No Oven challenge - take 2 (success!)

Christmas Eve, I tried baking a loaf in the wood stove again, having learned a lot from Take 1. Same basic set up, with a few key changes. One, I waited until the coals had died down a bit more than the first try. Two, I used a 6-inch Fat Daddios cake pan inside the cast iron pot, and proofed the loaf in this as a bread pan.

This worked well to provide a bit of insulation between the hot iron pot and the loaf, and also made it easier to handle the dough (a simple 123 sourdough with about 75 grams of stone-ground whole wheat flour). I made a sling of parchment to lower the pan into the pot, then removed the parchment so it wouldn't incinerate like last time.

I put the pot in the stove and baked it for 20 minutes with the lid on. I then used a barbecue fork to carefully lift off the lid - the loaf looked very good, almost done! I put the thermometer probe into the loaf, closed the door and watched it like a hawk. This picture is a bit fuzzy as the camera focused on the ash on the stove door instead of the pot (should have cleaned the door glass first).

The temperature went up more quickly than I thought it would, and reached 200F in about 8 minutes. I'm glad I was watching it so closely this time!

When I turned it out of the pan, it looked fabulous, though the side closest to the back of the wood stove was a little dark.

The bottom crust was perfect though, so the pan-in-a-pot theory seemed to work well.

The crumb was excellent - moist and chewy with good oven spring. It was so good, we had it for lunch on Christmas Day!

It's so nice to know we can have good bread even if the power goes off. As long as it's in the winter. Next No Oven try - the barbecue!