Bread Cloche

[skeptic7]

One of my favorite thrift stores opened after 18 months. I went there in a mood to spend money. They benefit the Animal shelter.
I bought a bread cloche with an extra base! It was only $10.00. I normally go on the grounds that if one is good, three is better. But while I've found a bread cloche is actually useful, and I getter a thinner crust and better oven spring, I don't need two. I use mine by putting the bread in a 9 inch cake pan and then putting it the cloche. I use a cold cloche in a preheated oven.
Would anyone like this? I can send it by US mail and you can pay postage and the original cost once it arrives.
Madeleine

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[Italiancook]

The price is right and the offer good, but I have to pass. I instituted a new rule before the pandemic: If I buy something for the kitchen, I have to get rid of something by giving it to the thrift store. At the moment, I can't think of anything I can part with.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic, I am seriously considering taking you up on the cloche offer. I've always wanted to try using one but had been uncertain about paying full price for an item that I might not use. However, thrift store purchase that benefits animals is a perfect opportunity to experiment.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
Whats your address? If you want to email me, i'm myeh@wap.org. Could ship it out next week

If it doesn't work, you can mail it to someone else later. Its awkward but its working well for me, better rise and thinner crust. I use all whole wheat so I don't worry about the color of the crust.

[BakerAunt]

I will email you.

[RiversideLen]

Just curious about this, when you bake bread in a cloche or a Dutch oven, do you start it in a cold oven and do you adjust the temperature and time?

[Mike Nolan]

I don't have a cloche, but I do have a Dutch oven, and when I bake in it, the oven is pre-heated with the Dutch oven in the oven. This does make lowering the dough into the pan a bit tricky, but I've got a big wide offset spatula (KAF used to sell it as a cookie shovel) that works pretty well. I've seen instructions online to make a sling from parchment and use that to lower the dough into the hot pan, but I've never tried that.

[BakerAunt]

I've not done bread in the Dutch Oven, but I adapted a then KAF (now KABC) recipe to use oil rather than butter, and it goes into a cold Emile Henry pot that then goes into the oven. There are other recipes at the KABC site, and some discussion that it does not make much difference if the pan is hot or cold when it goes into the oven.

The recipe does require removing the lid at a certain point so that the rolls can brown.

[Mike Nolan]

A hot Dutch oven is supposed to do good job of reproducing what happens in a deck oven with steam injection, but since I've never baked with a commercial oven, I'm not sure how close it really comes.

Spraying a little water in the Dutch oven should help increase the amount of steam it generates. You're supposed to take the lid off about half way through the baking.

When I was doing my steam tube testing , the Dutch oven results were pretty close to what I got with the steam tube.

See Adventures in Steam

[RiversideLen]

I really didn't know what a bread cloche was so I researched it a little and that led to the Dutch oven option. Obviously, you can do a lot more with a Dutch oven although it might not replicate a cloche exactly. I looked at Dutch ovens on Consumer Reports and see they tested Dutch ovens and one of the tests was bread baking. The expensive Le Crueset did a decent job with that but the much cheaper Lodge enameled cast iron did better. However, the Le Crueset out performed the Lodge in other areas. I thought about it and decided it would be nice to have a Dutch oven for a variety of tasks so I ordered one. I almost bought the Le Crueset but the price of the Lodge kept tugging on my value mindedness at about $300 less. So I ordered the Lodge for about $65. While the primary reason for getting it is not for bread baking I do want to give it a try. Since now I know you're suppose to uncover it about halfway through, it will be easy to test it for doneness. I like the idea of using a parchment paper sling.

[Mike Nolan]

Several years ago I bought a 10" diameter round Tramontina enameled cast iron Dutch oven at Sams Club for about $40. We also have a huge Club aluminum roaster (11x16) that we've had for nearly 50 years, big enough to do a turkey or a goose with the lid on.

I've made bread in the Tramontina, but not the Club. The largest boule I've made in the Dutch oven was about 16 ounces of dough, I could probably make one with 2-3 pounds of dough and have it pretty much fill up the pan.

[Italiancook]

I bought a Le Creuset Dutch oven years ago from TJ Maxx. I have no idea the size. I use it to make soups that include a quart of liquid. Plenty of room for all the solid ingredients. I prefer to serve soup from the stovetop, and this dutch oven holds in the heat making the second serving just as hot.

Later I bought the 4 quart Le Creuset, but I rarely use it. I have a glass stovetop and none of the burners are the right size or heat for the 4 quart.

I've never used either for bread. I've read with interest BakerAunt using her dutch oven for rolls, but haven't tried that either. I would only be willing to put the bread into a cold pan.

[Mike Nolan]

There's a thrift store near our favorite Chinese restaurant that has this painted on their window: Shopping at a thrift store is cheaper than therapy.

[BakerAunt]

I miss thrift stores. A local church does run one in our town, where I have found some good items (including one of my dough buckets), but I haven't been inside since the pandemic began. Right now, it is mask optional, and with a vaccination rate of only 39% in our county and cases increasing, I will not be going back inside any time soon.

I have a 5 1/2 qt. and a 7 1/2 qt. Le Creuset. I also have a 4 qt. Staub and a large oval Staub. I also have a 3 1/2 qt. Staub pumpkin-shaped (sale when Chef's went out of business) and a 3-qt. yellow bell pepper that was among my Mom's stuff but never used. I bought most of these at T.J. Maxx or Tuesday Morning. The 4 qt. was bought when KAF had a deal on them some years back (touting it for bread baking). The Staub's are not enamel coated on the inside. I rub them with a bit of oil after washing.

I love the pots for cooking soups, stews, beans, and roasts that go into the oven. They are one of the reasons I never bothered to update my small crockpot. I would just use them on days I would be around the house.

[skeptic7]

I have three sizes of crock pots right now, 6 quart, 5 quart and 2 quart. I use them for a whole variety of things, soups and stews and beans, and then odd things like bread in the summer, and candied orange peel in the winter. The smallest one was bought for that purpose. The orange peel needs to cook on low for a long period of time to let all the water evaporate. I used to do this on the stove top, but my current stove doesn't stay as low as necessary.
I use two cast iron dutch ovens I've baked breads in a large oval, and used the round one in the oven occasionally. I don't use them as much.
Oh when I use a dutch oven or a cloche to bake bread, I start with a cold dutch oven and find it takes twice as long as normal. It takes about 50 minutes for a loaf of bread, as opposed to 30 minutes if the bread is just in the oven.

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