Hello people...
I've recently taken up breadmaking (add lots of slurping noises and additional moaning about waistline here).
I bought a breadmaker to branch out into the land of yeast and scrummy goodies, a few months ago, and all was well, but as Sourdough and Rye have always been my favourites, I'm now starting on my first starter. Things are going okay, and I've decided that I need more equipment (my hungry work colleagues need to be more impressed than they already are).
I currently need a few things:
A decent baking stone and a round and oblong banneton. The stone I can manage, I think...perhaps a couple of large terracotta tiles from a tile shop? However, the banneton are a problem: I can't seem to find anywhere in London that supplies them. Surely I don't have to import them?
Any assistance will be much appreciated.
Regards,
Rudehamster.....~O'>
Replies
You can substitute (cue up your old Who album) a colander for a round banneton. Just put some flour-rice flour is said to work best- on a cotton towel and place it in your colander. As long as you're not using a terry cloth towel, this will work for you. I have towels that are made of cotton and very similar to the material used for small flour sacks.
You won't get the nice spiral pattern on your boule but you won't need to buy that banneton. They're at least $18 plus S&H here in the US over the internet.
Hundreds of them, all shapes and sizes here:
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/artisanbakerybits/
oooooooohhhhh.....thank you, Bread Or Alive.
I'd looked everywhere apart from ebay (typical foolishness, I know), so thanks for the link, it cheered up an otherwise wet and miserable Sunday morning.
The NHS cough up my salary on Friday, so I suspect the seller will be getting an order or two.
That's an excellent idea.
Typically, after being nose-first in my cupboards for the last twenty minutes, I've found I have everything apart from rice flour. Flour I have a'plenty though, so I'll give it a go in a bit.
It'll probably end up with me looking like a powdered snow-hamster again, but it's better than watching the rain.