Dutch Oven Bread

D

DougH

Member
Here's my second attempt at bread in a dutch oven. The first attempt was an abysmal failure that we won't talk about...but this one came out really well. I'm pretty excited about this, and look forward to playing with recipe variations and such.

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I followed this recipe:

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread?_r=0

If you watch the video, there are some inconsistencies between it and the listed recipe...I chose to follow the recipe.
 
Artisan bread, now you're singing my song. Once you get the hang of it, the cast iron dutch oven makes it magical.
 
RobM said:
Artisan bread, now you're singing my song. Once you get the hang of it, the cast iron dutch oven makes it magical.
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Yeah, I'm thinking this is the start of a new addiction. I mean, this one was really tasty, and I don't even know what I'm doing yet :)
 
DougH said:
Yeah, I'm thinking this is the start of a new addiction. I mean, this one was really tasty, and I don't even know what I'm doing yet :)
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GF forced me to try some artisan 100% rye bread, everyone else loves it but I never was one for rye - unless it's in liquid form.

I don't make artisan enough, tend to use the turbo breads lately, much faster and still a great loaf.



I really want to learn how to make sourdough, but I can never seem to get the starter to live for more than a week.

If anyone has any tried and true on that :)
 
RobM said:
GF forced me to try some artisan 100% rye bread, everyone else loves it but I never was one for rye - unless it's in liquid form.
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Amen to that (although I'll admit I do sometimes like rye bread)

RobM said:
I don't make artisan enough, tend to use the turbo breads lately, much faster and still a great loaf.



I really want to learn how to make sourdough, but I can never seem to get the starter to live for more than a week.

If anyone has any tried and true on that :)
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I really want to try sourdough as well...it's one of my favorite kinds of bread. What little reading I have done makes it seem like starter is hard to kill...so I was hoping it wouldn't be a hard transition. I suppose I'll find out whenever I try it.
 
Wild yeast varies from town to town with some much better than others. I've established a few starters with mixed results, one lasting for months. Mine didn't require much more attention than new baby. They worked, but they did not result in San Francisco sourdough flavor and I understand SF starters have difficulty living elsewhere. I suspect different wild yeasts can fight each other and both can lose the war.

There are easier ways to create good sourdough bread using Red Star yeast without having to adopt a starter.

Hilditch
 
I've been making no-rise bread for the past two winters, and love it! I find the round loaf to be a bit awkward, but the bread itself is top-notch! I haven't tried it in vintage CI, but I have made it with both a large Le Creuset and a ceramic pot.
 
My little sister has a glass top stove oven and has refused my gift of a cast iron dutch oven. So last week she was cooking bread in a glass pyrex bowl and dropped it coming out of the oven. The glass broke in a million little shards that went all over the kitchen. She didn't pick any of the glass up because it was all 450 degrees. So now she has a gizillion small burnt spots on the floor. She got mad at me when I rubbed it in and told her so. But she is bull headed and still refuses a cast iron dutch oven gift from me. David
 
David P Fortin said:
My little sister has a glass top stove oven and has refused my gift of a cast iron dutch oven. So last week she was cooking bread in a glass pyrex bowl and dropped it coming out of the oven. The glass broke in a million little shards that went all over the kitchen. She didn't pick any of the glass up because it was all 450 degrees. So now she has a gizillion small burnt spots on the floor. She got mad at me when I rubbed it in and told her so. But she is bull headed and still refuses a cast iron dutch oven gift from me. David
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I'm not sure that dropping a screaming hot cast iron dutch oven on the floor would have had exactly happy consequences, David. :chuckle:
 
You might enjoy this book which lists about 13 variations on making bread in a dutch oven along with other good info related to ingredients and equipment.

Cast Iron Bread: A Baker's Dozen Primer by Russell Ware

http://www.amazon.com/Cast-Iron-Bread-Bakers-Primer-ebook/dp/B00TSSJEZ2/

When I bought it the cost was about $3 for the Kindle version. We don't have a Kindle, instead I read it in a web browser when logged into Amazon. Suddenly I can make a decent loaf of bread!
 
Speaking of bread, Peter Reinhart has several books on bread baking and are worth every cent. I see some are available on Kindle, too. If you like artisan breds with thick chewy crust and exceptional flavor you knead (pun intended) at least one of his books. THE BREAD BAKER APPRENTICE is the place to start.

Additionally, a long time customer at the barber shop grew up in my hometown and went to school with my mom back in the '30s and he and his bakery were famous locally for many items and his Vienna bread was worth driving many miles to go and get a few loaves. Don and I had many a conversation about bread baking and the single most important thing that he passed along about bread flavor was to use 1st or 2nd Clear Flour. Many baker suppliers sell sell a flour that combines 1st & 2nd Clear Flour into something branded Powerful Clear and it works wonders for flavor, too. Don mentioned that there are actually 7 different flours milled from a single kernel of wheat and that the clear flours have the highest ash content. The higher the ash content, the more flavor. He also confirmed my grandmothers instructions to use scalded milk or powder milk in the recipes. The heating process of the milk for some reason unbeknownst to me makes for tender bread. Additionally, half a dozen egg whites will help make for the nice crispy crust of Vienna breads as does high levels of moisture during the first ten minutes of baking.

Too, commercial bakery suppliers sell 50 pound bags of flour for about the same price as 10 pounds would cost you at your local grocery store. TOO MUCH AT ONE TIME? Flour can be frozen for long term storage, just thaw it in the refrigerator to halt any moisture from collecting in the container and making mush.


Peter Reinhart titles link on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_8?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=reinhart&sprefix=reinhart%2Cdigital-text%2C549
 
Excellent, thank you for the recommendation on books. Whenever I have some free time (HA!), I want to dive more deeply into making breads.
 
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