Eating Healthier in Today's World

Baking French Bread in a Covered Casserole

Although we have been discussing making French bread for the last few weeks, you really can make any kind of bread in a covered casserole for a different shape and or size or if you just don't have any other pans to put it in.  Basically what we do is give the bread a final rise in the covered casserole dish--glass or pottery--which has a tightly fitting domed lid.  It should be big enough to allow the dough to do all the rising it wants to, including a good spring in the hot oven:  depending on the dough, triple the original size of the dough would not be too much.

Ordinary Pyrex covered glass ovenware in the deep 2 1/2 quart size works perfectly for one regualar-size (round) loaf.  Some the clay casseroles that can be soaked in water are splendid.  The snug domed lid is the real crucial key in whatever you use.  Corningware lids don't fit tightly enough to hold the steam in, but the casseroles are a good size and could be used to bake a regular loaf of bread.  For French bread, however, you can make a seal around the lid with foil where there are big gaps.  Corningware tends to stick, so be sure to grease the dish extra well, and dust it generously with cornmeal.

If you have a heavy metal baking pan, like a cast iron dutch oven, you can b ake the bread (on grease and cornmeal) in that, covering it with another similar pan inverted oven it.  Seal it with foil--or just cover it with foil!  (Be sure to leave plenty of rising room by ballooning the foil)  You can make splendid French loaves from this method, unorthodox (and easy) as it is.

Let the dough rise in the casserole of pan according to the directions in the recipe.  Preheat the oven in plenty of time so the at the temperature is at 450° F. when the dough has risen.  If the casserole is thick clay, there will be a delay while the dish heats up, so put it in the oven a little earlier than you would normally. 

Just before you put the bread in the oven, pour 2 to 4 Tbsp. of warm water over the loaf.  Use the smaller amount with lighter breads, more with the substantial types like the whole wheat.  This is all absorbed into the top crust, so don't mind that the bread seems to swim at first.  Slash the top, cover and bake.  When the crust is nicely browned, after about 20 min.  or so, reduce the oven temperature to 350 ° F. and finish baking as suggested in the recipe. 

Whatever method you use for steaming, please be careful.  The temperatures are high and the presence of steam make the heat intense.  Plan ahead, so that you have the oven racks in place before heating the oven, and so that you know where you are going to put each pan or dish when the time comes. 

Making bread in a casserole is a safe and effective method and is one of our favorites by far.  You are limited only to the shape and size of the pans you can figure out how to cover.  Happy Baking!