Snow Day CI Cooking & Baking

Doug D.

Administrator
Staff member
Stuck at home yesterday, decided to make the best of it. Some "real" chili first, and some dutch oven bread, as an afterthought. Used the Chili Colorado recipe on the main website: http://www.castironcollector.com/cooking.php#do Came out pretty good; chili's always good on a cold day.

Later in the day was thinking about how wanting to bake bread in a dutch oven was the start of all this, and how that got a "little" sidetracked. Had a thought to try something with the piece that started it all, a Lodge Logic Double Dutch Oven, the one with the loop handles and the lid that can also be used as a pan.

Getting whole wheat bread with "good loft" has always been a challenge. It rises great, but the moment you handle it to put it in the dutch oven, it deflates somewhat, and the "oven spring" never brings it sufficiently back up.

So I looked at the Lodge DDO and thought, "what about baking it on the lid with the pot as the cover instead?" Most dutch ovens have a knob handle or a loop handle on the top. But this Lodge piece has loops on the sides for both. The lid can sit flat. It seemed like a good idea-- let the bread rise sitting on the lid (on a piece of parchment paper and covered with a large plastic bowl) and pre-heat just the pot to 500°. That way, the nicely-risen dough ball doesn't have to be touched at all. A pair of heavy grilling or welding gloves are all you need to safely handle the hot pot. And it worked fairly well for a trial run. I expect the next time to be even better.
 
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