January 27, 2009 - 8:18pm
Homemade Cloche
Bad news...I just broke my Cloche. Every once in a while, I used it when I just had to have the crispiest of crisp crusts that I couldn't achieve with the cold oven method. Since I don't want to shell out 40+$ again, I've decided to build a homemade cloche from a terra cotta flower pot and base. But, I'm not sure if the terra cotta is food-safe or not. There's a Joann's in my neighborhood where I can get the materials so does anyone know if their materials are food safe? How can I get the material safety sheet if the employee's over there don't know?
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There are a lot of books that have recipes for flower pot bread using just plain old terra cotta pots, clean and unused as plant pots, obviously, so you could easily fashion a cloche out of one the right size and it would be safe.
qahtan
The terra cotta used for flowerpots should be quite food-safe from the standpoint of being sanitary, so long as it's bare terra cotta and not sealed or coated in any way.
However, the terra cotta used for flowerpots may or may not have stability under repeated heating and cooling. Pottery designed to withstand big swings in temperature is made from clay usually mixed with ground-up clay that has previously been fired, or with sand (silica) sometimes. Terra cotta for flowerpots is often (not always) smooth clay without this additive. It's called grog familiarly, and gives the finished pot a certain elasticity to withstand thermal shock.
So you may have cracking or breakage issues using flower pots in this way. You may get lucky too, though, as the clay used in the pot you end up with may have enough natural 'grog' content to get you by.
Good luck.
Might be easier to just put a stainless steel bowl over your bread placed onto an oven stone if you have one! Try it...you might like it just as much as your La Clouche method. Lot's of info on this site about covering your bread.
Sylvia
I'm gonna try the stainless steel bowl method but I'm not sure if using a clay cover or steel cover would be better. The first might be better because I heard that the more radiant heat the better. But I think that only more radiant heat from the bottom is better because the heat is supposed help increase the oven spring. Heat from the top would just form a crust sooner. If I use the stainless steel bowl, it might reflect heat away from the top of the loaf while keeping steam trapped. But, the steam trapped from both methods might be enough to keep the loaf from drying out so I'm not sure which one would be better. Anyone have any ideas?
interesting question, As I understand it, part of the point of trapping steam under the cloche is that steam transfers heat into the loaf more rapidly than hot air (as well as affecting the starch at the surface of the loaf) so creating more oven spring early in baking (i've noticed this - can take the cloche off after 5-6 mins and the oven spring is there) so more radiant heat would be good. I guess this is one to put to the test...i'm wondering about comparing the results of using a cold cloche to a pre-heated cloche, the difference presumably being in radiant heat.....
I have never been happier since I read this:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/9809/put-your-tin-foil-hats
An aluminum foil roasting pan reflects the heat as opposed to using conduction. I find it does every bit as good a job as my terra cotta pot. It's easier to handle. It warms up and cools down in about a minute so I'm not wasting much energy.
I use it with a baking stone.
I highly recommend it.
If you have a baking stone, I'd try the cheap aluminum foil roasting pan as a cover. If not, flower pots can be found cheap in the off-season. I picked up two different sizes, with tray bases to match, very cheaply. Having said that, my black cast iron Dutch oven still does a better job with round loaves.
Well the problem with that is that it is larger at the bottom than at the top - you might have trouble getting the bread out. It isn't going to come out in one piece.