The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Replicate bread commercially

jak123's picture
jak123

Replicate bread commercially

Hi all, I have a bread that i bake in a Le Creuset dutch oven(a sourdough). I want to be able to make this same bread, with that great crust that i make in the home oven, in a commercial(restaurant) envirnoment.  Here's my problem.

I'm making boules, but this shape is not conducive to sandwhichs...I'm afraid if i use it for sandwhich in the restaurant, some customers will get short changed on size of the bread slices and there will be a lot of wastage. So, I need to make it uniform, sandwhich style....but how do i do that without the covered dutch oven?

I was thinking the pullman pans, but, they do not leave enough space for the top of the bread to get crusty. Will cast iron loaf pans do the trick? But how do I cover them.  The oven I will be using is simply a gas range....nothing fancy...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Simple solution, when almost done, drop the loaves out of the pans and onto the rack for 5 -10 more minutes baking without the pan.  The loaves should  come out of the pullmans crisp, but you can dry them and crispen them more!  

indiesicle's picture
indiesicle

I just shape as a batard, proof in a 10 in. oval banneton, and use an oval dutch oven (5.5 qt. Calphalon $60 at TJ Max) for 2 lb. loaves. But I've also used the round Lodge dutch ovens for smaller batards. It works great!! I prefer batards to boules now for my sandwich needs. All I bake is naturally leavened SD at 75+ hydration. Only thing I've done to make the crust thinner, crispier, and more sandwich-like is remove the lid at 10 - 15 min. so the crust doesn't get chewy and thick. This works for me in an electric oven but may be different with gas. Not sure of the science there.

- JOsh

Mukoseev's picture
Mukoseev

I prefer batards for the same reason.

I use these 4 qt. oval dutch ovens for 2 lb. loaves.  The smaller size prevents the dough from spreading and gives you more height.

Cajun Cookware Pots 4 Quart Cast Iron Casserole Pot : Iron Pots Depot

indiesicle's picture
indiesicle

Those are sweet and very reasonable!!

jak123's picture
jak123

Thanks for all teh suggestions everyone.

 

Indiesicile, i'm interested when you say

"Only thing I've done to make the crust thinner, crispier, and more sandwich-like is remove the lid at 10 - 15 min."

How long is your total bake? I bake for about 30 minutes with lid, then 25 minutes without(750g boules). I get a very chewy, thick crust...i like it, but am tempted to try your method of removing the lid earlier. Is the crust still real crisp?

Thanks again everyone.

indiesicle's picture
indiesicle

is 40-45 minutes at 450F (1.035kg batard) and the crust is very crispy for about 5 hours or so. I recently acquired a new oven and was having problems with a thick, chewy crust so I started experimenting by trial and error until I got it close to how I had it in the old oven by cutting the covered time but keeping the total time. I was getting almost a cracker thin, shatter-y crust in my old electric oven and was quite happy with it. I got very frustrated with the new electric oven but I think I've figured it out. My new oven has a much better seal and holds heat much more efficiently. So when I would load the dough in my 500F pre-heated DO and drop to 450F it was taking a lot longer to get there then in the old oven with a terrible seal. So it was sitting in too much steam at too high a temperature for too long (I've surmised). I also noticed it was browning a little before I removed the lid which it had'nt before.

I could be completely wrong on this but it has worked out great for me. I also retard after final shape and 30 min. proof at 40F for 14 - 18 hrs. which also helps a lot with the crust on my white breads. I am still struggling a bit with my whole wheat crusts but I'm getting there. I hope this helps. I know I may have strayed from the original topic but it seemed noteworthy at the moment.

jak123's picture
jak123

see my crust browning with the lid on still....i did an experiment, in that, i only had one pan to bake breads and i needed to make a half dozen quickly....so, what i did was to remove the breads from the pan after the 30 minutes being baked covered and placed them directly on the back of a cookie sheet. It worked remarkably well. I notice the only downside to baking inside the vessel is that the bottom crust becomes really thick. i think removing the bread from the dutch oven early helped with that. The only caveat is that when you remove the bread at 30 minutes, the crust on top is not quite set, so you may damage the bread when removing. I'd like to experiment and remove the bread from the vessel after 10,15,20,25 minutes to see the results....also, i surmise, that one could "par-bake" to these levels, cool, freeze and then bake off at a later date.