Dutch Oven vs regular oven

Toast
Malthouse Mark on 16 Dec 2016 at 01:22

Hi, I've been baking sourdough for about a year. I bake either in a large farmhouse loaf tin or just on a stone in the oven.

I've seen Dutch Ovens mentioned plenty of times. For some reason they seem to get mentioned a lot with no-knead sourdough recipes.

I am yet to see an explanation of why cooking bread in a Dutch Oven vs on a stone in a regular oven is so good. What is the benefit? It seems I'd be more likely to burn myself and all I can think is that it encases the loaf making the steam build - but spraying my oven seems to do nicely in that regard.

I can see that historically it may have been a good way to bake a loaf in a fire before ovens were readily available to the masses, but I can't work out why one would use it otherwise.

Can someone enlighten me, please?

(PS: I've not tried it *yet* but it *is* in my plans to do so - I'm simply curious what it's all about!)

What it does is to reproduce most of the characteristics of a masonry oven. So it is a modern way of baking as in a wood fired oven like you mentioned. Why bother? Using a dutch oven at home allows you bake gaining the two main characteristics of a professional brick oven: a sealed moist chamber and strong radiant heat. The results are indistinguishable from using a professional bakers oven. Your method of creating steam just can't do as well. Try it you'll be glad you did. Also, wear gloves.

To avoid the risk of burns, I allow my dough to rise in a bowl lined with enough parchment paper to allow the dough to be hoisted from the bowl by gripping the overhanging paper when it's to be loaded into the 500 degree dutch oven.  I then place the lid on (with my gloved hands) and put the DO into the oven.  I've not been burned since starting this practice.

The paper comes off easily when the loaf comes out once it's done.

 

I use a combo cooker and heat only the deep part. Then the loaf goes on the shallow part with some parchment (helps keep the bottom from burning and I can move it around easily). The deep part goes on top as the "lid". Since it is cool, no burns. If I have a second loaf, and it is already heated from the first, then the shallow part is less likely to burn you anyway (not that it can't).

Like mentioned above, it is mostly for the steam. You can put a bowl or a deep pan over the bread that is baking on a stone and get the same benefits. The dutch oven is a little better sealed, but there isn't that bid of a difference. It also will keep the small area around the bread about the same temperature, so you get good oven spring. Plus you don't have to heat it up as long. Lastly, it is something people are more likely to have around than a baking stone (it doesn't have to be a cast iron dutch oven, just a pot with a lid that goes in the oven).

The reason you usually see it with no-knead bread is two-fold. First, those are normally higher hydration so they produce enough steam on their own inside such a vessel. Second, those are often marketed to the bread novice who will not have the equipment or experience to bake in an oven with a stone and steam. It is hard to get good steam in a home oven.

The biggest problem with a dutch oven is the size. If you are making a baguette, then a roasting pan on a stone is better (even one of those deep aluminum disposable type works okay, but you might want to double it up... I don't always). If I am making a boule, I like using the dutch oven for the simplicity, but if I am using up my entire stone with ciabatta or the like, then I use other steaming methods.

to bake on stone and cover with an aluminum pot or a stainless steel mixing bowl, both if which weigh much less than cast iron, heat up fast and transmits the heat well..  Don't have to mess with trying to make stream either.

No matter what, if you bake you will get burned.  I only bake 1 loaf of bread a week and always have at least one burn on my arm somewhere usually from baking something other than bread though :-)

ODP,  I assume you have an electric oven.  For those of us with a gas oven, I could use a firehose and pump steam in, and it would come out just as fast through the oven vents, so adding steam without an enclosure,  like a DO or inverted bowl doesn't work all that well for me. 

I've tried DOs and given them up - I can bake 4 loaves at a time on heavy duty steel baking trays and get as good a result as with a DO - and it's a better use of energy.

Hi Grahame, hope all is well with you.

I already have not one, not two but three cast iron casseroles. One more suited than the others as it will go either way up and is quite large. I do intend to try very soon - I've a plan for some of that lovely roast garlic and thyme no-knead!

I simply couldn't tell what the big thing about DO baking was. I'm happy with the success I get with a sprayer in my electric oven but I've clearly got to try the DO now, just to see...

   Mark

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Lazy Loafer on 17 Dec 2016 at 17:47

I use a bunch of smaller cast iron casseroles for boules. I can actually fit eight of them into my oven at once, so it's very efficient for round loaves (I use granite slabs for baking oval or long loaves). I find the oven spring is slightly better with the covered pots than it is with the stones and steam pans, though the latter usually works very well too. The other thing is consistency - with the pots all loaves turn out about the same regardless of where they are in the oven. With the stones, the ones that start on the top shelf sometimes are too close to the top element and don't burst as well (the slashes crust over before the oven spring has finished springing).

I haven't burned myself yet (just a matter of time). I echo the suggestion to use parchment, though I do it a bit differently. I proof my loaves in floured baskets then turn them out onto squares of parchment, slash them and lift the whole thing and drop it into the hot pot.