Sounds delectable, Mike!
Saturday brought some rain and cooler temperatures, so it was an excellent day to try baking bread in the cloche that I acquired through Skeptic last fall. I checked online and decided to season the bottom with avocado oil (high smoke point to 500F). For the recipe, I started with the Crusty Cloche Bread at King Arthur but proceeded to change most of the ingredients to make it more whole grain and to include buttermilk. I let the bread machine do the mixing and kneading. After the first rise, I sprinkled the cloche bottom with farina, then shaped the loaf and put it in the cloche to rise for 30 minutes. The King Arthur recipe uses a cold oven, so I decided to try that way. After I slashed the loaf, I put it into the mostly cold oven (was still warm from seasoning the cloche bottom), set the temperature to 400, then started timing. After 35 minutes, I removed the top and let it go another 10. The loaf was beautiful. We had some with dinner tonight, and we all agreed that it is delicious.
I had looked at a video at Breadtopia about using clay bakers, and I think it helped me with shaping the boule. The video also gave suggestions on how to transfer a loaf from a banneton to a hot surface, so if I try preheating the cloche, I will also try those techniques.
.
