February 11, 2010 - 10:22am
Baking bread on LODGE CAST IRON ?
Hello Treasured Fellow Bread Bakers ...
Please tell me everything you know about baking bread on / in LODGE CAST IRON.
What are your secrets to successful cast iron bread baking? What should I do? What should I avoid?
Thank you!
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Aloha Nevie,
One of the first things you might do is use the search engine (in the upper left of the page) and enter "Lodge dutch oven" (without quotes). You'll find many discussions about using the Lodge dutch oven in particular and using dutch ovens for baking in general as well as different bread recipes.
aloha,
Dave Hurd, Hilo, Hawaii
Jim Lahey's no-knead recipe works very well in a Lodge. Just prep the loaf per his recipe (from his book My Bread ... or from the legendary NYTimes post) and then plop it into the Lodge and bake. Comes out great.
-Trevor
Aloha Dave ...
Small world ... years ago I lived near Wahiawa, Oahu on Wheeler Air Force Base (before the Army got possession of it). Now we have kids living there. Great ... gives me a great excuse to leave 'The Ninth Island' (Las Vegas) and head to the REAL islands. :o)
I've got a lot of Lodge cookware ... thinking about purchasing the Lodge Logic Pre-seasoned Pizza Pan (on Amazon) ... could use it for a lot of things ... pizza ... bread ... more pizza ... LOL!
Thanks ... will go looking for the Lodge discussions. But ... LOL ... in the meantime I think I'll order that pizza pan ... I shop therefore I am. :o)
Thank you Trevor. :o) I'm looking forward to 'playing' with bread & cast iron!
I treated myself to the Lodge Cast iron pot (7 inches in diameter). I have made Jim Lahey's bread in it and it comes out terrific - in fact better in the Lodge than it did in the Emile Henry dutch oven (wish I had known before purchasing the Emile Henry). The only thing I would do differently is purchase the 5 1/2 - 6" dutch oven...The one I purchased is too big (and heavy!!) Thanks for the lead on the pre-seasoned pizza pan. Has anyone used it? How does it enhance the quality of the pizza? I currently use a brick in my oven and am pleased with how toasty the bottom of the pizza gets...
Enjoy..
My method (with all due creit to Jim Lahey) is to heat the pot in the oven until it reaches 450 degrees. I lay the proofed dough on an 18 to 20 inch piece of parchment and score the dough and then use the parchment as a sling to lay the dough in to the hot pot which I usually put on oven burner for the process. I've done it without using parchment paper and it's a mess--and you have a better chance of burning yourself.
Bake for 30 minutes at 450 with cover on and between 15 and 20 minutes with cover off, depending on size of loaf. I have different sizes of pots ranging from 3 1/2 quart to an 8 quart. I usually use the 3 1/2 quart or 5 quart for boules and have a long one from Cabela's for batards. Good luck
My first baking of sourdough bread on my new Lodge Logic cast iron pizza pan was famndabulous! :o)