An old baker at the farmer's market taught me about proofing baskets last spring

I was buying sourdough at the local market in Portland, and the guy behind the counter noticed me eyeing his bannetons. He just said, 'You know, I didn't start using them until my 20th loaf came out like a pancake.' He spent 5 minutes showing me how to dust them with rice flour instead of regular stuff. Has anyone else had that aha moment with proofing baskets where it just clicked?

2 comments

2 Comments

andrew69329d ago

And honestly I used to think proofing baskets were just unnecessary extra gear, but after that rice flour trick actually kept my dough from sticking I totally changed my mind.

miles82529d agoMost Upvoted

My buddy @andrew693, he bought a banneton off Amazon and tried it once without flour. The dough stuck so bad he basically had to peel it off with a butter knife. Took him like twenty minutes to clean the thing and he almost threw it in the trash. After I told him about rice flour he gave it another shot and now he's hooked on them.