Rise dough in loaf pan and bake without transferring to a different pan [duplicate]

Question

I make simple artisan bread (1 cup water, 2 cups flour, 1.5 tsp yeast, salt). It rises overnight. I have always transferred it from the rising bowl to a loaf pan with light oil on the side. This works fine, but is the transfer necessary? Could I let the dough rise in the loaf pan and put it straight into the oven to bake?

Goals:

• no need to wash rising bowl
• don't get hands dirty from the transfer
• think it loses some air bubbles from the transfer (I just tile the rising bowl sideways and it rolls into the loaf pan)

Answer 1

When I make gluten-free bread, this is my preferred approach. The reason is because the lack of gluten makes the dough very fragile and too much handling can knock the air out of it, resulting in a very dense bread. Letting the dough proof in the loaf pan ensures that I'm not losing any of the air that I had just spent hours (if not days) developing.

For glutenous breads, it depends on what I'm trying to make. If it's a sandwich bread, I will just let it proof in a greased loaf pan, alternating between proofing and folding, and then let it rest on the counter for 15-30 minutes before going in the oven. (I'm not that concerned with air loss, it's just more convenient.) If it's something a bit more fancy, though, I will use the mixing bowl or a separate proofing vessel since I will end up turning it out on a work surface for molding and shaping anyway before it goes into the cooking vessel (assuming I'm even using one and not just putting it on a sheet pan or pizza stone).