Sourdough Bread Recipe With No Dutch Oven

While using a Dutch Oven will give you superior and consistent results when baking sourdough bread, there are things you can do to bake great sourdough bread without a Dutch Oven.

Perhaps you're not ready to invest in a Dutch Oven just yet, or your oven isn't big enough to accomodate one. There are lots of reasons you might not want to use a Dutch Oven to bake your sourdough bread.

How

Other than investing in a modern oven with steam injectors, using a Dutch Oven is a relatively cheap way of achieving these two factors.

Quick No Knead Bread In Dutch Oven

Now I am a very strong advocate for using a Dutch Oven for sourdough bread because it is the cheapest and easiest way to create a baking environment comparable to a professional baker's oven at home.

Here are some of the ways you can bake sourdough without a Dutch Oven - that will still give you a fantastic crust and great oven spring:

In addition to these methods, I highly recommend reading these articles, which concentrate on achieving great oven spring and an ear. Ensuring you get all of these factors right will increase your changes of baking a fantastic loaf without a Dutch Oven:

How To Bake Sourdough Bread Without A Dutch Oven

I always advise to preheat your oven for at least an hour - even if you're using a Dutch Oven (that should be preheating while the oven is warming up).

Now this may seem like a long time - but you want your oven to be thoroughly preheated because this will ensure that the heat lost when you open the door is minimal.

If your oven isn't preheated long enough, it won't be hot all the way through and you won't get the oven spring you're looking for when you add your bread.

Make No Knead Bread Without A Dutch Oven

Preheating your oven thoroughly is even more important if you're not going to use a Dutch Oven because you want to ensure you retain as much of the heat (and steam) created as possible.

Using a baking stone - or even better, 2 baking stones - will enable you to retain the heat in your oven. Ideally you need to place one baking stone on a lower shelf. This is where you'll place your bread.

This baking stone is really cost effective - you can buy 2 for well under $70 and you'll also get a handy pizza peel which can be used for transferring bread to the oven.

Einkorn Sourdough Bread

In addition to the baking stones, you'll need to use a large stainless steel stock pot to cover your bread. This will create a steamy environment and give you the best oven spring possible without a Dutch Oven.

Lava rocks are a fantastic way to incorporate steam into your oven. Ideally, you should use lava rocks along with the baking stones mentioned above.

You will need to remove them after 30 minutes and leave the bread to bake for the last 10 to 15 minutes without the steam. This will ensure that you get a nice, crispy crust.

Bread Baking In A Dutch Oven

You do need to be really careful when working with lava rocks and steam. Steam burns are not pleasant and you want to avoid these at all costs.

It's best to place the lava rocks into a cast iron skillet, as this will withstand the high heat of sourdough baking.

Do not try to remove the lava rocks from the skillet when removing it from the oven, just place it on the stove top until it cools and then empty it from there.

How

No Knead Bread Recipe In Less Than 5 Minutes A Day

Then you can invert the second pan over the top, effectively creating a mini steamy environment for your sourdough. You can clip the loaf pans together if you have an oven proof clip.

You don't necessarily have to bake sandwich bread in a loaf pan. You can bake a traditional sourdough loaf in a loaf pan. It gives you a lovely, easy to slice shape. You'll find a full guide to baking sourdough in a loaf pan here.

Now you will need to make sure that casserole pot or Pyrex dish is able to withstand the high heat of sourdough baking. Some are rated for high heat, but you will need to be sure that it can handle high heat before you use it.

Ways To Make Amazing Sourdough Bread Without A Dutch Oven

I am a big advocate for preheating a Dutch Oven, but you may not be able to do this with a Pyrex dish, depending on when your Pyrex was manufactured.

Once you remove the hot Pyrex from the oven, be very careful not to set it down onto a cold surface. Place it on a trivet or stove top to cool. Sudden changes in temperature will cause it to shatter.

You can find all the care and use details for Pyrex here, as well as my guide to using Pyrex to bake sourdough bread here.

Minutes No Knead Bread Without Dutch Oven

Something else to keep in mind before using a casserole or Pyrex dish is whether your dough will actually fit in there.

Again, while preheating the vessel results in much better oven spring, it's not really necessary for an enamel roaster as it's so thin.

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You might be surprised at the results you can get! It won't be exactly the same as baking it in an oven, but with a bit of practice you can get a nice crust and rise.

Dutch Oven Bread (no Knead!) Recipe

There are lots of things you can do to create steam in your oven, which will ultimately give you the best oven spring for sourdough bread.

Bake simple sourdough bread without a Dutch Oven. This recipe shows multiple methods of baking sourdough in the oven without the use of a Dutch Oven or enclosed pot.

Calories: 1851 kcal Carbohydrates: 372 g Protein: 61 g Fat: 8 g Saturated Fat: 1 g Sodium: 3904 mg Potassium: 501 mg Fiber: 12 g Sugar: 2 g Vitamin A: 10 IU Calcium: 88 mg Iron: 5 mgMaking a delicious, crusty bread recipe from scratch often calls for baking in a Dutch oven. But what if you don't have one, or want to make extra loaves? No worries - we have you covered with these easy Dutch oven substitutes!

Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread (no Knead)

If you've read through our easy crusty bread recipe, you know we're fans of baking no-knead bread in a preheated Dutch Oven in order to achieve a crispy, crackly crust and a soft interior.

But if you don't have a Dutch oven, or if you want to bake more than one loaf at a time, never fear! We're about to walk you through three of our favorite easy ways to bake crispy, crusty bread without any special equipment.

A Dutch Oven conducts heat evenly for consistent baking, and has a heavy lid that traps any steam released by the bread while it cooks.

No Knead Dutch Oven Bread

Steam is useful because it keeps the outside of your loaf from setting before the bread rises, drying out, or baking too quickly (you don't want to burn your crust while you wait for the center of the bread to cook!)

How

By slowing down crust formation, steam helps the bread rise rapidly without the constraint of a stiff crust when it hits the oven (known as oven spring), keeps the outer crust thin and crispy rather than tough and chewy, and lets bread develop a deep brown color without burning. (PS - Want to know more about how steam works in bread baking? There's a great article here!)

Professional bread ovens have steam injectors built right in. In a dutch oven covered with a lid, the bread essentially steams itself!

No Knead Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread (a Beginner's Guide)

SO. When we talk about a Dutch oven alternative for bread, what we're really talking about is how to create steam inside your oven.

Steam is an important ingredient in crusty bread baking right up until the loaf has set and begun to brown. Once that happens, it's time to remove steam from the equation (too much steam can make your crust thick and tough!)

In our Easy Crusty Bread recipe, we accomplish this by removing the lid for the last 10-20 minutes of bake time. In the methods below, you'll either remove a lid, remove a dish of water, or control the amount of water you use so it evaporates in time to let the bread crisp up.

Homemade Dutch Oven Bread: Kneaded And No Knead Methods

For reference, our favorite Easy Crusty French Bread recipe calls for baking bread in a Dutch oven at 460 degrees F for 30 minutes covered and an additional 10-20 minutes uncovered.

Please note: Do not substitute glass bakeware for any of the equipment discussed in this post as glass can shatter when exposed to extreme temperature changes. When using these techniques, please use the recommended equipment.

Preheat two cast iron skillets (we recommend one 8 to 12 skillet for the bread itself, and one 6 to 8 skillet to hold the ice cubes we'll use to create steam) in the oven while it heats before baking. Place the smaller skillet on a separate oven rack directly below the large skillet.

How

Easy Sourdough Bread Recipe For Beginners

Note: If you're using a Dutch Oven Bread recipe like ours, the instructions will usually tell you to preheat the Dutch Oven. If you're using this method, just preheat the cast iron skillet instead!

When it's time to bake, grab 8-10 ice cubes from the freezer and have them ready to go (I like