Check on Simply So Good for her Crusty Bread recipe and cookware choice. I used an old orange cast iron dutch oven. Then for a sour dough version and all the explanation on why to do it this way see Jenny's blog Nourished Kitchen for her No-Knead Sourdough Bread recipe.
Three cups of flour, 1/4 cup sourdough starter, 1 3/4 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. yeast, 1 1/2 cup water.
I cook on a Stanley wood Cookstove and love the old time scent it gives the bread.
Preheat the oven and cookware pot you will put the bread in to 450 F.
Time to close the hob and keep the oven from getting any hotter. I will also close the Spinwheel.
I should ideally close the spinwheel and the hob when the temperature is within 25 degrees of cooking temp. Since this bread is cooked at really high temp I wasn't as watchful. If I need to add more wood to the fire I will not give it any extra air to catch so it will burn slower. I want a hot oven not an overheated oven.
This is what it looks like after 30 minutes at 450 f. Now I'm removing the lid for the next 10-15 minutes to brown it and let the rest of the steam off.
Hot out of the oven. A crusty airy bread to soak up plenty of fresh butter or hot soup.
By the way, the metal spring-looking handle in the background on the cook stove top is a *Hob Nob*. It's used to turn the hob and direct the flames around the oven or to slow the burn. Now that the bread is done we can sample some and stand around the stove on this our normal northwest cool spring day and *hobnob*.
How about some cheese with that crusty bread?
On our first run through this recipe I started it at one o'clock. By six o'clock I could not avoid the temptation of baking some of the dough. I had doubled the batch , so why not? I scooped out half , baked it up and we had it with our Hot German Sausage soup. I will just let your mouth water on that thought.
