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I have been following a recipe to make sourdough bread and a starter. The recipe said to cook the bread in a dutch oven or a cast iron casserole dish. Since I have neither, can I cook the bread in an ordinary loaf tin or some other utensil?

Luciano
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carol
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4 Answers4

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Bread can generally be baked in any pan, sourdough is no exception to this. Baking it in a covered dutch oven seals in moisture and keeps the crust from hardening, allowing maximum oven spring. You can achieve a similar effect by putting a pan of boiling water in the bottom of your oven for the first half of baking.

There's no reason you can't use a loaf tin, my main concern would be it sticking to the sides. To prevent this I would coat the sides of the dough that will touch with a generous layer of coarse wheat flour while it proves.

You can use other things as well, I don't have a casserole with a lid, but I do have some enameled cast iron pots. There are too deep to but the bread into without mangling the shape, so I invert it over a cookie sheet instead, then I remove it halfway through cooking.

GdD
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  • Minor issue: Some loaf tins with non-stick coating are designed for cake batters and are not resilient to sourdough. So especially for methods with long final raises it’s a good idea to check the manufacturer‘s description. – Stephie May 11 '20 at 21:37
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If you don't have a dutch oven try roast pan with a lid. Works for me. Take the lid off the pan for the last 10-15 mins to brown the loaf.

Gary S
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In addition to @GdD's answer, using pan of boiling water you can even bake the bread on a baking tray (or a pizza stone if you have one). Make sure the bread is shaped well to avoid it spreading too much.

LSchoon
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Any pot with lid will work as well or better than a dutch oven. As long as it can hold the dough and is oven-safe (no plastic parts, but almost all glass lids are oven-safe). There are a lot of myths in baking. The hot dutch oven myth is one of the most persistent. In reality you can use any lidded pot (no need to preheat it) and you can even start baking from a cold oven if you want.

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    You *can* do all those things, yes, and what comes out will definitely be bread. But a preheated, lidded pan like a Dutch oven is a great way to build humidity and gelatinize the crust in a home oven. – Sneftel May 13 '20 at 21:10
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    @Sneftel, all you need is a lidded pot to hold in the steam. The preheating is another myth. Try it for yourself and you can verify. Even Chad Robertson in one of his videos was baking with a cold dutch oven and the end result is the same. –  May 14 '20 at 00:32