Dear First name / friend, 

I hope you've had a great week! Who's ready for Thanksgiving? Are you including some Thanksgiving Sourdough Recipes into your celebrations?

 

This week, I want to talk about proofing baskets - or bannetons. Who would have thought there'd be so much to know about a humble rattan basket!
“Why do I need a banneton? Are they really worth it? What can I use if I don't have one?"

 

Bannetons (proofing baskets) are extremely useful when it comes to sourdough. They support your shaped dough through proofing and ensure that it doesn't spread out (costing you beautiful oven spring).

 

The trick is to make sure you have the right size banneton for your dough weight.

 

And before you start using your bannetons, there's a few things you can do to make sure you dough never, ever sticks to them! You'll find all my tips and tricks for using bannetons here.

 

Of course, if you don't have a banneton, or don't want to invest in one straight away, you can use lots of things that you already have in your kitchen cupboards. I've created a list of proofing basket alternatives here.

 

Want to know what people are baking this weekend? These recipes are proving extremely popular right now:

 

Oh and if you missed last week's question - you can read the question and answer here. Last week we talked about coil folds vs stretch and folds (and which ones you should be using).

 

As always, I love to see your sourdough wins - and help you with any problems you might be having. Have a question you'd like answered on my site? Let me know!

 

Until next week,

Wishing you sourdough success (and Happy Thanksgiving),

Kate