I was getting good-colored crusts on a baking tray with some water in the oven, but it just wasn’t quite cooked enough inside. I don’t have a dutch oven, but yesterday I tried just leaving it in a large covered casserole dish for an hour or so at 225°C (with no water). The color isn’t as good, but overall it worked a lot better!
This one could have risen a bit more but that’s just because I got impatient and didn’t let it proof long enough.
I think the casserole dish thing works because I make medium-sized (500g), oval loaves. It wouldn’t be big enough for the round boules everyone seems to go for.
ETA for reference, yes, I have eaten about two-thirds of that loaf since it was fresh this morning.
Sourdough. The only yeast I can find in the supermarkets these days is quick yeast (for bread-machines) and that doesn’t suit me at all. How much did I use? About two, maybe three tablespoons. Hard to tell. I just scooped out a dollop in a big wooden spoon. My recipe book dates from the 1970s and I take it as VERY loose guidelines these days. Their advice was to bake for an hour and a half at 350 deg F. I baked it for one hour at 180 deg C (about the same). I shift the bread on the shelves and turn it halfway through, as my oven is uneven. I probably should have used more yeast, as the mixture didn’t really sour - or perhaps it was sour already…? I don’t know. But the bread was fine. Also got the seal of approval from my wife!
Absolutely. My wife is gluten-intolerant to a degree, but she can manage a limited amount of sourdough bread. She’s also lactose intolerant but can tolerate cheese. Every day it’s just a case of not too much of anything, and check if her skin erupts or the toilet gets occupied.
I mean, a lot of websites claim that the important thing about cast-iron dutch ovens is their greater thermal mass (compared to a pyrex thing like I used), but when you’re cooking in an oven as opposed to on a stove, that seems physically dubious. I think it’s just about holding in the moisture, so any covered vessel would probably work as well. But it does need to be big enough for the final size of the loaf.
I also made a silicone liner for the bottom of the dish, as I wasn’t sure if the dough would try to stick to the pyrex, but I don’t think that was actually necessary.
I agree that it is about the moisture. I can get the same results doing what Liz suggests above, and did with a baking stone and pan of water for years. The dutch oven is easier. A heavy cast iron one MAY help stabilize the temperature a bit but I doubt the corningwear would lose heat that much faster than it’d reabsorb it once I put it back in the oven. Also isn’t the over-heating the oven supposed to help keep the drop from being outside the range we want (500F pre-heat 475F bake?) Raise that preheat # up 1 bit and use any oven safe pot with lid.
I agree about the ease of using a covered pan to create the steam.
Something I haven’t been doing recently, because I’ve been making bigger loaves (feeding 4 young adults plus myself) and I only have a smaller version of this pan, is to use Granite Ware instead:
Unlike cast iron, it doesn’t need to be preheated (it heats up almost instantly), so it’s easy to load the dough without burning yourself, and it’s also ridiculously inexpensive. There’s also an oval roaster that would work for batards rather than boules.
Another reason I like it is that it’s so light, which as you get older, is a major concern.
I employ the parchment paper sling to get stuff into my dutch ovens with no problem. I also have a sliding rack on my bottom oven that supports two cast iron ovens fairly well.
I was entertained that the 3qt bean pot works great for a 1lb loaf of bread.
I had a slice of my second sourdough loaf this morning. Decided to turn the rest into dog biscuits; on close inspection, it seems to have “fallen.” Not raw, but under-baked, dense, not properly risen.
I poured out two jars of filtered water, and left them out so the remaining chlorine would evaporate out. I’ll use this when feeding my sourdough.
Also wondering if my choice of feeding flour – really out of date whole wheat – is effecting the health of the starter.
I was baking with expired whole wheat. My mom has stuff dating back to 2015 in the fridge. If it is dry and dark it is ok. Whole Wheat does get some odd flavors over time (metallic) but if used as a 25% addition to a loaf it seems to work out.
An experiment using vital wheat gluten with AP flour failed miserably but tastily. Very flat, like my first few survival loaves, with much less sourdough taste and and more french bread-like texture, only slightly elastic. Oh, and it melded to the bottom of the pan, which hasn’t happened yet. The gluten may be too old, or the moon isn’t aligned properly with something. (Trying parchment next time!) @chgoliz - Using cast iron is right out for me, because of the weight. I gave away a covered cast-iron chicken pan when I couldn’t lift it anymore. It would have been perfect!
