Such trivial things make me happy

This morning's post brought exciting things. Not just my new Charlton season ticket, but my banetton, grignette, and dough scraper.

The banetton is a proving basket made of coiled cane. The idea is to let the dough have its second rise in it, with the sides of the basket preventing stotting. (I'm sure stotting is the word, but I've not been able to find it online. It describes the way wet dough can spread after you've formed it into a loaf, leaving you with unpleasantly flat bread.)

The grignette (or lame) is a small sharp blade, used to cut a pattern on the surface on the bread before baking. It is extraordinary how much this can affect a loaf, and not just decoratively. The cut edges cook more, so provide a nice crunchy caramelised feature.

And the dough scraper does what it says. It helps keep the worktop and your hands clean, and is nearly essential when kneading very liquid doughs.

To test out this equipment I'm doing a fairly basic loaf:

200g strong white flour
100g wholemeal spelt
200g liquid, inc half a tsp sugar and a level tsp dried yeast
1 glug rape seed oil

I've mixed and kneaded it, and (at 1315) I'm going to let it rise overnight in the fridge.

Actually, I should point out that the banetton, etc, came from Bakerybits. I ordered them yesterday, and they were here by 10 this morning! Brilliant service, you must agree.