Carla's Pot Baking Adventure

From this, we can really see how steam is good for bread for the first baking part.

Pab
Dom
Carla

Who's next to be converted? Jeremy and Mick (and Bill, I suspect) are hard nuts to crack. Guess it's going to be me...will try soon.

Nope, I am a purist won't give in, gonna do a levain tommorow in a banneton and in the hearth of my ofen! It's a fad, I hope, otherwise we aren't going to challenge ourselves and follow a tried and true tradition! Besides do you think that Sullivan street bakery bakes in Creusets all day long?

Ta, Jeremy

(Said with nose high in the air) "I will not bake in a pot!"

Wha ....?

Mick

Larry, Curly and Moe

Wouldn't describe myself as a convert but I will certainly use the pot method from time to time. It adds to the repertoire of recipes and techniques...

Best wishes

Pab

have been at work, so couldn't contribute to this thread.

lovely looking loaf Carla!

There are several reasons why I think that baking in a casserole gives better results for the home baker than almost any other method available to us. I'll post them in the thread that I started two days ago when I get a chance.

cheers
Dom

Sorry about my opinionated opinion, just a road traveled becomes habit, I think what I mean scince I just polished two bottles of wine and hit some pear william from Germany, I mean that doing this cuts out all good practice in baking the way our forefather bakers taught us and in keeping with tradition I regelate this pot method for those who find the true art too time consuming or perhaps too difficult, so be it I am getting hammered and may sound offensive, but who can deny the dough interacting with the human element and being at one with the masa(dough in Spanish), sorry I am a chauvinist in that sense, forgive me! Tomorrow I will think damned did I write this crap?

jeremy

I will use a pot, I went out and bought a nice heavy cast iron pot, I like trying new things with sourdough, pushing the limits so to speak. I have baked in the baking bowls, but not with a heavy lidded pot, can't wait to try!
Teresa

Dear Jeremy

and did you stop after the Poire William?

Pab

I made an attempt at the NYT bread using the kind of claypots found here in Singapore and probably around this region. I chose this pot because it has a single handle for easy handling.

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/tomsbread/index.htm

Pab, you've got to be joking. Jeremy's my mate. He'd have been on the elderflower cordials after that and laying a new carpet in the morning.

Am I right, big boy?

Mick

[quote="tomsbread"]
...I chose this pot because it has a single handle for easy handling.

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/tomsbread/index.htm
[/quote]

[size=18]Thanks, Tom!![/size] Great idea. Was thinking of using the pyrex bowl if I ever came round to this technique, now, I've got another option.

Jeremy,

Sullivan St bakery probably have steam injection of some sort in their oven . Home bakers have a variety of techniques for generating steam in the oven (I'm sure that you have your own tried and true technique), I'm convinced that cooking bread in a pot like this is, too a large extent, another steam generation technique (while at the same time generating a nice even heat all around). Steam is a traditional baking technique so I don't see that experimenting with different ways to generate it is abandoning tradition or somehow taking a short cut. If people think that baking their loaves this way gives a better result than when they baked them by their normal method then all power to them I say!

Regards
Matthew

Matthew and friends!
Well I think of it more as a shortcut, less to do with steam which initially and only once or two shots should do and even some won't require it, I feel that for myself and perhaps others sort of loses the fundamentals in practice, which should make someone a good baker! If it floats your boat by all means do it, I feel free in saying that I will not partake, bread is to enjoyable to put on the fast track of life! Enjoy and wait for it! Jim Lahey saw something that would be appealing, I still find the process of "true" baking much more worth the time and effort as well as training!

Ta, had my say!

Jeremy,

Can I clarify a definition here? When I refer to baking I am refering to the stage in the process where the bread is actually in the oven. I'm not sure how tipping into a pot rather than onto a stone is a short cut?

If your concerns are around the pre baking stages of the NYT article then I can understand your point of view a bit better. But I'm afraid if it's just the pot vs the stone then I don't agree, but if we all agreed with each other 100% of the time life would be boring wouldn't it?

Enough from me.

Matthew

Tacked my thumb, ouch!

Jeremy

those loaves are pretty amazing looking for 80% wholemeal Carla - well done!

Dom