Hello! Thank you for your purchase and review about this product. Sorry that we did not explain enough on the website about how to maintain a Proofing Basket. Here it is.
Please do not wash this basket with soap and water. It is made of wood, and like all other wood products, it will absorb liquids and loose its function.
The traditional way of cleaning these baskets are to leave them out in sunshine to dry them out between bakes. sunshine will sterilize your proofing baskets.
Another way to clean your benetton baskets are to simply dry them off and brush off the flour with a hard brush (tooth brushes are good too. Obviously, not the ones you used to brush your teeth!). It is important that the flour is completely dried so that you can brush it off. To dry the basket, you can leave it in the oven after baking so that it can dry off or put it in a food dehydrator if you have one.
Living in a hot humid place like Hong Kong, keeping your basket dry will be your cleaning process - so please store in dry place (also not the refrigerator).
Proofing baskets are meant to be used just for bread making and the dough is not anything 'dirty' so it will not need any washing. Just make sure that the flour is brushed off and the baskets are kept dry and that is good enough.
Please remember, do not wash your basket or get it wet.