March 16, 2010 - 12:37am
Not sure where to go next for loaf pans.
Greetings,
I read a thread with reviews that highly recommended Williams-Sonoma Goldtouch loaf pans, but they're on back order for a month and a half, so I was curious what other recommendations people can place out there.
Are the Romertopf clay bread bakers any good for example? I have a Romertopf 111 incoming already, but that doesn't handle standard sized loaves.
I'm looking for a nice even bake.
Any suggestions are appreciated!
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My very favorite loaf pan is made by Caphalon; it's 8.5 inches and very heavy. I like it because the corners are very square and the sides/bottom are very smooth with no ridges or decorative raised designs. I hate my Wilson loaf pans because the sides and bottom are rounded and the coating scratches easily.
among the pans I have collected over the years are these that were all free bee's, I wanred some Hovis pans tried for years to find some then a kind soul sent me a couple, this is the before and after pictures of them,,
also the lower picture about 30 of these pans were given to me by the local deli, they used to have headcheese(brawn) in them, the manager asked me if I could use them , I said, sure, again free bee's... I have sent some to friends who bake in Montreal, UK. all over the place. they take about 1 pound 4 ounces dough....
I have had these now at least 25 years,,,
The hovis ones the kind sould they were part and parcel of an bakery he bought in UK... took my husband a lot of elbow grease to get them right but it worked
other tins I have picked up here and there, I only paid full price for the Pullman pan with the lid,,,
none of my pans are non stick, and I have no problems with them and I might add when I first get them they go through the dishwasher several times....
Some times you have to be a bit patient to get the ones you want like me and my Hovis.. ;-))))) qahtan
Nice, okay. I can certainly look into those suggestions. I've got some time to look around before I need them.
Thanks a lot!
What particular style do you like? Got friends in a restaurant business? Go check out stores that cater to restaurants & bakeries.
"I'm looking for a nice even bake." Light loaves? Medium brown all over? Dark crust?
What is your preference?
These may be things to consider when looking for pans. There is quite a variety out there and some are very different from each other.
I really love my Williams Sonoma pan,but the second place finisher at cooks Illustrated was the regular old pyrex glass pan for $6.95.
Next was baker's secret for $4.99,but they said it browned just a tad more than they liked.
Hope that helps!
My apologies, you're right I wasn't quite specific enough on what I'm looking for, I'll go into detail about the situation.
First off, unfortunately no, I do not have any friends in the restaurant business =.( I wish I did!
Second: I'm looking for a medium brown cook, standard sized loaves. I already have what I need for larger loaves for rustics and crusty breads.
But my oven is.. sigh, sucky. I'm afraid of uneven cooking. I live in an apartment, so I can't exactly go out and buy a good one (Don't even get me started on the stove top, UGH. They already replaced my stove and same thing, can't do much more than trying to compensate with other equipment). I'll be getting a house next year and I'll be buying my own appliances so I won't have to worry about that much later in the future, but for the current time.... weeell!
All I currently have a long small nopro I picked up for beer bread (the man at home loves it when I make that), but it's very uneven in regards to the cooking.
I DO have a small oven stone if that helps with suggestions. I am looking to get pretty serious into bread making. I've got a lot lined up for it already, this is just one of the last items I need to address.
Do you preheat your stone, and is the stone at least the size of the pans? Do you bake with the pans on the stone?
My experience is that on the preheated stone, even my $3(Kroger sale) Baker's secret pans bake perfectly. Not the least bit of overbrowning on bottom and sides.
I was going to suggest an investment in a baking stone, but if you are not getting even cooking with the stone, don't see how a pan will offer improvement. Baking on a stone, seems to me, the pan becomes almost a non-factor. Just my experience though.
Be prepared to consider other issues with your oven, although it appears you have with the clay baker on order.
Good luck.
I do bake on the stone, but not when I used that little loaf pan. It had never occurred to me to try cooking with the bread pan on the stone until I started researching into bread making and took a major interest, but haven't made anything that uses that loaf pan lately. I made a sourdough pizza crust the other day on the stone and it does cook evenly on that and very tasty at that (I'm still working on the whole pizza dough thing, so it has seen some usage with various results as I experiment).
I had read about people baking loaves in loaf pans on a pizza stone, but I personally haven't tried it yet. I intend to this weekend. I do have a Romertopf 111 for larger loaves such as sourdoughs, potato loaves, etc.
Since Clay and Ceramic has worked great with me for cooking eveningly, I think perhaps I just need to round up a couple different styles of standard loaf pans and try them all out (try a clay, try some metal ones, try with and without stone, etc). I am a newbie at this, so I guess I'm a little lost on that. I love experimenting.
Geez, it almost sounds like I need to do some additional research. I didn't mean to ask such as loaded question, I feel pretty bad about that now..