Dough sticks to clay and stone baker

Any tips on preventing my dough from stick to the bottom and sides of my clay and stone bakers? I used parchment paper inside them, but don’t like the way the crust comes out. I’ve seen a ton of videos where people just dump their dough right into the hot baker and when done it slides out with no problem. What am I doing wrong?

What you described always works for me. I put cold or room temperature dough directly into a fully pre-heated (meaning it has been in the oven for about 20 minutes while the oven is coming up to temp) clay baker, and when it’s done baking it just pops right out. There might be a slight adherence, but nothing that a really tiny push on the side of the loaf won’t pop free and it never leaves any residue in the baker.

What kind of baker are you using? What temperature is it pre-heated to?

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I am using both a clay baker with glazed bottom and a tan stone oblong baker. I had thought about using a lot of flour on the bottom of each and maybe that might help. Not sure though.

Oh and I usually pre-heat oven at 450

Sorry, then I’m stumped. For me, doing what you do with both a Romertopf and the Breadtopia clay baker I get no sticking.

I am having the same difficulty using the unglazed clay baker I purchased from Breadtopia. The instructions say not to do anything - just use it
Well my bread sticks and it ruins the loaf - I have not used soap on it - so what do I need to do differently?

Unglazed clay bakers are like cast iron - you have to season them first, including the lid. I use a light coating of Crisco. Place them in a 200 deg. oven and raise the oven temp in 70 or 80° increments, about 5 to 10 min. apart, until it reaches 350°F. We want the temperature of the oven somewhat near but below the smoke point. Canola and refined grapeseed oil are both good choices, smoke around 400-425°F; commonly-used Crisco shortening smokes at 490°F. All will still polymerize at 350°F. This forms a non-stick coating.
I periodically apply a light coat of Crisco and an important part is to sprinkle corn meal in the bottom of the clay baker before you put the dough into it. I’ve used this method for 20 years.

Or…

Excellent video! Thanks.

I sprinkle corn meal on all my glazed bakers right before I put the dough in ( after heating the pan in the oven). I’ve never had it stick. On the unglazed pan I used olive oil and then sprinkled corn meal. After a couple uses the oil isn’t needed as it becomes seasoned.

Thanks for the tips, I’ll give them a try.

I used to have sticking issues with my Emile Henry cloche until I started sprinkling rice flour liberally on the (glazed) bottom portion as if it were a banneton.

Never had any issues with the entirely non-glazed covered long loaf pan, interestingly enough, but I knew to spray them with oil on the inside.

I guess the point is, don’t ASSUME that glazing provides non-stick abilities. And it won’t ever harm your bread to throw something light like rice flour down.