Going all Free Form

Hey, all my bread lovers and homemade bakers! It's time to go over a well-known secret among professional bakers that most home bakers don't know.

Free Form Loaves

Free-form loaves are where you use a linen couche or fabric and a wooden or plastic board whether that be your table, an actual board that you can move around, or whatever you come up with.

The linen and board serve as a replacement for the usual linen-lined banneton basket you will find in most homes that are trying to bake artisan bread. Instead of having a basket to put your dough into to proof and keep its shape, instead, you place the dough on the linen and raise the sides of the linen on either side of the dough in order to basically cradle it, giving it support from both sides. See the photo for an example

Now, why would you do this? Cause there are definitely limitations to using this method, especially for home bakers. Well, here are a couple of reasons why I use it:

1. I can make and proof much more dough using free forming than bannetons any day. Just on one tray of linen and board, I can fit up to 10 loaves and sometimes 12, depending on the dough during the day. Try to fit even 10 banneton baskets on a full sheet tray and let me know what you get.

2. It is cost-effective to do. As I am starting up a cottage bakery one of my biggest considerations is how much I am spending to get started. I have looked at getting banneton baskets and they will run you anywhere from $6-$9. Alright, now times that by 32 loaves (the amount I can make in one day in my oven). Even at $6, you are looking at $192 for 32 baskets. Now let's consider our linen. Traditional linen couche is flax based and nice and stiff. I found a comparable product at Hobby Lobby, heavy canvas material, that works just as well as the flax-based in my opinion, and cost me about $20-$30 for 4-5 yards. That size is enough for me to bake more than 32 loaves with. See the difference?

3. Free Forming with linen also opens you up to being able to make more varieties of bread. Truly only loaves are made in banneton baskets. You don't see a baguette basket floating around, I'm sure there is, but it's not well-used. Free forming with linen allows you to produce: Baguettes, demi-baguettes, ciabatta, and fougasse. Bacci rolls, epis, and a ton more.

Here are some struggles that come with Free Forming:

1. Less hydration loaf doughs work better with free forming. High hydration does need more support when proofing or it will spread out a lot and become a wider dough rather than a higher-rise dough like you see all over the internet. Is that a bad thing, no, it is just a different style of bread.

2. You have to make sure to thoroughly flour your linen couche and your dough before you put your dough on the linen. The dough has a tendency to stick to the linen if not properly floured and that can destroy the dough as you try to pull it off to place it in the oven.

3. I proof my dough at room temp because I don't have a fridge big enough to put my dough in yet. Covering your dough during proofing will be different. Will either put the tray inside of a trash bag and seal the edges with the board or I have a bread rack and a cover that goes over it. I then put a humidifier under the bread rack and turn it on to keep the inside of the rack humid and to control temp.

4. Lastly, you do need to transfer your dough differently. You no longer are just upending a basket of dough on your peel. For your bread loaves and baguettes, I recommend using a transfer piece of wood. One long piece of wood for baguettes and a rectangle piece of wood for your loaves. Dust the top of your loaves, dust the transfer wood, and use the linen to gently roll the dough onto the peel (bottom of the dough now facing up while lying on the transfer wood), you can now transfer the bread to your peel using that same rolling motion and ta-da, you did it. This is needed so you don't destroy the air pockets and dough structure you have already made.

I recommend you give this a try. It will make you a better baker just by doing it because it forces you to have to really know what you're doing with your shaping, your proofing, taking care to transfer, and watch your bread structure, it allows you to get creative because now there are no limitations or barriers to hold you back (quite literally in the concept of your banneton baskets).

I hope you take up this challenge and see what you create. I believe you will find it very freeing and discover new ideas you never had.

Have fun baking everyone.