I was in the local charity shop today and stumbled across a lovely looking Dutch Oven. It turns out to be a Nacco 20E from Denmark. Having parted with the princely sum of £3 I can't wait to try it out!
Reading other articles it would appear that pre heating is best (I currently use a quarry tile as a baking stone) however should I use parchment paper (or even greaseproof paper)?
I can of course experiment with trial and error but I just wonder if anyone has any sage words of advice please?
Generally I prefer to bake sourdough but I like yeasted bread too.
Cheers
Chox
I have started using a parchment paper circle that I drop into the DO just before dropping in the loaf. I started doing this based on the advice I got when one of my loaves got stuck and destroyed the loaf trying to pry it out of the pot. The bonus is that your pot stays cleaner.
A pot with no handle on the lid allows you to used the traditional top as the base and the big part as the lid. Makes for much easier loading. I do preheat.
Having burned myself too many times moving dough into my Dutch ovens, I decided to line large enough cooking bowls with enough parchment paper for the parchment to well overlap the sides of the bowl. After the bulk rise I put one loaf's worth of dough into each bowl. To move the dough into the heated Dutch ovens, I pick it up using the paper as a sling. I haven't been burned since. The paper turns a bit brown in the heat of baking and is generally easily removed from the bottom of the baked loaf before I let the loaf cool.
A couple of years ago I purchased a box of 1000 half sheet size pieces of parchment which I am slowly working my way through. I'm lucky to have the place to put it in a pantry near my ovens. I did this because I'd grown to hate buying rolls of parchment. They were never long enough and, because the paper always had a tendency to roll up, they were hard to manage. My sheets are flat as a pancake.
I bake at least 3/4 of my loaves in a DO, sometimes using parchment, other times just sprinkling a bit of cornmeal in the bottom of the pot. In general, the wetter / stickier the dough, the more likely I am to use parchment. That said, I'm also less likely to use it for loaves I'm going to give away.
I almost always pre-heat the DO, but have tried the cold pot method a few times with no problems; I haven't done a side by side comparison of the same recipe to judge the degree of difference.
Thanks for the advice guys, I have bought a new roll of silicon coated baking paper and I have some bread in the DO as I type!
Actually it is a very small roll which I made using a little excess starter halfway through todays brew.
I will report back later :)
Well, mission succesful! The baking paper made it very easy to load and unload the DO. Due to the small size I baked it for 15 mins lid on and 10 mins lid off ...... all at 230c
The bread is 50% wholemeal Spelt and 50% strong white bread flour at approx 60% hydration. It looks good, I'm happy, tasting next :)
I've had to knock loaves out of my iron pots a couple of times but generally it's fine. I don't use parchment because I bake up to 8 loaves at a time and that would just be a pain. I always pre-heat the pots, but it would be interesting to try baking cold in them.
Very cute little loaf! How was it?
Thank you :) I speak with a forked tongue but I have to say it was quite fantastic! The crust was light and crispy and the crumb fluffy and super nutty tasting, oh how I wish I had made more (well actually I will be making more overnight, this mini loaf was just an after thought after all).
I think I am gonna like baking in this Ditch Oven :)
Dutch Oven !!
(still don't know how to edit a post)
I just lightly grease inside D.O. Preheat and add dough. Never a problem