How to Make Bread in a Cast Iron Dutch Oven: No Knead

Do you want to enjoy golden and crispy crust loaves of bread at home but are worried about the arduousness of the task? You should get a cast-iron Dutch oven. Baking in these heavy pots with tight-fitting lids makes creating artisan-style loaves in a home oven very easy.

To make easy bread in a cast-iron Dutch oven, you need to work with a no-knead bread recipe that will at least require four cups of flour. Make your bread dough preheat the Dutch for half an hour, apply olive oil, or line the oven. Gently place the dough inside, replace the lid, and cook for the required time. Cool before cutting.

Cast iron Dutch ovens can be used to bake bread because the steam from high temperatures inside the pot is an important ingredient in the bread-making process. This steam makes the bread rise inside a hot Dutch oven through a process known as oven spring.

The rest of the article will discuss how you can bake crisp and tasty bread at home with Dutch ovens in the three simple steps covered below. Keep on reading!

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3 Simple Steps to Bake Dutch Oven Bread

1. Get Ready to Bake

The first step in baking crusty bread with a cast-iron Dutch oven is to prepare everything. A recipe should be at the top of your list (assuming your home cooks have got your pot ready). See my recipe below.

The best recipes to choose for making bread via this method are the no-knead options.

This is because they are typically made of wet dough, which ensures that they’ll release steam when they come in contact with hot cast iron Dutch ovens. Also, in addition to being tasty, the recipes are easy to follow.

When choosing the recipes, look for those that mention using at least four cups of flour (five is even better). This is to ensure you arrive at the optimum size of dough for this baking style, which is 2 lbs (0.9 kg).

You must prepare the recipe well before you intend to bake. This is because you’ll need to leave the dough in the fridge for 24 hours first in most cases.

When it’s time to bake, cut out 2 lbs of dough. The right-sized dough will almost completely take up the base of the pot.

Don’t have a kitchen scale? The Etekcity Food Scale and the Ozeri Pronto Digital Kitchen and Food Scale are some options you should consider.

Put the dough in shape, and place it on a floured piece of parchment paper or kitchen towel. Make sure the seam side is facing up and covered while the dough rises.

2. Preheat the Dutch Oven

You need to preheat the cast-iron Dutch oven for around 30 minutes to ensure you get a decent accumulation of steam when you put the dough inside the pot.

This is why it’s a good idea to start preheating the pot around 30 minutes before the rising dough is ready for baking.

While trying to calculate how quickly the dough will rise, you should keep in mind that the kitchen temperature will play a role in determining the speed.

Yeast is sensitive to temperature, so a couple of degrees change, either way, can significantly alter the rise time.

However, most no-knead bread recipes will require 1-3 hours for the dough to rise. Soften dough with a bit more water will rise in less than an hour in a warm kitchen.

If your kitchen isn’t very warm, you should let the dough rise for an hour before starting to preheat the Dutch oven.

By the time the oven is warm, you’ll have waited 90 minutes for the dough to rise, which is usually enough in many cases.

Just put the pot into the oven when your dough is almost ready and set the oven temperature to around 445°F (230°C).

Some recipes will have their temperature requirements, so just stick with the recommendations in such a scenario. Don’t forget to cover the pot with its lid before putting it in the oven!

In 30 minutes, you’ll have a properly preheated pot and dough that has risen. Now, remove the pot from the oven and carefully place it on a work surface such as a wooden board, kitchen towel, or cooling rack.

You need to ensure it doesn’t come in contact with a cold surface or, worse, cold water. The hot cast iron material may crack in such conditions.

3. Start Baking the Bread

To begin baking, you need to gently spray some non-stick coating (vegetable oil-based), as well as some flour or cornmeal, in the pot.

You’ll have to be careful at this stage to avoid inhaling the smoke that may form during the application of these materials.

Once that is done, carefully lift the towel or parchment paper to turn the dough into the pot. Make sure the seam side is down.

Shake the pot gently from side to side to ensure the dough settles nicely at the bottom. The dough most likely won’t look perfect, but that’s normal. It will look a lot better as it bakes.

Use a bread-slashing tool like this Baker of Seville model to create a few slashes on the top of the loaf, then cover the pot with the lid and place it in the oven.

You should allow it to bake for half an hour first, then remove the lid and allow it to bake for another ten minutes. This will ensure the loaf browns properly.

After baking, remove the loaf from the oven and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing it. If done correctly, you should have your nicely flavored, crusty cast iron Dutch oven bread.

Quick Dutch Oven Homemade Bread Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour
• 1 to 1 ½ teaspoons salt (kosher or sea salt)
• 1 envelope of active dry yeast
• 2 cups warm water (temperature 90˚-110˚F or 30˚-40˚C)

Preparation

Blend the yeast into the water and leave for 5 minutes. This will bring about a light froth on the water.

The foam indicates that the yeast has been activated. In a large bowl, add dry ingredients, blend the flour and salt by hand, and afterward, make a well in the center. Empty the water yeast blends into the center. You can use a wooden spoon, but hands are easier.

Wet your hands before touching the sticky dough and mix to keep the blend from adhering to your fingers. At that point, blend the mixture by hand. It should pull away from the sides of the bowl. On the off chance that it doesn’t, sprinkle in limited quantities of flour until it does.

When the mixture is bound, spread the batter and leave it for 1 ½ to 2 hours until it is double its original size.

When it has risen, check the mixture and jab a couple of openings in the dough. It ought to collapse now. You, at that point, need to overlay the batter once more, working from the outside into the middle.

When you are done, recover and leave for another 1 ½ to 2 hours.

When it has doubled, gently flour a surface, place the dough on top, and begin to work the batter onto a ball by rolling and folding it a few times.

To finish the ball, catch the sides underneath so it is smooth at the top.

Put the dough in a dry bowl covered with olive oil and flour. Cover with plastic wrap and leave the dough at room temperature for one more hour to rise.

In the interim, preheat the conventional oven to 450˚F/230˚C and put the Dutch oven (seasoned, not enamel) inside for 45 minutes.

When the dough has risen, use a sharp knife and score the top of the dough for best results.

Remove the cast iron pot after 1 hour, and remember to use oven mitts.  Then, put an uncooked loaf inside it. If it is a solid metal Dutch oven that isn’t enameled, put some parchment paper on the bottom of it beforehand.

Replace the lid and cook for 45 minutes altogether at 450˚F/230˚C. Fifteen minutes before the final cooking time, take the lid off the Dutch oven. This will allow the crust of the loaf to brown and crisp up.

When the cooking time is finished, remove it from the Dutch oven then let the bread sit for 20 minutes before you cut it.

If you cut the bread before it cools enough, it will be doughy on the inside.

You will be rewarded with patience and happiness when you have prepared artisan bread from these simple ingredients.

Need a new no-knead bread recipe? Why not check out my favorite Quick and Easy Dutch Oven Bread Recipe?

Why Does Steam Help in Bread Making?

Heat

When you preheat an empty Dutch oven pot, you’ve converted it into a mini steam-injected oven with the added advantage of more evenly distributed heat.

The steam generated in the baking process interacts with the dough in different ways.

Moisture

The bulk of the steam comes from the moisture inside the unbaked dough. When put into the Dutch oven, the moisture is trapped as steam.

The steam ensures that the crust will remain soft, allowing it to keep expanding during the first stages of baking.

This leads to a sizable loaf that looks very similar to the ones you get from your local bakery.

Steam

As the steam reaches the surface of the bread, it will lead to the gelatinization of the starch there.

This leads to a swollen and glossy crust that is the hallmark of a properly-made loaf of bread in a Dutch oven.

The steam also makes any cuts and designs you put in your risen dough look great by pushing it to open up even better.

Taste

Steam also influences the taste of the bread positively. The moisture in steam ensures that the surface of the dough stays cool for longer during the baking process.

This ensures that the enzymes in the yeast can continue the process of breaking down the starch contained in flour into simple sugars.

The caramelized simple sugars create the tasty flavor associated with excellently baked loaves of bread.

FAQs

Can you bake bread in a cast iron Dutch oven?

Yes, you absolutely can bake bread in a cast-iron Dutch oven. The Dutch oven produces the same cooking qualities that are found inside a traditional baker’s oven.

In my article, can you bake Bread in a cast iron Dutch oven, I explain in depth why these cooking pots that have been around for thousands of years are perfect for making bread.

What size Dutch oven is best for no-knead bread?

A 5 or 5 1/2-quart Dutch oven is the best for making no-knead bread that requires 4 to 5 cups of flour.

I use a Le Creuset 5.5 quart enameled cast iron Dutch oven for all my bread-baking requirements.

What can you use instead of a Dutch oven for bread?

Bread baking requires a very hot oven. That said, any cookware that withstands temperatures of 400 degrees Fahrenheit or more. The cookware should also have a lid to keep the steam in for optimum results.

If your available cookware does not have a lid, you can improvise by designing a makeshift lid with foil to keep the steam in. Leave room for the last rise when your dough starts to steam.

My article gives you a great choice of Dutch oven alternatives.

Recipe Card – No-Knead Crusty Dutch Oven Bread

Conclusion – How to Make Bread in a Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Baking bread in a cast-iron Dutch oven is relatively simple. Once you have a recipe, you can prepare the dough.

The major point to keep in mind is to preheat the pot properly so it is ready to work the moisture in the dough into the all-important steam necessary for the final result.

You should also remember to give your dough the right length of time to rise.

Bread Baking Inspiration

• King Arthur Baking: Bread baking in a Dutch oven
• The Perfect Loaf: How To Bake Bread In A Dutch Oven

One-Pot Cooking Rocks!