There's little as elegant as a crust that's well-colored with a gradient from almost-white to a deep mahagony-the contrast is striking. Use a Dutch oven for a deeply colored and shiny bread crust When the pot is sealed during the first 20 minutes of baking, the moisture escaping the dough provides the right environment to encourage optimal loaf volume. It doesn't require a lot of steam to provide benefit. This early crust formation limits optimal oven spring and will hinder overall loaf volume, resulting in squat and dense loaf.Ĭonversely, when you provide adequate steam the exterior of the dough remains moist and supple, allowing it to expand and stretch further before starches gel and the crust hardens and sets. Without steam in the oven during the first part of baking (when oven spring occurs), the rapidly expanding dough quickly forms a hard crust on the exterior. Benefits of baking bread in a Dutch oven (or any sealed pot) A Dutch oven helps increase loaf volume The crust will be fully hardened off by this time, so there's no worry of collapse.Īdditionally, if you baked your bread dough inside the Dutch oven on a piece of parchment paper as I recommend here, you can lift the corners of the parchment paper to remove the baked loaf of bread. When your loaf is finished baking, use a pair of oven-safe gloves to carefully reach down into the pot to remove the bread. How do you get a loaf of bread out of a Dutch oven? I've tested using a cold Dutch oven, and I do not get the same oven spring and final loaf volume as when I bake bread dough in a preheated Dutch oven. Yes, I always preheat my Dutch oven before baking bread dough inside. Should I preheat the Dutch oven for bread? See my guide to baking bread at high altitude if you're a high altitude baker.
When finished, a free-form loaf should have an internal temperature of around 205☏ (96☌) when fully baked.Īs with most things in baking, you might have to adjust the baking duration and oven temperature to suit your environment. Here's a quick video showing exactly how I use a Dutch oven in my kitchen to bake sourdough bread:
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A video on how to bake bread in a Dutch oven Moisture in the oven during the beginning part of baking allows your bread to rise fully, deepens the crust color, and finally, adds a level of shininess to the exterior.
Additionally, the sealed interior traps steam, a beneficial component of baking bread. The Dutch oven offers ample thermal mass to ensure a temperature-stable baking environment with its thick cast iron walls.
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Why bake bread in a Dutch oven or combo cooker?Ī Dutch oven helps to mimic the environment many professional bakers have in a bakery: a moisture-sealed chamber with intense and (mostly) even radiative heat. Links to my favorite (and high-quality) Dutch ovens.How to avoid burning the bottom of your bread dough.The baking time and temperature necessary for baking in a Dutch oven.Why using a Dutch oven to bake bread is a good idea (and what it does for your bread dough).In this comprehensive guide to baking bread in a Dutch oven, we'll look at: This humid environment allows the bread to rise high and promotes a crispy and shiny crust. During the initial stages of baking, steam is released from the dough into the sealed pot, which traps it and keeps the dough moist. Introducing steam in the home oven-a beneficial component in bread baking-can be a challenge, and a sealed pot makes this process simple and unassuming. Learning how to bake bread in a Dutch oven is the first task many undertake when embarking on their bread baking journey at home-myself included.
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