Banneton Baskets | The Fresh Loaf

Hi there, this might seem like a silly question but - Do the breads with the pretty ring designs get proofed in a banneton basket with or without a liner? I have never used one and have it on the wish list (ever growing) but was not sure if they were always used with liners or if the liner would obscure the ring pattern. I understand that you have to use a lot of flour to avoid sticking and I suppose they should be just tapped out rather than washed with water. Also, should people have two or more of them for a recipe? Your input would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Nope, no liner so you get those nice lines. I just dust mine with flour--I knock it gently a few times afterwards to get the excess out, and once in a while use a plastic scraper to get the accumulated flour out of the grooves. Right now I just have one banneton, so I usually shape any remaining dough into another shape and either proof in an improvised couche or a cloth-lined basket or bowl (also dusted with flour).

Some folks here also use rice flour etc, so there are different options--I'm sure they'll chime in with more info too.

There are a couple of types of bannetons. The coiled willow baskets are the ones that give you the spiral pattern. They are usually called brotforms. The cloth lined wicker baskets are usually referred to as bannetons. I've made some of the cloth lined ones with discount store wicker baskets and cloth. They work pretty well and were cheap to make. At least one user on this site made their own willow brotforms. It's good to have more than one if you like to bake more than one loaf at a time. I was using just flour, but changed to a mix of rice flour and rye, or just rice flour. It seems to work a little better with sticky doughs. I cut back some willows last fall and am going to try to make some willow baskets this spring or summer.

Wow, homemade forms, that is hardcore.

I don't have any willow so I will have to rely on the retail world. Thanks for the info re name - I will look up brotforms.

ps, what do you think of the Chicago Metallic french loaf and baguette forms?