Baking Bread in a Cast Iron Dutch Oven

[SCinPNW]

This is very cool! After all of the recent Dutch Oven threads I was thinking about trying this out and then just this morning I received an email from Breadtopia with a link to his recent videos on that exact topic. In case you are not familiar with the Breadtopia website, it is a really great place to go and learn about breadmaking. He has lots of free teaching videos available as well as bread making items for sale. (Note: I have no affiliation with them, just a fan.) Anyway, here is the link to the videos mentioned above: http://www.breadtopia.com/campfire-bread/

I will definitely be trying this as I love making homemade bread!

Enjoy!
SC

[Lowdown3]

We had heard years and years ago that you had to be careful using a sealed- i.e, lid on tight- dutch oven for baking bread. Dunno if that's BS or not, but every time we've baked bread in one, including underground, we always put a little sliver of metal under the lid at some point. Never had a problem but I'm not sure if it was a REAL problem or some internet legend... :)

[Not_Yet_Prepped]

This is one of the many things that makes me wish I had payed more attention when I was a kid... I grew up in the middle of no where and my grand parents had a few dozen heads of cattle, horses, chickens (sometimes turkeys) and pigs. They did all the "old school" stuff like smoking meats, canning, and farming that I now wish I could remember how to do. I remember during the summer months my grandmother cooking many meals or parts of meals outside over a fire pit with "Dutch Ovens" and other Cast Iron pots/pans... Mostly done to keep the Heat out of the already warm house.

If I knew then that I would one day spend my days searching for info on how to do what they were doing right infront of me I might have payed more attention.

Thanks for sharing the link!

[SCinPNW]

Thanks for the tip Lowdown, that is interesting. I will keep that in mind when giving it a try. I know that when I am making artisan style breads I use a La Cloche clay baker and I don't have any problems, however, the clay is porous where as the cast iron is not so that might be the difference. FYi for anyone wanting to try making the artisan style breads using a clay baker, I use this one: http://www.amazon.com/Sassafras-La-C...8348411&sr=8-7 However, I only use the lid. I place the dough directly onto a pizza stone and then cover with a lid. Note, you need to heat both together in the oven because if you put your lid into an already heated oven you will crack it.

[eeyore]

Thanks for the link and the discussion

[Jayson]

I need to get a decent dutch oven. Much like Not Yet Prepped I witnessed but did not pay attention to my elders doing the things I want to learn now!

[monkeybird]

Watched the video yesterday. I've been a fan of Breadtopia for a long time. In the kitchen the guy is GREAT. However, he definitely didn't do his homework on baking bread via charcoal. I found the rule for the number of coals on top and bottom with one search. Also, can't imagine carrying all that stuff on a camping trip!

I've used the no knead method in a cast iron dutch oven in my regular over - works great.

[jbman]

I make bread fairly regularly. I need to get a dutch oven and try this out next time we go camping (which my be a long time if my wife has her druthers). The La Cloche clay baker looks interesting too, I'm more likely to get the tiem to try that first.

Jack

[Coyote Cuffer]

I started making breads last fall. I was motivated to do so because my son and I were planning a wheat patch to produce grain for our own use. We knew little about the subject but got our wheat in and harvested enough wheat to produce a small amount,(12 pounds), of finished wheat flour. We are going to adjust our methods and plant a larger plot and try to improve our production this year. Since I was planning to produce flour I needed to learn how to use it. I started baking breads and collecting recipes and was given a nice book. I recently decided to try sourdough. I found Breadtopia on the net and cultured my starter with his method using my whole wheat flour and no commercial yeast. What a learning experience. I have made loafs, bisquits, pancakes and dinner rolls with the sourdough starter and my flour.
These skills,( farming, seed producing, grain processing, baking and yeast/sourdough culturing), would be VERY useful in a," starting over", situation. I am eager to learn more! CC

[1Admin]

IIRC it's 15 degrees per coal if your using standardized commercial charcoal. Even amounts top and bottom to bake.

Get used to using wood, it's relatively easy and more plentiful than charcoal.

I remember about 10 years ago now I brought a bunch of dutch ovens to a campout in Ocala. Everyone else that did actually cook something used the little green gas type cookers. One guy asked me why I brought a heavy item like the dutch oven. I gestured in a large circular motion to the trees everywhere and said "your fuel is gonna run out long before mine will."

[barfife]

I have recently found this article, with receipes, on dutch oven cooking.

http://www.ps-survival.com/PS/Cooking/Dutch_Oven_Cooking_1990.txt

This one gives you temperatures for dutchoven cooking.

http://www.ps-survival.com/PS/Cooking/Cooking_Temperatures_2004.txt

If you will back up on this site, you will find a ton of survival hard copy materials. It is the polar shift survival site. Enjoy.