My Improvised La Cloche, Thai Style
I live in Thailand where many specialty baking items aren't available. Improvising has been interesting, sometimes fun and occasionally quite frustrating. Pictured is what I found at a local kiln to bake my breads in. I would have loved a La Cloche, but this is working wonderfully. To acheive an extra steamed effect I soak the lid of this unglazed terra cotta pot in water before I bake.
I preheat it all in my oven and when I take the lid off to slide my bread in, steam wafts out. I use a metal pizza peel made locally that I was really excited to find. I can't buy a banneton so I use a stainless steel bowl. For a couche I cut up an old thick cotton apron & it is working great!
This is a traditional style terra cotta pot used for food. I have lived here in Thailand for 12 years now.
Comments
Well, not quite, Like a dutch oven it is deeper than is convenient but it clearly should work very well. Show us some bread!
Bake On!
Jay
I have a clay baker not as deep as yours, but not as shallow as La Cloche. I had some interesting adventures trying to drop bread dough into the screaming hot clay baker, until I read Rose Levy Beranbaum's suggestion in the Bread Bible.
She suggests heating the lid, but NOT the base. Instead, you can do your final rise right in the base. When it's time to bake, slash and put it in the oven covered by the hot lid.
I was skeptical at first and fearful of harming my clay baker, but it works, and works GREAT. Sometimes I mist the loaf right before putting it in the oven, but it's not really necessary. If you do something like that, make sure that there are no water droplets on the rim of the base where the lid will touch.
This is a great tip, I will try it next time I'm home baking with my clay pot, and will definitely send a note to Cindy about it....
Tha't actually one of my favorite ways to bake bread in a "regular size" oven. Works extremely well!
I even gave one to my friend Cindy (who visits TFL sometimes) and she's also baked bread in it and liked it.
I actually blogged about a bread made in mine last year (scroll down for a photo of it inside the oven)
http://bewitchingkitchen.com/2009/07/27/the-bread-we-love/
I looked at your blog and the pot, looks familiar :)
THank you for the recipe, Sally, I love it when people post their tweaked recipes because I don't have access to bread books yet. (Someday!)
If you have a wok ring that will hold the cover while inverted, you might try baking in the lid and remove the base carefully after the first 10-15 minutes. It would be a lot easier to load.
Eric
Thank you for your comments! So encouraging. Thank you so much for the tips and ideas, too, very helpful.
Sawatdee Ka.
Your pot is perfect. I am glad that you can improvise and it works for you. I am a Thai but lived in the U.S. in small town in VA. I love to bake breads and had improvise many things also.
I wish that I were in Thailand right now. It would be so great to get away from the cold and to eat great foods for next to nothing money.
mantana
It is a joy living here in Thailand! And yes, the cheap delicious food is so great at $1 a plate. I bought this pot for 40 Baht, a little over $1. I found some fantastic flours here in Chiang Mai as well, a bread flour at 13% protein, and fresh ground everything, including fine ground and coarse ground whole wheat. I need to ask where they are getting their wheat berries from. Glad to see Thais on here!
That's genius!
That's interesting about strong wheat flour in Chiang Mai. I would love to find out more when I'm in Thailand next time. When I was in Bangkok late last year and did some bakings for my family. The bread flour I bought there was imported from (surpise, surprise) Australia.
Sue
http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com
Hi MadAboutB8, yes, I have baked with flours from Australia for years here! But like I told Mantana below a new shop just opened up in Chiang Mai that sells fresh ground flours, of all kinds, and 7 grain mixes that they made up themselves. I just moved up here from Southern Thailand, I lived there for 5 years near Takua Paa, Phang Nga. I bet you miss Thailand. :)
Good Morning Oceanic Thai:
And your found fresh ground flour in Thailand? That is amazing! I can't believe that in the country that the main staple are rice one can find fresh ground flour! Here I am in America which eat breads all the time but I can't find fresh ground flour.
My brother is in Chiengmai for the last 30 years. He is a Professor at the Technical college in town. My sister in law works at the Agriculture college.
I am coming back to visit my family( and eat great foods) in Jan. next year. If you are still there can we meet for coffee or something? Perhaps I can get the bread from you for my brother and his wife to taste? They bought that terrible bread from the store for me because they thought that I miss it since I lived here for so long. (Beside with all great foods and fruits in Thailand, whyshould I eat bread?)I told them that I don't eat breads like this because I eat my own sourdough and others that I bake myself. But they have no idea what they are.
My e-mail on my web"www.lakethaichef.com
Please keep in touch.
mantana
Thank you for your long message, Mantana, I would love to meet you here in Chiang Mai for coffee next January. I live in Hang Dong and I buy my flours at a new baking store that just opened called phuan khrua, excellent store! I was so excited to find fresh-ground flours at such good prices.
Thank you for your long message, Mantana, I would love to meet you here in Chiang Mai for coffee next January. I live in Hang Dong and I buy my flours at a new baking store that just opened called phuan khrua, excellent store! I was so excited to find fresh-ground flours at such good prices.
Hello Ocenic Thai:
If I come on Jan. as I plan to, we will deffinitely meet. I actually came from Phuket, Thailand. I knew all the towns that you lived before.
So jealous of the opportunity to live in Thailand and eat great foods "for a song".
Please keep in tourch.
mantana