The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Containers for Dough

Vbake's picture
Vbake

Containers for Dough

Hi all, 

I am from India and I have never baked bread before. 

I decided to get a copy of Ken Forkish's Flour water salt yeast. I am happy with the content and thr instructions.

My only issue is that I am from India and I am unable to get any equipments he mentioned in the book.  I am ordering the Dutch oven from Amazon US at a hefty price but buying other things like polycarbonate containers at the price at a landing price of 3 times the original cost of the it,  does not make any sense. 

I need to help in finding alternatives.

Can I use a any plastic containers for mixing and storage of dough? 

Are analog thermometers reliable to check dough temperature? 

Thank you 

Vbake

 

jimt's picture
jimt

Hi, I'm pretty new too but any large bowl with a lid or plastic over the top will work just fine. The clear container makes it rather easy to see how much rise and I have one but often do not use it--I have a large glazed ceramic bowl that works fine. I use a thermometer from Thermoworks but that won't do you any good again due to shipping. Any stem thermometer will work...if you have a restaurant supply store near you they should have everything you need. 

The book is great, I wish you success.

 

bakert85's picture
bakert85

like Jimt said, any large bowl will do just fine as long as you cover it with a plastic bag or something. the square container helps when you make a oblong breads and when you divide the dough to lots of small loafs. since you are working with FWSY (a great book to start with), where  you only divide the dough into two and bake only round boules, then a bowl is more than fine.

happy baking,

etamar

Vbake's picture
Vbake

This is truly a warm welcome. 

Thank you for your comments. I am sure I will have more questions when I begin :) 

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

for the longest time until I discovered a place where I could buy a 6 liter container like the ones Forkish recommends for  a reasonable price. Try to stick to plastic or stainless steel as I found glass very heavy and hard to clean. The dough seems to stick less to plastic, glass was a real chore to get clean.  

Jane Dough's picture
Jane Dough

Any food grade plastic container will work with something to cover it with with work.  Personally unless I use the 12 quart container I find the mixing  difficult in the Cambro.  I'm just not the right height. 
For a long time I used a container that originally held honey.  I sterilized it the best I could and left it in the sun for a day or two and it worked just fine.  I used a plastic bag with a large elastic band for a Iid.   In re-purposing I was careful about what was in the original container because I didn't want to pick up unwanted flavors that had leeched in to the plastic or poly.

ChkstrSD's picture
ChkstrSD

I like using the appropriate size clear pyrex bowl with a plastic shower cap. The stretch and fold operation with these is easy, using a flexible plastic dough scraper, and turning out dough after the first bulk rise is easy and easier on the dough than pouring it out of a square container.

bread1965's picture
bread1965

It's a great book.. any container will do as everyone above has said.. enjoy the journey.. here's mine..

https://flourwatersaltyeast.wordpress.com/?order=asc

Most of all.. bake happy!