Janis,
Lucky you! Those bannetons can produce beautiful breads. Is yours
cloth lined? If not, take a thin kitchen towel (not terry cloth),
place it in the banneton, and sprinkle it well with flour. Then
place your dough in the banneton for the final rise. When doubled,
gently turn it out onto your greased baking sheet. Then very
carefully slash the top of the loaf a few times, holding a very sharp
knife almost parallel to the dough as you slash....so that you're
cutting just the surface of the loaf instead of cutting deeply into
it.
The perfect recipe for your banneton would be a French or sourdough
bread with only water, flour, salt, and yeast as the ingredients.
However, you can experiment and use any "rustic" type of bread with
good results, too, I'm sure. You just don't want a very wet dough
such as a ciabatta because it won't hold its shape when you turn it
out.
Linda Rehberg
co-author of the Bread Machine Magic series of books