible! Amazing how differently they rose with the cross vs start slashes. I learning something new all of your posts.
:-) Mandy
Seriously they are just like the ones we see here in Paris.
Just beautiful – I want to dive in and tear off a hunk! You are very clever.
If there ever was a Bread Hall of Fame or a Bread Olympics or a Bread Academy Awards… For the Gold!
Just saying…. you would win first and second place.
Maz
Magnificent!! What did you eat them with?!!
What a thing of beauty! I think you could write a theisis on ‘The Effect of Slashing My Loaves’ If that fails, it sounds like a good title for a horror movie! :)
Top loaves, Celia. They’ve stood up beautifully. Looking forward to the crumb shot and flavour report or have the boys already eaten them?
Very impressive! Now I know how to get the nice rings on the loaves. Maybe I need to start looking for some banneton forms…
They look fabulous! I can’t believe that you haven’t used bannetons before, I can imagine that buying them could be quite addictive – all those different shapes and sizes….
Good luck with a wetter dough, look forward to seeing what you make!
Did you know Michael Rhulman has just released a bread making ratio app? It sounds great, thought you might like to check it out, but you can probably teach him a thing or two about bread baking!
Thanks Becca, I’ll check it out! The numbers are doing in my head, so I’d be grateful for an app to figure it out for me! :)
Thank you all very much! I was really pleased with the loaves, and even more pleased that they came out of the banneton without leaving sticky dough all over the cane!
Liz, no crumb shots this time – sorry – the loaves were gone before the day was out. I took the cross loaf to my friends at Chefs Warehouse and the boys demolished the star loaf that night at dinner!
The wetter dough was trickier – will post soon! :)
Wow Celia, interesting how to make all those tasty marks on bread. How about trying one of those ridged japanese bowls used for making ground sesame seeds!
Frances, the proving baskets need to breathe, so the skin of the dough can dry a little, and so a ceramic bowl probably wouldn’t work…
Hi Celia
I’ve been making bread for about 6 months now, spurred on by your fabulous posts!! I got my bannetons from http://www.sourdough.com which is an Aussie blog for sourdough bread makers. They have an online shop and delivered my bannetons straight to my door!!! They also sell lames and other things, plus they have a great beginners blog and how to start and keep a starter. But yay bannetons!!!
Deb, thank you! The guys at sourdough.com are wonderful – enormous amounts of great info there, and Dom’s sourdough beginner’s post is fantastic. I bought all my lames and razor blades from them, and I’ve bought flour from them in the past as well. Graeme and Maedi are really good guys – did you see Graeme on Matthew Evan’s tv series when it was on?
I looked at their bannetons for ages, but couldn’t bring myself to spend the $ in the end. It wasn’t until I found them at Chefs’ Warehouse in Sydney for about half the price that I could finally justify buying them! :)