Baking Sourdough bread
I am new to posting on this website but I have always used the website forum for advice. I have managed to successfully bread my very own sourdough starter, this took 10 days and I did the float test to be sure which passed.
I have always baked loafs and bread related food for my family with fresh yeast, dry yeast and poolish, but I would now like us to move away from yeast.
What is the best equipment to use to bake sourdough bread, I have looked at buying baking stone and cloche but I am not sure.
I always use my cast iron pan to bake my poolish bread, I heat the pan in the over and add baking parchment paper before tipping the bread inside with pan of hot water at the bottom of the over. Will this method work for sourdough bread and give good loaf?
While I am personally a fan of buying more baking equipment and tools, in general, once you get to putting into the oven , sourdough behaves very similar to commercial yeast , so the same tools you are using now should work fine. I believe Hammelman suggests that you steam sourdough a little longer than commercial yeasted breads, but in your case that would mean adding just a little more hot water, or refilling a few minutes into the bake. Good luck,
The fact that you're already accustomed to the ones you've got, also means you'll probably do a better job with them. So I'd suggest using them, unless they turn out to cause problems.
I would buy either a cloche or cast iron combo cooker. After years of trying to steam various ovens I bought a cloche and couldn't be happier. It's so much easier to not have to worry about steaming the oven. Other than that just having nice baskets for proofing your bread is a plus. If you're planning on getting in to the high hydration stuff I really feel like the wood pulp baskets perform better than anything else I've used.
I am a relative newcomer to baking sourdough but I have been getting very good results using a Cast Iron casserole (Dutch Oven).
I preheat it (top and bottom) for an hour in a 220C oven. I then turn the dough out of the banneton onto baking parchment. I then lift using the baking parchment and lower the dough in to the casserole. Bake for thirty minutes with lid on and then ten minutes with lid off. Reduce the oven temp a little if needed for the last ten minutes. You don't need steam in oven as leaving the lid on the casserole creates enough steam. Works well for me.