For about the last year I've baked my weekly loaf in my trusty #10 cast iron dutch oven.  The results have always been good, but I'm limited pretty much to baking a boule.  When I saw several posts in TFL about using an aluminum foil roasting pan as a cloche, I thought I would give it a try.

I'm really pleased with the results.  The bread recipe is Jeffrey hamelman's Vermont Sourdough.  I preheated the oven and baking stone to 450 degrees F.  Then I lightly misted the proofed loaf and the inside of the roasting pan with water and placed the loaf and roasting pan cover in the oven.  The loaf was baked covered for 30 minutes covered at 450 degrees F, and an additional 15 minutes uncovered at the same temperature.

The foil pan is so much easier to handle than the dutch oven and gives terrific oven spring when used with the baking stone;  plus, you can vary the shape of your loaves.  Has anyone done baguettes under foil pans?

Prairie19

PS.  Why is aluminum foil called "tin foil"?

I love the results of baking bread under a cloche, but have used the cloche mostly with white and whole wheat based breads. Has anyone baked rye breads 'en cloche' or any other type of enclosed top baker? Were the breads better than baking directly on a stone with steam?

I assume that a cloche would be as effective with rye breads as with wheat, but would love to hear about your direct experiences as I am envisioning a rye bread baking weekend coming up!

Thanks so much,

Liz

I didn't want to hijack the other question where BROTKUNST suggested a turkey roaster cover so I thought I would start another thread.

Hello everyone!

Those who also use 'La Cloche' ... have you tried soaking the Cloche in water before baking (or spray the inside with water) ? 

I do not use the base that came with it but a hot baking stone, combined with the 'cold' Cloche ... I am getting great results but I could imagine that a wet Cloche could create for the dough a setup with even more steam in the first minutes. What do you think ?

 BROTKUNST

... be careful when you take off the lid to finish off the bake, otherwise you'll get a painful face full of steam, just like I did a few minutes ago. OUCH!

Bread looked good though. I'm making a big 2.5 lb Desem loaf. We'll see how it goes ....