The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Using less flour in bannetons

davidebaker's picture
davidebaker

Using less flour in bannetons

I notice that in a lot of the pictures of loaves I see online, you can see the crust and blisters clearly. In my loaves, I often flour the bannetons so the loaves do not stick, but as a result the finished loaf is covered in flour. 

 

Any tips for minimizing flour on the outside of the loaves without them sticking to the bannetons?

rgreenberg2000's picture
rgreenberg2000

I switched to lining my bannetons with a lightly dusted kitchen towel recently.  I find that there is much less of an issue with potential sticking this way, and I feel like I can use less dusting flour (I use 50/50 whole wheat and rice flour.)  Another thing you can do to reduce the amount of flour that is on the loaf is to gently brush that excess off the loaf after you have removed it from the banneton and before baking.  I have done this plenty with good success if I get heavy handed with my dusting flour.

Hope that helps!

Rich

Maverick's picture
Maverick

Here are a few thoughts. You can try gently brushing off the excess flour after you remove it from the banneton. A lot depends on the hydration of the dough, because lower hydration means you can use less flour. Also a liner can help (as mentioned above). One other thing to try would be to spray the loaf with water before going in the oven. Lastly, you can brush off the flour that remains after baking. Maybe try a combination of the above.

barryvabeach's picture
barryvabeach

David,  are you using regular flour to dust the bannetons?  If you switch to rice flour, it is much less sticky, so you can buy with a very thin coating.  Usually, there is almost none visible on the loaf when I take it out of the banneton

Benito's picture
Benito

I have found that using rice flour I can get away with using less of it.  After I turn the dough out of the banneton, I use a butter knife and gently scrape off excess flour.  I don’t use the banneton liner and with rice flour I’ve never had any sticking, I only had that with regular flour.


Benny