What bakes the BEST BREAD? Stone vs. Dutch Oven

In this experiment I want to show You what creates the BEST Bread at home - baking bread on a stone vs. using a High End Dutch oven.

Recipe for the dough:
- 350g of bread flour
- 50g of whole wheat flour
- 300g of water
- 80g of sourdough starter
- 8g of salt

For the overnight dough mix all together right away. The fermentation at around 22°C will take approximately 12 hours. Then you can shape the bread and proceed. It's crucial to add a lot of dough strength to the dough at the start, as we don't do any stretch and folds in between. Once the sample reached a 50% size increase, proceed and shape the bread. Proof at room temperature until the finger poke test passes, or, place in the fridge for 12-24 hours.

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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:20 Expectations
3:00 The dough
4:52 Baking setup
6:06 How to bake in a dutch oven
7:42 How to bake on a stone
10:30 Preliminary results
14:12 Finishing the bake
15:10 Verdict

#bread #sourdough

[charlescresap]

I teach sourdough bread at a local university. The 1 pound bread loaf the students make is cooked in a pair of stainless steel bowls, one to cook, one to cover. They cost $1.30 each and make a great loaf. Just shape the loaf and put it in the bowl for fridge rest, proofing and cooking with no preheating. The loaf goes straight into a 475 F oven for 20 minutes to bake, then 8 minutes to brown. Simple, easy, cheap.

[GibeinenNutzername]

A cross-comparison between pizza stone, pizza steel (only the lower part of the dutchoven), closed dutchoven and normal baking tray would be super interesting.

[ronbarry]

I have a small production hack for you. Instead of using your knuckles to tap the bottom of the bread use your fingertips so your fingernails contact the bottom of the loaf and you can get that "hollow" sound at almost any stage of baking. This technique is not the goal but for the sake of production and time saving try it. When I use a dutch oven it takes hours for my bread to "dry out" in the center so I can video that sound while waiting for the bread to dry internally. Time saver ONLY. Love your stuff.

[kariolavi]

Many thanks for your experiments! I bake my bread nowadays 30+30 mins. First 30 mins in a Dutch Oven (230 c) and after that 30 mins on the oven rack (200 c) i.e without the Dutch Oven! I like dark skin bread; the flavour is there!

[voidremoved]

I baked stoned. It was a bit messier than usual... And I ate everything before it even cooled. In comparison I tried to bake drunk and nearly burned the place down. My conclusion is, bake when sober, then get stoned.

[dianevitale]

A very thorough demonstration. Just am so surprised loaves were not sliced into to compare.

[alexpizzabite]

Very interesting experiment 👌 I will try to do it soon and let’s see what is going to come out

[carlosortega]

Alles gut !! Vielen danke ! I live in Colombia and ordered a hefty 4 mm thick steel square for baking (cut with plasma cutter, rounded corners) to fit my oven (with space for air circulation) and use that instead of stone. Total cost was US$ 12. I place wet rolled cloth on oven tray on bottom of oven for first 10 minutes, remove it and finish baking.

[Mara_]

Dankeschön! Really needed to watch this right now👍! Struggling so much with oven spring, but I guess it is not from my baking setup! I really need to get bulk fermentation right first! Big thanks from Portugal!

[andersenchiangmai]

Most household ovens have a seal between the door and the oven frame thus not letting the steam out...I bake 2 sourdough loafs at the time on a baking stone. I add a bit of water to the inside of the oven just before I close the door and my loafs turns out fine....

[joeees]

I think comparing the Challenger, to a Brovn and regular dutch oven would be interesting.

[reneotten]

Awesome test. So far, I have always baked my bread with the "stone-setup", always wondering if I should invest (a lot) in a dutch oven, and now I know that the difference is only marginal. So I will just continue like I'm used to bake, because we Dutch people are cheap too! 🤣🤣🤣

[NancyAnneMartin]

Really cool experiment, and was almost relieved to see that it was almost a wash in the way both bread's turned out. Personally, I have a really old Dutch oven with a tight fitting lid. I've started bake my loaf in that for the first half, then remove it via the parchment paper underneath and put it on a cookie sheet to continue baking until it's brown. This seems to give me much better oven spring. It would be easier overall with the Challenger Dutch oven, but I don't want to spend the money nor do I have the space for that.

[angelikaradominska]

I made this comparison and for my poor oven baking in dutch oven is better beacouse of small capacity of my oven- the upper heating element is too low over the bread 😀but life is life- I adapted and overcomed it👍

[vensel]

What a great comparison test. I always wondered which method works better. I prefer the Dutch oven myself since there's no complicated set up. I'm saving up for a challenger. Thank you for another great video! 🤗

[jonathanstout]

You could totally break that par-baking technique into it's own videos. I just cut into a loaf I fully baked two days ago because I was trying to finish another loaf first. And while it was great, I'm guessing I would've been better to have par-baked it, and then browned it off today.

Also, I'd love to know your thoughts on methodology for how long to let the loaves rest/cool after the par-baking, and after the final baking.

Cheers and thanks as always!

[ericwiltz]

Thank you again for an excellent tutorial!

[nu]

More Dr. Bread please!! So entertaining and people get to show off their bread and improve their bread !

[kevinu.k.]

Nice video.
FWIW - I switched to a steel baking 'stone' from a thick ceramic stone. The oven spring was greatly improved. Dough sitting on a ceramic stone chills it's footprint. too quickly. A steel baking 'stone' gives a better crispy bottom. They also heat up faster.

[ceryowston]

Very informative, i bought a stone last week and i wasnt quite sure how to use it but... These techniques will help