July 12, 2020 - 3:00pm
Baking stone AND Dutch oven
For those who bake bread using a Dutch oven but also have a baking stone in the oven, do you remove your baking stone when using the DO? I read somewhere it is recommended to remove it or put it in a rack below if the bottom of the loaf was burning in the DO to decrease the direct heat on the DO. It also said to not place the DO on the baking stone as it would be too hot.
Any thoughts? I have been removing the stone until now but there isn’t a lot of space in my kitchen to put it. What do others do?
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I remove baking stone, place DO on rack just below middle of oven, and use convection baking.
I leave the baking stone in the oven and place the DO directly on the stone. i think it does prevent the DO bottom from getting too hot. But it does take longer to bring the DO to temperature. I like it because i dont have to worry about moving the stone around and also i can fit two DO and one inverted clay pot on my stone to bake 3 loaves at once.
I baked a Tartine country loaf (which is pretty light in colour) for the first time and left the stone on the rack under the DO and it came out great. I took it out for my FWSY loaf this morning as per usual which has a much darker colour. I have a black DO so wonder if that would make a difference compared to an enameled pot? I’m tempted to try future FWSY bakes both with the stone in the rack underneath and with the DO on the rack just to see the effect.
Thanks for the input!
I do the same, bake with an enamel DO directly on the baking stone. It prevents the bottom crust from being overly hard to cut through.
I do both, I place my baking stone on the lowest rack of the oven and the dutch oven in the middle rack.
I like it because it gives me very consistent temperature results.
My oven always needs a lot of pre-heat time regardless of the baking stone being in the oven or not so it doesn't affect my pre-heat time
I have a baking steel I use to bake baguettes on, it currently lives on top of a broiling rack that I’ve stuffed with aluminum foil to help shield the baguettes from scorching on the bottom crusts. When I bake a batard in my dutch oven, I place the dutch oven directly on the baking steel still on the broiling rack stuffed with aluminum foil. I have found that the bottom crusts do not get too browned using this set up.
For your bread to rise to its potential that outer, taut skin on your loaf needs to be able to expand and stretch before hardening off. Steam in the oven, and subsequently on the surface of your loaves, helps keep that skin pliable and stretchy during baking. If your dough dries and cooks too quickly on the exterior, the interior force generated by yeast/bacteria rapidly consuming food at high temperature will be dampened and never cause enough rise to attain that excellent open crumb, that fantastic fissure on top and that nice gringe that makes us grin.
I put the bread directly on the stone and then place the preheated dutch oven upside down over the bread, our oven is large enough 2 loaves at time.
I cut a pizza stone to fit inside the DO. That way I can pour about 30ml water under the preheated stone just before I put the lid on. I have no problem getting a super shiny crust!