Jamila - great question.  Are you using high hydration doughs?  I see you use heavy flour.  I use uber-heavy flour.. like you cannot see wicker at all, and all crevices are well filled.  I use even more on the banneton "bottom" (bread top) since the weight of the dough puts more pressure on the surface and gets more of the flour wet.  I suppose once my banneton are well "seasoned" I won't need to use as much, but I am not there yet. Also, be sure you are not over-proofing. 

 I turn out my bannetons onto a peel with semolina flour pretty gently and let them sit upside down for a bit and let the inverted weight of the dough help gently pull the mass onto the peel.  Helps prevent deflating.  I even put a little semonlina flour on the dough before I flip it over since a lot of it sticks the surface and saves the flour on the peel for sliding.  I never have a problem with it sticking on the peel when I do it this way.

 hope this helps.

SD Baker

I had the good fortune of watching one of the production bakers at KAF dump loaf after loaf of 68% hydration sourdough from unlined, heavily floured bannetons onto a conveyor loader. Of the three dozen or so loaves she loaded, maybe five or ten stuck in parts to the banneton, but they came out with gentle prying and she did a quick re-shape to fix these.  If one was sticking, she occaisionally let it sit upside down on the loader for a minute while she moved on to the next one. But by and large, the whole thing was pretty smooth. The only thing she used to dust the bannetons was all purpose flour, so I can tell you it is possible to pull off. Of course, the whole process looks like a piece of cake when performed by someone who makes hundreds of loaves a day!

With that said, here are some things to check into:

- Did your recipe use a lot of whole grain flour?

- What was the gluten development of the dough you were proofing? Under-developed dough will be much stickier than dough with good development. If need be, add another stretch-and-fold to your bulk fermentation and see if that helps.

- Also, were you pre-shaping the loaves before loading? I would recommend doing a quick rounding, let it rest 10 minutes and then tighten on the table before placing into the banneton.

- Finally, although you said you used a lot of flour in dusting, would it be possible to use even more flour? :-) I would try this last one only if the above failed.

I have 'seasoned' and new bannetons. The key is, I think, to flour the clean and dry banneton with (brown) rice flour and semolina flour. You will need only a light 'coating', less then you might expect after having seen your dough stuck to the banneton. Then lightly flour your loaf as well ... on the loaf I use a little white flour (e.g. AP) and then a light coat of brown rice flour. You won't need any 'flour puddles'.

Then just proof your loaf for any amount of time, in the fridge or at elevated temperature and you'llbe fine. I place my peel (superpeel.com) over the banneton and invert the loaf on the peel. Then I lift the baneton  and let the dough release itself from the basket .... the loaf is not really lifted from the peel when I do that. It takes about 3-4 seconds and is a very gentle process.

Since I use the brown rice flour and semolina I haven't had any problems with the dough sticking to the banneton - not once.

By the way .. never wash your bannetons. I just clean them with a brush made of horse hair  (The -new- brush was originally designed for the cleaning of shoes). You'll find that brush in any larger supermarket.

BROTKUNST

white rice flour works very well for flouring the banneton.  its much finer than all purpose flour and works terrific.  bob's red mill brand is the one i use and is carried in most grocery stores.

david

I had enormous problems with sticking until a few folks on the forum gave me some tips. Here's what's worked for me:

• Dust the banneton and then lightly dust the loaf before putting it in.
• Once it's in the banneton, flour the sides of the loaf so that, as it rises, it won't stick to the banneton.
• If you can find it, use rice flour or a 50-50 mix of rice and white or whole wheat flour.
• Don't dust with brown rice flour. It makes the crust chewy instead of crunchy.

Good luck!