August 28, 2009 - 12:06pm
cool oven with dutch oven
If you bake in a cool dutch oven should you increase the covered time? cooking time? I baked Susan' 63% hyd/sd last night and all went well except the crust was not as dark or crispy as I like. Maybe increase all times a bit? Thanks Patrick
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How about a picture and more details as to what you did? I get really nice bread out of a cast iron oven.
By a cool Dutch Oven do you mean you are putting the dough into a Dutch Oven that is at room temperature then putting it into a hot oven?
with my clay baker (my $3.99 Apple Baker thrift store find) and I'm guessing it would work with a "cold Dutch Oven" too:
I just did Rose Levy-Beranbaum's Levy's rye bread and she suggests preheating the oven with a stone on the bottom shelf AND preheating the lid of the clay baker. The dough is allowed to do its final rise in the cold base of the clay baker. When it's time to bake, you just put the bottom with the dough in the oven on the stone (or a preheated baking sheet if you don't have a stone) and cover with the preheated lid.
It baked at the same temperatures it would have if I'd simply baked on the stone with steam and rose beautifully with a gorgeous brown crust.
I know you are using a dutch oven rather than a clay baker, but it's worth a try to preheat the lid--it might work as well.
I was thrilled to find this method works because I've had many disasters and near-disasters trying to drop dough into the base of the hot clay baker. Now I don't have to worry about that, but I can still get the benefits by using the preheated lid.