Delivery time 48/72 hours (holidays and islands excluded).
Payment in 3 instalments from 30 euros.
Proving baskets
What is the bread leavening basket for?
The baskets for leavening bread are containers of various shapes and sizes useful for ensuring perfect leavening of the dough. Using the leavening basket the dough will rise upwards, maintaining the desired shape. Classic rattan leavening baskets with ribbed bottoms and walls, thanks to the warmth of wood and the breathable properties of natural fibres, allow the dough to breathe and absorb some of the moisture it contains. This ensures that the dough rises more gently and produces a crispy crust at the end of baking, usually with the classic spiral pattern on the surface.
How to use the bread leavening basket?
Before using the basket, it is convenient to dust its inner surface with flour. Alternatively, a liquid mixture of water and cornstarch can be used, which will form a kind of protective state as it dries. If we do not care that the bread, once baked, has the characteristic circular grooves typical of wicker leavening baskets, we can also cover the inside with a linen cloth. Once the dough is made, we can lay it in the leavening basket taking care not to fill it completely, because obviously during the process the volume will increase considerably. As the dough increases in volume it comes to take on the shape of the basket, including the characteristic circular groove.
We can then cover the basket with a linen cloth, which has the virtue of being breathable, or with a polyethylene bag to better preserve the surface moisture of the dough. Once the rising is finished, we will go to turn the basket upside down to slide the dough onto the baking sheet to be immediately placed in the preheated oven for baking.
How to clean leavening baskets
After use, it is a good idea to carefully remove all dough residue from the wicker basket before it hardens. We will then wipe the basket with a damp cloth and let it air dry. Never use running water or detergents that could be absorbed by the wood and absolutely do not wash in the dishwasher, unless we have decided to use a plastic leavening basket as an alternative to wicker.
Types of leavening baskets
There are leavening baskets of all shapes and sizes to meet a wide variety of baking needs. The classic leavening basket is undoubtedly the wicker basket. Wicker, or rattan, is undoubtedly the optimum material to enhance the functionality of the leavening basket. It is naturally breathable and gives bread an inimitable aesthetic effect due to its characteristic grooves. A cheaper and easier to maintain alternative are plastic leavening baskets. The material is obviously not breathable, which is why the baskets, depending on the type, have holes in the surface. Without a shadow of a doubt, the aeration effect will be less even, the basket will not retain either heat or moisture from the dough, and the final aesthetic effect will probably be different from the classic one we can achieve with the wicker basket. In contrast, plastic baskets can be conveniently washed in the dishwasher, are virtually indestructible, and lend themselves quite well to mass processing.
