Can't help you with the cold oven. But that sure is a beautiful loaf with a great looking crust.

~Ann

What a BEAUTIFUL loaf!!!! Well done..... :-)

I have a Superstone La Cloche by Sassafras, and the (elongated) covered baker by the same company, and neither are pre-heated. You get the same oven-spring in the closed container from the steam it produces AND holds, that you get in the super-heated oven plus added steam. Think of it as a mini-oven environment that produces it's own steam.

They are also a good way to save on a little energy since you don't require a baking temperature that is as hot, and don't require as long a pre-heat, or the length of time it takes to pre-heat an oven stone, but gets similar results.

I used parchment paper in the bottom. Cornmeal tends to burn, and I found semolina a better substitute for cornmeal. The natural oils in corn seem to be the problem that you won't get using semolina.

You can also use the covered bakers in a convection or microwave oven.

-Grainlady

Ann-

It's a cold covered baker, not a cold oven. You add the formed loaf to the cold (as in room temperature) baker for the final proofing with the lid on. THEN you place the covered baker with the proofed dough in it into a pre-heated oven (with the lid on).

There ARE breads that are placed in a cold oven without being pre-heated, and then the heat turned on to bake them without the usual pre-heating, but that's a very unusual and unorthodox method.

-Grainlady

But, a cold oven/no pre-heating oftens works quite well for many yeast bread recipes - I did this just yesterday with my two loaves (in loaf pans) of my Healthy Bread recipe. I was in a hurry and gave the loaves only a 45 minute rise in the pans, put the pans in a cold oven, set the temp to 350F and the timer to 35 minutes = perfect results!

Teresa

BEAUtiful! If this is the results of a bread cloche, I might just invest.

I have been using the preheat, dutch oven method. Good results but not as BEAUtiful as yours.

I'm one of those unorthodox bakers. :) My mother's (absolutely amazing brioche style) challah recipe must start in a cold oven or the middle won't bake. I don't know if that's the reason for other cold start recipes.

I haven't baked with a dry cloche, but if you're using a wet clay baker, put it in a cold oven or it'll crack from the water turning to steam too fast.

I've done it both with a preheated and not preheated cloche. (Yes, it's about preheating the cloche, not the oven itself. Put a cold soaked cloche into a hot oven and it could crack). Kinda similar results, IMHO, but the starting with a cold cloche method is easier than trying to transfer your dough to a hot cloche.

Posted by grainlady (My Page) on
Mon, Apr 21, 14 at 13:28

Ann-

It's a cold covered baker, not a cold oven. You add the formed loaf to the cold (as in room temperature) baker for the final proofing with the lid on. THEN you place the covered baker with the proofed dough in it into a pre-heated oven (with the lid on).

Grainlady, I was responding to Kitchendetective's comment that she was told not to preheat the oven, hence the "cold oven". I've never baked bread in a cold oven so it isn't something I could offer any advice on.

Regardless of how it was baked, it is one beautiful loaf of bread.

~Ann

Very nice bread!

I use my wok metal cover for the cloche. Works fine.

Light weight, unbreakable.

dcarch

Thanks, all! Yes, it was both a cold oven and a cold Sassafras bread cloche. The results were so good that I will probably do it the same way next time. While I did not wet the stoneware first, other than when I first rinsed it several days before using it, I was still concerned that there might be air bubbles in the clay that would cause cracking under high heat conditions. So far, so good. I think the advice about not using cornmeal is excellent. I'm gong to try semolina. I have used parchment in the past in LC at 475, but the parchment turns to flakes insides the pot (Fahrenheit 451 and all. . .). Oh, and the recipe I used for the Country White Bread called for five cups of flour, so it was a large boule.

This post was edited by kitchendetective on Thu, Apr 24, 14 at 14:59