I have a hard time with that also.  Getting the loaves onto the peel and then onto baking stone without deflating them can be difficult.

Colin 

How about either lining the couche with the paper and just lifting it out, then placing the paper and dough on the peel.....or...

putting the paper over the couche and placing the peel on top then turn the couche and peel over gently while holding the peel and couche securely....?

I've transferred a zillion of these, so here's how I do it:

When you place your loaves in the couche, make sure you have a large enough "ridge" between them.  You'll need it.  Also, when I have mine in the couche, the fabric is long enough that I can fold it back over to cover all the loaves.  I use a baking sheet with I believe a 1" lip around the edges as support/ease of moving around if needed.  When the loaves are ready, you want to pull the fabric covering your loaves off--the bottom of it will still be nestling your loaves.  I'm right-handed, so I orient my pan so I'm pulling the cloth to the right.  Then pull on this to make a small distance between the loaf that's on the farthest right and the loaf just to the left of it.  Take a small thin board (it should be long enough and wide enough to hold your loaf) place it just to the left of your loaf--touching is fine--and quickly, using the cloth, flip your loaf onto this board.  They do have baguette boards out there for this, but you can find something else less expensive that will also do the trick.  After your loaf is on the board, quickly slide it onto the parchment on your peel, slash and slide it into the oven.  Depending on the size of your peel, loaves, and/or oven, you might want to do the loaves one at a time or do multiples.  It helps to have the loaves in your couche either floured when they're still in the couche or have the skin slightly dry so they don't stick to your little board. 

 It sounds complicated, and I'm not great at explaining, but with practice, it can be done very quickly and easily. After a few flops, I never have any trouble anymore!

SOL

I don't know how much commercially made couches cost, but I went down to a local fabric store and bought enough untreated canvas to make several large couches for under $10.00. Just a thought but its a good way to save a little money.

rcornwall

Hi Kippercat--

I'm having major problems with my computer now, so it would take me forever on the web to find the video, but when Danielle Forestier (I think that's her name) was on Julia Child's show, she demonstrated this very flip.  I know other people have previously put the link up on the website, but I'm sure you could find it if you Googled it.  Danielle demonstrates making baguettes.  (It's the infamous 800 slaps on the counter video.)

My Home Depot has painter canvases that I use as couches.  They're soft and pliable enough to work well.  I think they're all cotton, but the cotton vs. linen release problem is non-existent if you use 1 part rice flour to 4 parts white flour to dust your cloths.

SOL

I do about the same method as staff of life wrote, it IS hard to describe in words, ha ha. In class we used a long flat board--at home I improvise, and sometimes just gently pick them up to move them, depending on how soft or overproofed the dough is.

The folds between loaves are crucial as they both provide support for rising AND if you gently pull them apart it gives you room to manouver for moving and loading them. If I'm lining a bowl or basket with a cloth, I usually let them rise seam side up, and just flip the loaf out onto the peel.

For long loaves, and if the recipe specifies it, I let them rise seam-side down. I could only find a halfway decent picture of ciabbatas rising--I have learned since then these actually turn out a little better when you rise them seam-down (I was trying out a bunch of recipes at the time). For ciabattas you just pick them up and transfer them, so this isn't the best example, but it does show how much of a fold I use...