Baking times ina cloche

Baking Techniques
1

Hello Everyone,

I am finding that my bread being baked in the Breadtopia cloches ( oblong and round ) tend to get a bit burnt on the bottom. I have been placing a baking sheert under them and that helps to prevent that.
I am wondering if there is a formula or rule of thumb that I could use to calculate how much to lower the baking temp and calculate the "extra " time needed ( in relation to the time indicated in the original recipe ) to get to the end of a successful bake.
Thanks fir aklk your helpo as usual; lookng forward to your replies.

2

What times and temps are you currently using and on what shelf level is your baker?

Here’s my usual timing, no burnt bread base.
Preheat at 500°F for 30 minutes
20 min at 500°F lid on
5 min at 450°F lid on
Approx 10 min at 450°F lid off

3

Hi Melissa,

Thanks for the information. I assume that the baking temps and time is valid for all sourdough whole wheat breads ?

I do not place my cloches on the bottom rack, place them in the middle and usually rotate them around halfway through the bake as well as changing positions. My oven is probably not the most consistent so I assume that factors in.

Placing the baking sheet on the bottom does work, just a bit cumbersome.

I will try your times/temp at my next bake without a baking sheet and see what happens; although I will monitor if I can but seeing the underside of the bread while baking is not easy.

Thanks again

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4

Just to pile in and give you an idea of the range of possibilities… I think that different people like their bread with different levels of darkness / thickness / crustiness and I tend to prefer my bread crust on the lighter, thinner, crispier side. My baking times using a breadtopia cloche go like this (for a loaf made with 600g whole grain flour and about 80% hydration):

preheat at 500F for 25 minutes
12 minutes at 500F lid on
10 minutes at 425F lid on
30 minutes at 375F lid off

Those times are probably good for loaves in the vicinity of 600g of flour (maybe 500 - 700 ??). I think if you are baking a loaf that is substantially smaller or larger than that you might find you need to change the length of the last part; more for bigger loaves, less for smaller.

1 Like
5

Thanks for the input…will try that as well at some point…!!!