How to Use a Banneton Basket (aka Proofing Basket, Brotform)

Hey guys it's Bettie from BakerBettie.com and if you aren't familiar with me I am a trained chef and baking instructor and my goal is always to help you become a better baker through teaching classic baking techniques and approachable baking science. Now today we are continuing on with our sourdough series and I want to talk really briefly with you about banneton baskets. Now banneton baskets are these wicker baskets that bread bakers use to proof their bread in. I have two different shapes here. This is a very classic shape that is used for a boule which is French for bowl. It's one of those really beautiful round shaped loaves that you often see at artisan bread shops and I also have an oval shape here that makes a really beautiful shape as well. So when you get a new banneton basket you do need to prep your basket. What you want to do is you want to get it really damp and then you are going to dust it with rice flour and then you're going to let that dry completely and then every time you go to use your banneton basket you want to dust it with rice flour again. Now the reason why you want to use rice flour instead of wheat flour is because rice flour does not have the same proteins in it that wheat flour does so it is not going to create gluten. When you put your bread dough in your basket and there's moisture in your bread if there were wheat flour in your basket it's going to start creating those gluten strands and it's more likely to stick to your basket. Now some people do use a combination of rice and wheat flour to dust their basket with but I prefer to use only rice flour because I just have the best results with that. Now when you purchase your banneton basket it may also come with one of these covers and you can use this to put over your basket and you can proof your bread in it like this so that way you're not going to get those beautiful rings on the outside and bread bakers like to do this if they're going to do any intricate designs with their scoring. So typically they will cover the loaf with flour and then they'll proof it in this and then they have that really smooth surface to do their intricate designs. If you don't use your banneton cover you're going to get all of those beautiful rings on the outside of your loaf and I really love that look. I typically do not bake with the cover in it. Now it's really important to note that you do not bake your bread in the basket. All you're doing is proofing your bread in the basket. The basket is going to help the dough hold its shape as it proofs but then you're going to turn it out of your basket before you go to bake it. Now after you are done proofing your bread I typically just turn the basket over and give it a few taps and knock all of that extra flour out and then I just dust it again before I put a new loaf of bread in it. You don't need to wash these every time. Now if they do start getting a little bit crusty and kind of dirty you can rinse them out and then add some more rice flour into them again to get them ready for your next bake. So I'm going to go ahead and rinse mine out really quick. You don't want to use a lot of water. I just use the sprayer on my sink. Okay so now I have a rinsed that basket out and got all of the little crusty bits out. Now I'm just going to take a cloth and just run that over it so that it's not super dry but it is still damp. So now I'm going to re-dust it with rice flour and I really love to use this little tea strainer. It works so well for dusting rice flour. So I'm going to very liberally dust this all over the basket and make sure it gets on every side and all the way up to the top. Okay and now I'm just going to set that somewhere to dry completely. You don't want to cover it where it's not going to get enough air to dry because then it can start getting moldy but just let that dry completely and then when you go to put your new loaf of bread in it you can give it another dusting. Now that's it for today's video about banneton baskets. If you have any questions please leave those in the comment section and I will make sure to answer them. I'll see you guys next time!