Home made bannetons | The Fresh Loaf

round banneton I think I finally figured out how to post pictures. A while back kippercat requested to see pictures of my homemade bannetons. Here they are. Made from dollar store wicker baskets and discount store cloth. Cost a little over a buck each. Also a picture of breads made in them. I call it thirds bread. 100% flour equals 1/3 whole wheat, 1/3 rye, 1/2 A.P. flour. 1/3 sourdough starter, 2/3 hydration. plus 2% salt. an easy workable recipe. Cooked in electric oven on a stone in a cloche.

oval banneton

Great looking breads and I like your easy formula. The bannetons are perfect. I like to see simple homemade solutions to expensive store bought items. One dollar compared to $30.00...love it. weavershouse

Bannetons and bread both look great. The round one especially looks as good as any I've seen. Guess I need to check out the new local dollar store. Thanks for posting, JERSK.

I'm not sure what kind of cloth it is exactly. I would describe it as a kind of neutral colored, fine sack cloth. You don't want something too coarse or too fine. Also avoid cloths that could become "linty" or are heavily dyed. I use A.P. and whole wheat flour. I would use rice flour if I could find some around here at a reasonable price. It supposedly works best. In my formula for bread I meant to put 1/3 A.P. flour, hence the thirds.

This might be a bit too frugal, but I made couches from the legs of some old jeans. Washed well of course. They actually work quite well, as do my homemade bannetons after several months. I cut back some willow bushes on my property and noticed they were growing some nice shoots. In the spring I'm going to try my hand at willow brotforms. I've got plenty willow on hand.

JERSK - I used the legs of old jeans too!. Only I would have been to embarressed to admit it if it weren't for you.

beautiful breads and basket JERSK.

I also made my own bannetons, the kind that imprint flour patterns like the willow ones, from old wooden whisky and wine boxes, and wooden dowels. I used dowels that had about the same diameter as the coils of willow in a typical brotform. The whisky and wine boxes are plain wood, the kind with the sliding lid. Then I just cut lengths of the dowels with my Felco pruners to match the length of the box, and laid them parallel inside the wine and whisky boxes.

I learned by error (aka dowels flying all over the kitchen when I took out my first loaf) to glue the dowels down. I used edible, non-toxic children's glue so it would be foodsafe.

It's handy to have some smaller ones, I make Nancy Silverton's sour cherry-cocoa bread in one from a whisky bottle. Some of the wine ones are bigger (one from a large bottle I forget what that size of wine bottle is called, not a magnum) and one of the wine boxes used to hold two bottles side by side, so it's a hefty size too.

Another bonus (besides the fact that they were FREE and made with things I had lying around) is that you can slide the lid on while your loaf is proofing if you like. I also soak the lid for a little humidity.

JERSK, I'm chuckling at your using old jeans as a couche. New meaning to the expression "Apply directly to your hips." ;)

I am concerned about placing dough in a basket from a thrift type shop without cloth. I am afraid of chemicals on the baskets. I found an old basket that needed washed to get the dust off. The chemical smell was very strong. I decided to just put a linen dish towel on it after it dried. What are others thoughts?

that I found at one of our chain stores. I think they were meant to hold bread slices or rolls but they look just like a wicker basket except they are made of plastic.