I just picked up a Lodge 5-quart double Dutch Oven, and I'm going to try a boule in it tomorrow morning.
I usually cook in a Granite Ware turkey roaster and have the roaster sitting on a pizza stone to help get some heat into the roaster during the first few minutes of the bake. Is that needed with the cast iron DO?
No.
Though I do use a pizza stone on the rack one level below the rack where the DO sits. I presume that setup mostly shades the DO from the direct radiant heat of fhe lower heating element and helps prevent burning the underside of the loaf.
Thanks Dave.
I tried it today with a similar setup. I have a large cookie sheet on the very bottom rack position as a heat shield from the oven element. Put the double Dutch one rack position higher with the lid down and the pot as the cover.
Seemed to work pretty good!
and then put the Dutch Oven over it upside down. I find it much less hassle than trying to put the loaf in a hot container.
of the 5 qt combo cooker mentioned. They allow cooking on the lid and using the pot as the cover, so it's easy to load.
Assuming you leave the stone on the rack and just slide it out to load and cover?
that I can leave the stone in place, slide the loaf on the stone, cover with the preheated Dutch Oven. If I remember I snap a photo next time I bake.
Thanks!
Today’s bake. I like how evenly it plumped up. Should make even sized slices of bread. Not sure I like the paler crust where the loaf was sitting down in the bevel of the lid.
Could take it out and finish on the stone or rack for the last ten or fifteen minutes.
I did that on yesterday’s bake and it definitely helped!
Baking today and this is what my setup looks like.
Thanks for posting! Looks like you had great oven spring on both of those loaves.
I have a baking steel on my oven’s roasting rack which has crumpled aluminum in it. I have that on the lowest rack and always bake my bread in my dutch oven on the baking steel roasting rack set up.
If your oven is like mine, that would put your baking steel 4-6 cm above the bottom heating element and then your DO sits on your baking steel? Is that correct?
The base of the DO would be about 9 cm above the bottom of the oven floor inside of which the heating element is hidden.