December 29, 2015 - 1:17pm
Perfect bread baking pots?
I just lucked out on a fabulous Boxing Day sale at Canadian Tire (for non-Canadian members, this is our 'everything' store; and yes, they also have tires!). They had these Lagostina cast iron 3-quart (2.8 litre) casseroles which seem to be the perfect size for baking boules, at 70% off! Sale is on until tomorrow... :)
I will try them tomorrow and let you know how it turns out. With these babies I can use the smaller oven (the one without the slabs of granite) and still hopefully get 'hearth' bread!
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I prefer bigger ones at 4 quart to accept larger loaves and not burn my fingers and hands so easily but these will do smaller ones just fine.
if you want to make recipes that use roughly 350 to 500 grams of flour, maybe somewhat more if you're okay with tall-ish loaves. I have a couple of enamelled ones that size, different brands but both bought at Cnd Tire for 70% off. If you decide you also want a larger oval one, keep watching their ads. They have similar specials fairly often on the various brands they carry.
Thanks Arjon; good to know that you use this size. I'm about to go dump my wet, floppy dough into the pots which are pre-heating. This could be a big adventure! I think they'll work better with tighter dough in smaller boules.
I'd like to get an oval one or two as well so yes, I keep an eye on the CT specials! :)
Well, that turned out better than I deserved. I used Ken Forkish's recipe for overnight 40% Whole Wheat bread, and his method for baking in a pre-heated dutch oven. However, I got so engrossed in ensuring the water temperature was just right that I totally forgot to actually weigh the water when I added it to the flour for the autolyze! It's a good thing I've been doing this for a while now; I managed to hydrate the dough by feel. It was pretty wet (probably around 78-80%).
The proofing baskets were about the same size as the 3 quart iron pots so dumping the jiggly dough into the hot pots was a challenge! I lucked out and all the dough actually got into the pot rather than sticking to the rim or the outside though. :)
I'm pretty pleased with the result at least visually. Next time I will make smaller boules; these are a bit high. And maybe bake for a bit less time, or raise the rack in the oven. One of the loaves is pretty dark, almost burnt, on the bottom. The different patterns are because one was risen in a floured basket and one in a basket lined with a floured napkin. I'll post the crumb once they've cooled and I cut into one (it's for family dinner tomorrow!).