I found that rice flour used to flour the brotforms/bannetons makes the
bread easy to remove. When I first got mine, I rice floured them heavily
the first 2 or 3 times I used them and now they are pretty much maintenance
free :-)) After I remove the bread, I let the baskets sit out to "dry" and
then I just store them in a plastic bag which is *not* zipped up or closed
airtight -- keeps dust off them and not having them airtight keeps them
from molding.
Thru experimentation I did find that using the heavy linen as a liner for
the cheap baskets and also as a couche makes quite a difference over using
canvas and/or cotton towels. You don't have to be a seamstress or do
anything fancy for this: I just cut some squares of linen large enough to
fit in the baskets, the corner points of the linen stick up, the fit of the
linen into the basket has some lumps, when the bread oven-springs the
slight imperfections in shape vanish. I had cut off the sticking up corners
of the linen on a couple of those squares until I realized that I should
leave them: they hold the plastic wrap away from the bread surface while
the bread is slowly rising in the fridge :-))
After I using a linen liner or couche, I dust off the excess flour, let
it air dry, brush off again and then fold and put in an open-ended plastic
bag ... never had a critter or mold or anything else problem.
I make larger loaves in the brotforms/bannetons and small boules
(individual soup bowl sized) in cheap baskets lined with linen. The
characteristic pattern of the basket on the larger loaves while not adding
anything to the taste certainly does add to the esthetics. I got mine at
the SFBI someone else mentioned in this digest; the price was excellent.
Also got the linen there. I hope to get some pics up on my website soon.
I found rice flour at a local Asian market.
Ellen