Had a little experiment last night with two portions of the same dough.
The one of the left is baked with the steam-oven. I just used the standard bread recipe in the oven’s settings. The one on the right is baked with a Dutch oven.
Tried to get the variables (like scoring etc.) as consistent as possible. What a different.
Any thoughts? The only thing I can think of is that the Dutch oven wasn’t the same temp as the oven, so that stopped the rise of the loaf on the right.
Holy hell, that is one sharp dutch oven. Cut your loaf in half just like that!
It has a teleporter inside, and the loaf got pulled out too early.
It had the same baking time as the steam oven version. Around 45 - 50 minutes. Maybe it was the temp of the cast iron pot…
You should preheat the Dutch oven for around 1hr before baking. Also you should do the last 1/3 of the bake with the lid off.
Some people toss ice cubes into the dutch oven with the dough to increase the moisture. It never made any difference for me.
A steam oven is superior. That isn’t debatable. The dutch oven is the next best method - steam ovens are expensive.
@markr @Dontbesourdough Yes, Dutch ovens are great for baking bread, but I wish someone would make one with a ‘bread pan’ shape so I could make sandwich-style bread in it, not just boules.
You can use a Terrine. I have family that prefers regular loaves, whenever they visit I do a lot of my bread baking in that.
@Cheradenine I was thinking more of a square cross-section like a bread pan has. I’d have to buy a terrine, which would be expensive and I’d have to justify the costs and find a place to put in among my already-crowded kitchen tools, pans, and appliances.
Do you put parchment paper in the Dutch oven? I use it to lift the loaf and keep it from sticking when baking.
Instead of ice cubes, spritz water on the dough before closing the lid. Seems to help the spring.
I picked up my terrine at a flea market pretty cheap, and it has straight sides, so I do use parchment paper. I have tried ice cubes, but didn’t find that they did much.
Do you know about the loaf tins that have a slide on lid? You can leave the lid on for the initial part of the bake (or the entire bake if you like your bread perfectly rectangular).
@desGroles Yes, these are called Pullman pans. I’ve not used one but I’m aware of them. often used to make Japanese milk bread loaves.
My bread machine makes a loaf with a similar square cross-section, albeit with rounded corners.
They do. I have both types.
What’s your go-to method right now? Did you do the comparison between a Dutch Oven and just a oven with a tray of hot water on the button?
I never tried the steam tray. I have two Dutch ovens, both made of clay, one for round loaves and one for ‘batard’ oval loafs. I generally only use the batard. The only recent change I’ve made in my baking is to minimize the amount of starter I keep. Basically I went from saving 150g to 25g. Much less waste. Back on Reddit there were posts from ‘the German guy’ that covered in massive detail how to minimize starter waste and the science of starter proportions.
The force is strong in you today! 😂
Professional bakers have never used Dutch ovens for a reason.
Well it would be too fussy for multiple loaves, the en cloche baking doesn’t scale up well. If I had to make more than 2 at a time no way would I be wrangling a bunch of heavy searing hot pans.
was the one cooked in the steam oven softer or less crusty?
No, that one had way more crunchiness.
Honestly, experimenting with Dutch anything and bread, is setting yourself up for failure. The Dutch bread is basically a sponge. With the occasional bakery being the exception, they do not bake sour dough bread, and the average Dutch does not appreciate a proper loaf of bread. They love the white bread spongy thing. Source: Am German, love sour dough bread, and lived in the NL for 4+ years. Also debated Dutch friends / colleagues over their bread :D
You know a dutch oven is just a cast iron pot, right?
Dutch cast iron is basically a sponge.
nope, I was just using the opportunity to make some good-natured fun of our neighbors :)
Haha. What’s wrong with Dutch bread? It’s cheap, sweet, and you can store it for multiple days. Lol. (I’m Dutch, I get your disapproval for our bread baking skills).
In this case, I’m referring to a cast Iron pot aka a Dutch oven.
lekker
Exactly - net zoals ik had geschreven - jullie houden van dit “brood” ;P ik had er ook af en toe een “zuurdesembrood” gekoopt, maar ook deze waren nog steeds binnen een dag of twee droog zoals en stukje brandhout.
Well that is a bit hyperbole, although I agree on some parts. Supermarket bread yes. We also have good traditional bakers with fine bread and pastry’s, also the biologic-dynamic bakeries wich I grew up with bake proper sour dough bread. I only eat bread from the supermarket if I have to, I don’t buy it. I do like the breads from Turkish bakeries here in the Netherlands as well.
Luckely I live near Aachen in the south of the Netherlands, and I like the bread from German bakeries very much too, but a lot of the Lidl, Kaufland, Aldi et cetera factory packed bread is not very good either.
Ik heb er ook bij bakkers gezoekt, maar de zuurdesembrood die ik had kunnen vinden was bijna zo zacht als een gewoon witte brood, en was ook binnen twee dagen zo droog dat het inscheurde (tension tears in the bread from drying out). Ik zou het geloven dat er ook en bakker of drie zijn, die er goede zuurdesembrood maken, maar het is gewoon zwaar zo’n bakker te vinden - tenminste in N/Z-Holland.
