The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Hi new here today from sunny southern California

PiratessBaker's picture
PiratessBaker

Hi new here today from sunny southern California

Hello fellow Bakers and Artisans,

New here today.  I have gone to this website many times for information and decided today to join.  yay!  A couple of weeks ago I saw a post called easy Bauren Brot which translates to Farmers Bread in german (am of german/Austrian heritage) and that post lead me to the easy 5 minute Artisan bread.  Okay so I decided to try this out with the long overnight rise.  I have made several of these loaves already trying out different things with amounts of sugar or no sugar, diced up cheese, toppings of kosher salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, parmesan cheese and hot chili flakes.  I have experimented with using mineral water for my water.  But here is where in the artisan bread bake utilizing the heavy dutch oven I don't have one.  I have a dutch oven but it is a big enameled steel pot and it is fairly large I think the diameter is about a foot.  Okay the first day I was going to do my bread I thought well heck my dutch oven is not like these heavy pots with a narrow inside, so what I did is put my dough inside a - okay get ready for this - a springform pan I usually use for my cheesecakes.  I  have been doing this for all of them except for one I just put the dough (5 cups of flour) into my enameled dutch oven with of course buttering and flouring it.  It came out like a big round cake of a bread...lol.  My b/f still loved it.  Otherwise the rest of them I have baked in my springforms.  Check out the pic.  I wish they would get more of a dome rise and whenever I score the bread they do not come out too pronounced. My first few the score marks came out better but the last several not so much.  Just wanted to bounce my crazy baking ideas with you folks and learn and get feedback.

Looking forward to learning about bread and baking here and making new friends.

 

the Piratess

Arjon's picture
Arjon

As for using your springform, it's basically just a different shape from a loaf pan. 

And I don't see why you should have to butter your DO since the dough shouldn't have much contact with the sides of the DO; i.e. your loaf shouldn't have distinct sides like tinned loaves or the one in your picture do. Unless that's what you want. 

PiratessBaker's picture
PiratessBaker

Hi Arjon,

  I do not butter and flour the dutch oven when I set the springform into it as my steaming vessel yes, I put the lid of the dutch oven over it.  I only floured and buttered the dutch oven when I used it solely with the dough.  For my springform I use a parchment for the bottom and only butter and flour the side of the springform.  Even though these springform seem non stick I made the mistake once of not buttering and flouring the sides.  So do you think it is okay to use a form for artisan dough and not letting it rise freeform? 

Arjon's picture
Arjon

I occasionally bake the same doughs I use for boules in my DO in a non-stick metal loaf tin. Most times, the dough just goes into the tin - no buttering, no flour, no parchment, not even cornmeal which is what I usually put in the bottom when baking in my DO. While the loaves don't always just slip out freely, I've never experienced more than minor sticking, and those loaves have come loose after being left to cool in the tin for ~30 minutes. But that's me; I'm not saying what I do will be better for you, just that it works for me. 

If you're okay with the shape you get using your springform, that's really all that matters. If you want a more boule-shaped loaf, you might try using less dough - possibly quite a bit less. Less dough should mean less of it makes contact with the sides of the springform during the bake. The result should be a more dome-shaped loaf, although likely not as high. 

PiratessBaker's picture
PiratessBaker

...about using a small piece of dough to get this rise.  I was thinking about doing that freeform next time. 

But you know I am getting a little bit spoiled by the springform because it cuts into nice sandwich slices like you would from a regular loaf pan.  I did begin with no butter and flour on an earlier batch and the bread stuck miserably to the sides and had to use a knife to go all around and loosen it up but it did stick.  Since using the butter and flour on the side and the parchment on the bottom have no trouble removing.