Grüne Erde /Green Earth Clay bread baker
Ready in 3 1/2 hours? (Make it longer if you wish, use 1/2 teaspoon of yeast, add salt & caraway and use cold water to make it rise slower.)
Wheat shaped form ... White Bread crusty
- 450g hot water (you can just manage to keep a finger in it)
- 7g instant yeast
- 650 g Wheat flour (250g AP, 400g Bread flour)
- 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons table salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground caraway
- olive oil for bowl & form
Pour hot water into a large 2.5 ltr. mixer bowl and sprinkle with yeast. Add the flours and stir until all the flour is moistened and a shaggy dough has formed. Cover and let stand 2 hours or until the dough has risen up to the cover. Remove cover and scrape out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle with the salt and caraway. Fold or roll up the dough and knead to blend for about two minutes. Shape into a tight ball and cover with the bowl.
Soak top and bottom of a Clay form (total volume 2 liters) 10 min in warm water. Allow to drip dry and surface water to absorb, one minute. Smear inside with olive oil. Re-shape and tighten dough to form a loaf. Rub with oil and place into bottom form. Oil the inside of cover and place over dough. Set in cold oven for 15 minutes. Turn on oven to 225°c (440°F) on Hot air (convection) and time for 45 minutes. Remove form and brown loaf another 5 minutes in hot oven on rack. Cool on rack for 15 minutes and serve warm with bread knife on cutting board.
I was given this form for Christmas without any instructions. As you can see the ingredients add up to just over a kilo of dough, about the right amount to fill this two liter volume form. The loaf crust is very crunchy and thick. The crumb slightly chewy and tender. I removed the top for the last 5 minutes of baking but wished I had removed the whole form to let the bottom brown more as well. Slices are almost round and crumb is fine. The oil in the form adds to an almost buttery flaky crust. This loaf was sliced warm.
Mini
Comments
Lovely!
And what a great Christmas gift! It sure makes one beautiful bread, MiniO.
Hi Mini, a gorgeous mold...we all would like to belong one! happy baking and happy new year from Quito. Paolo
Interesting pattern and outcome Mini. Makes one wonder again about all this pre heating.
Eric
I tried to find information in the net but can't. Seems "they" stopped making them. Were popular here about 10 years ago. The escaping air didn't seem to be a problem nor was sticking. It had been used before. More for heavy seeded bread. It makes a good sized loaf! I liked the fuss free steaming. The fact that I can use convection (it heats my oven faster than conventional heat) and not rotating the loaf in the oven doesn't seem to matter. I just wonder where I'm going to store the two identical pieces. Wonder what the rye would look like with this pattern... or fruit bread? If the dough doesn't fill the whole form, one could just flip the bread upside down.
I wonder if the water logged form is responsible for the even browning. I got the impression I didn't need to remove the form at all. It browned right thru the form. The first 15 min of the bake is rising and warming up the oven and form. It is a different look. I wonder, I wonder....
Mini
That's a nice mold, Mini. Did you say the makers no longer make them? I'd love to buy one like it!
.
Now I want one of those!
You get a nice sheen on the crust also.
love that look.
but I didn't know that they would make these kind of things as well.
I have my bedding in my second home in Austria from them, and it is lovely too
However I have to say I love the mold-it is very pretty and the bread looks delicious.
Very cool, the envy of many TFLers! Bread looks wonderful!
Betty
browning and crusting the outside... like stuffing mixtures and cooked wild rice blends.
Cake?
May I suggest something filled baked in it? A cheese filling or dried fruit and chocolate? Or a savory bread with a grain inside maybe?
How fun for you to have this new twist on things.
Marni
Hi Mini!
I love the shape of your clay baker. Please do you have an idea where it is available to buy?
Thanks!
zdenka
every second bake.
i have a romertopt clay pot that i used to make your white bread in today. i used my bread machine for the dough cycle & then followed the rest of your suggestions.
i did make the following additions to my mix in the bread machine - 2 tbsp ground flax seed + 1 tbsp caraway seed. the loaf was beautiful & tastes fantastic.
thanks, claudia
I wanted to use whole caraway myself but didn't have any on hand. I like those little bursts of caraway as seeds. I now opt for the longer ferment with less yeast.
Mini
I inspected my baker and it smells sort of rancid after the long summer... so... I soaked it in warm water giving it a good brushing and put it cold and wet into a cold oven and tuned on the heat to 225°C to bake off the oil. The aromas coming from the hot oven smell well, so I think it's working.
I made a rye sourdough (110g starter/ 500g water/ 300g rye & 200g bread flour/ 7.5g salt) with a mixture of seeds including soaked pre-cooked salted spelt berries and altus and chopped green pumpkin seeds. I debated what to roll the dough into before plopping it into the cooled and oiled form. I settled on whole green flat pumpkin seeds.
Here's what went into the oven...
Here's what came out of the oven...
you gave me an idea. I inadvertently ordered spelt berries and do not have a mill. So, perhaps, I can precook the spelt and then incorporate into the dough.
Do you make any allowances for this procedure or use the regular amounts of yeast/water/flour and just add the precooked spelt ?
Thanks much,
anna
(140g dry) and drained them, doing this about 4 times over 24 hours. Then I put them into the rice cooker with some water to cover and salt and let them cook until tender. Let them cool and parked them in the fridge. I soaked and cooked 280g because my rice cooker has a minimum level. The other half I can add to another recipe. I put them in like nuts. Didn't count their water or flour weight. :)
I will include a crumb shot if I manage to get one tonight at the party. I like the way the big seeds protect the little spelt seeds from getting to tough at the crust surface.
and remembered to get some crumb shots !
anna
the sunflower seeds are ginormous !!!
It was impressive and delicious! Pays to plastic bag it for 24 hours before serving.
I am imagining a slice with either peanut butter or a la Reuben's.
If you find a way to copy this and it works, it might be a good item to offer to the rest of us here. I checked on Google and it does appear that they have stopped producing this item. Shame because it is something I would like. I have started doing a lot of cooking in ceramic pots (La Chamba, tagines, Piran) and also in a La Cloche. I would like one of these but no idea where even to look for one here in NYC.
I just tried again to mold my favorite formula with the predicted disaster -- air pockets under the lid. I let it proof standing on end so the air could escape and then must have inverted the top and bottom of a not yet fully proofed dough. Anyway it would have worked better to let both halves rise where I could see them and just stick them together before baking.
The mould did separate in the middle by about 3 cm but it is quite a pleasant seam and made it easy to stick a probe thermometer into the loaf. I could not control the sliding of the top sideways by a centimeter or two. Remind me to tie a cord around the capsule next time.