Emily Henry Oven and Lahey's No-knead Bread
First a pic of the Emily Henry 5.5 qt oven
Now the bread itself
And a few notes
1. I used floured parchment paper to transfer the dough to the oven (as opposed to a cotton kitchen towel). No problems with sticking dough which I experience about 50% of the time using the towel.
2. Use spray oil to prevent sticking to the bottom of the dutch oven. My Staub La Cocotte did not require oiling so enamled cast iron and ceramic react differently to bread baking using a wet dough.
3. Baking bread in an Emily Henry ceramic oven required 30 minutes of covered baking and 30 minutes of uncovered baking to brown the crust and bake out the gumminess in the crumb. This was 10 minutes longer than uncovered baking in my Staub enamled cast iron oven.
4. I now make bread daily thanks to the simplicity of Lahey's long ferment no-knead bread. The house smells amazing every afternoon around 4 and the kids loveeeeee home-made bread with a little dab of real butter.
Brian
I'm a big fan of NKB, but I recently purchased a smaller (20cm/8") dutch oven. The only ones available in that size were steel and coated with a grey surface treatment.
I get better shape and rise in the smaller dutch oven, but the crust is not as good as I obtained from plain, black, seasoned cast iron.
There is a noticeable difference, too, if wheat bran is used on the outside of the loaf—it tends to burn in the black pan, but not in the grey. No problems with sprinkling the pan with cornmeal, though...
Best,
I can see where shape and rise would be superior in the smaller oven.
For my next NKB bake, I plan to lightly spray the oven with oil and coat the bottom with cornmeal. I want the same crust from my last loaf with the ability to actually get it out of the oven in 1 piece.
I still have a special place in my bread heart for my Staub oven. It is a beautiful piece of cooking equipment and has made some spectacular loaves of NKB.
Brian
but to be quite honest, I'd be much happier with a cheap, suitably-sized Chinese cast-iron dutch oven without enamel for baking. I've never used any oil in my iron dutch oven when baking in it but, of course, as it's well-seasoned, there MUST be a slight film of oil on there.
OTOH, I've also used a beautiful cast-iron Japanese rice pot, with good results. It was brand new and had never had anything cooked in it, before my NKB—all I did was sprinkle the bottom with cornflour. No sticking, ever! It may be a property of iron that allows it to keep the heat better than steel or enamelled cookware.
Cheers,