Inspired by Franko and many others, here I am joining in finally with the baking in a pot theme. This dough went straight into  a hot enamel lined cast iron pot, no parchment, no oil and came out clean as a whistle....  plus I must mention Dr Fugawe's awesome home grown Oregon starter (Grapplestein) which has emigrated safely to the UK and raised this one for me! I still don't know how to get those pointy slash ends, maybe I should start the slashes higher up or not cut so deep?  Joanna @ Zeb Bakes

Pic below is a crumb shot of my first attempt at using a pot the day before  (which was a smaller loaf and higher hydration) The dough is a straight sourdough with a mix of strong white flour, spelt, rye and swiss dark flour, a little yoghurt, a spoonful of organic barley malt and seasalt

Went to Seattle to visit my parents for Thanksgiving, made cookies, muffins, 3 different kinds of breads, with no evidence since I forgot to bring my camera. Oh well, they tasted good though! Came home on Sunday and need some bread for this week's lunch, but my starters are sound asleep in the fridge. Made this quick 40% rye from Dan Lepard's "A handmade loaf" using dry yeast. The liquid in the formula is dill pickle juice, boosted by some extra fresh dill, the loaf was very flavorful.

Cucumber Pickle Juice Rye (adapted from "A handmade loaf")

bread flour, 300g

rye flour, 200g (toasted at 400F for 15min)

fresh dill, 10g

instant yeast, 3g

salt, 8g

dill pickle juice 350g (I used 390g)

1. mix flour, dill and juice, autolyse for 40min

2. add yeast and salt, knead briefly

3. bulk rise for 2 hours, s&F at 30, 60, 90min.

4. divide into 2, shape each into batard, proof for 1 hour, didn't double, probably grew 50% at most

5. bake at 430F for 10min, 410F for 35min

It's a compact loaf, some discussion on Dan's forum seems to show the same result, but the oven spring was good, as shown by the scoring marks and nice "ears"

Tight crumb, which I expected with a quick 40% rye loaf, the flavor was nice and intense though

The book has a mistake in the amount of fresh yeast used - it should be 1.5%, rather than 1%, which means 7.5g fresh yeast, about 3g of instant yeast. However I wonder whether even more should be used, since the rise was slow and the breads are pretty small.

Following the book's advice, I made a rye flour glaze (2.5tbsp of rye mixed with 150g of water, heat until boiled while mixing continuously, brush the loaf with this paste 15 mins before the end of bake), It does make the loaf extra smooth and shiny, but the crust became a bit too chewy for my taste.

Sending this to Yeastspotting.

Boy am I happy with this method!  Can’t wait to retry all the wonderfully tasty breads I’ve tried from here and books that I’ve liked but just couldn’t get that spring going.  This is a heavy cast iron DO and I’m small; but no problem at all getting this together.  I did a trial set up to see how it would go and everything balanced so perfectly.  When it was all pre-heated I think I lost less heat from the oven because it loaded (although a little crookedly) quicker than using the pot right side up.  All worked like a charm.

Lid on bottom of springform pan, Dutch oven inverted on top

Dough loaded onto DO lid (a bit off center though)

Final loaf and crumb shot, just shy of 3" tall.

Gonna use this method again. Oven’s thermometer isn’t fixed yet so I could only get 450°.  Wish I could devote to a constant stream of baking time right now, but I’ve got wallpaper to get up and tons of stuff to unpack yet. No more fretting on the steam methods in this old electric oven, for boules this is the trick in my equipment. Hurrah!

All is very good and... I’m baking on!
Dosi