flowerpot bread
Tim W
flowerpots. The novelty appeals to me but what is the effect of baking bread
in cold heavy clay pots? Isn't metal better for conductivity - maximum heat
and minimum cooking time was what I thought was required.
I would try it but the unglazed pots apparently need to be bought new,
washed, dried then tempered with oil on the inside several times so it isn't
quick and easy. I would be slightly concerned about chemicals or metals from
non food grade vessels entering the bread too.
Any experience? Any thoughts?
Tim W
Dick Margulis
The typical "bread" so baked is a Boston Brown Bread, which is more of a
baked pudding than a true bread, and which thus benefits from long, low
bake used with these pots. Quick breads (banana bread, zucchini bread,
carrot cake, date-nut bread, etc.) do fine, too. I suppose that if you
preheat them thoroughly, you could also use them for popovers, although
that seems cumbersome and a bit weird.
Standard unglazed red clay pots do not present a safety hazard that I'm
aware of. Safety issues with pottery are associated with certain glazes
that can leach metals into acid foods. Clay by itself is pretty safe.
Mary Fisher
"Tim W" <tim.whitt...@mtavirgin.net> wrote in message
news:K9oDk.63483$E41....@text.news.virginmedia.com...
My experience:
I've done this with great success (except that I just scrubbed used pots).
The trick is to soak the unglazed pots overnight and use the highest
temperature in your oven. And don't use the pot in its normal position, this
isn't about getting a novelty shaps as I've seen a professional demonstrator
do :-( It's about achieving a very thin, very crisp crust.
I don't fully understand the process but think that it's like baking in a
stone oven, only better (except that you usually only bake one loaf at a
time). The oven's heat generates steam inside the pot which makes the crust
thin. I keep a pot which doesn't have a drainage hole for the purpose but a
drainage hole wouldn't make much difference.
I make dough in the usual way (although I've never tried it with sweetened
bread) and when thedough is finally proved (or 'proofed' as I think is used
across the water) I put it on the stone in my pre-heated oven the invert the
soaked pot over the dough. It doesn't take much longer to cook and if you
want to make an impression with your baking this will be sensational!
As with all soaking of unglazed ceramic it's best if left in water
overnight. The oil is simply to prevent the dough sticking to the inside of
the pot, which would mar the result.
Experiment!
Mary
>
>
Dick Margulis
>
>
> I make dough in the usual way (although I've never tried it with sweetened
> bread) and when thedough is finally proved (or 'proofed' as I think is used
> across the water) I put it on the stone in my pre-heated oven the invert the
> soaked pot over the dough. It doesn't take much longer to cook and if you
> want to make an impression with your baking this will be sensational!
>
Tim,
To emphasize the point Mary is making, she is talking about a free-form
loaf baked on a stone, but with an oversize pot inverted above it, like
a cloche. She is not talking about using the flowerpot as a bread pan.
For her method, she's happy with a scrubbed used pot. However, used pots
absorb significant amounts of nitrate from fertilized potting soil. So
if you are using the pot like a bread pan, with the dough pressed into
intimate contact with the pot surface, you definitely want to purchase
new pots. If you plan to use it like a cloche, that's less important.
Dick
Janet Bostwick
Dick,
I recall seeing the idea for using 'flower pots' for making novelty bread
shapes. First seen in Better Homes and Gardens magazine (or the like) around
late '60's or early '70's. Apparently it works out as described. The idea
was to do a regular yeasted loaf for gifting or table presentation. In my
experience, a Boston Brown Bread is a quick bread and would certainly run
through the hole in the bottom of the pot. I've done BBB in coffee cans and
special forms. I've never done a steamed BBB, only the baked variety.
Janet
Barry Harmon
news:qv-dnUCSuZe0tEPV...@supernews.com:
I've got a pair of stone molds that are 3 3/4" diameter and 5" high.
They're from Sassafras, the same people who made my cloche and
romertoff. I've used them off and on for at least 20 years. They're a
lot like short, narrow panetone molds.
I would guess that these are the same as flower pots except for the hole
int he bottom, which these don't have.
The deal is you can either soak first or not soak first.
I'll run some experiments and see what works best with these things.
They may still be available.
Barry
Mary Fisher
"Dick Margulis" <marg...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:qv-dnUCSuZe0tEPV...@supernews.com...
> Mary Fisher wrote:
>>
>>
>> I make dough in the usual way (although I've never tried it with
>> sweetened bread) and when thedough is finally proved (or 'proofed' as I
>> think is used across the water) I put it on the stone in my pre-heated
>> oven the invert the soaked pot over the dough. It doesn't take much
>> longer to cook and if you want to make an impression with your baking
>> this will be sensational!
>>
>
> Tim,
>
> To emphasize the point Mary is making, she is talking about a free-form
> loaf baked on a stone, but with an oversize pot inverted above it, like a
> cloche. She is not talking about using the flowerpot as a bread pan. For
> her method, she's happy with a scrubbed used pot. However, used pots
> absorb significant amounts of nitrate from fertilized potting soil.
I don't use fertilised potting soil :-)
> So if you are using the pot like a bread pan, with the dough pressed into
> intimate contact with the pot surface, you definitely want to purchase new
> pots. If you plan to use it like a cloche, that's less important.
The dough rises, in my experience, to fill the space, so it does come into
contact with the pot. If I want to use a cloche I use a large stainless
steel bowl - but the result isn't as good as when I use a pot.
In any case, I doubt that there'd be much leaching of nitrates across the
oil and into the dough but what harm would it do if there were?
Mary
Dick Margulis
> "Dick Margulis" <marg...@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:qv-dnUCSuZe0tEPV...@supernews.com...
>> Mary Fisher wrote:
>>>
>>> I make dough in the usual way (although I've never tried it with
>>> sweetened bread) and when thedough is finally proved (or 'proofed' as I
>>> think is used across the water) I put it on the stone in my pre-heated
>>> oven the invert the soaked pot over the dough. It doesn't take much
>>> longer to cook and if you want to make an impression with your baking
>>> this will be sensational!
>>>
>> Tim,
>>
>> To emphasize the point Mary is making, she is talking about a free-form
>> loaf baked on a stone, but with an oversize pot inverted above it, like a
>> cloche. She is not talking about using the flowerpot as a bread pan. For
>> her method, she's happy with a scrubbed used pot. However, used pots
>> absorb significant amounts of nitrate from fertilized potting soil.
>
> I don't use fertilised potting soil :-)
Of course you do. Whether the fertility results from your adding compost
or otherwise, if there were no available nitrogen, your plants would not
do well.
>
>> So if you are using the pot like a bread pan, with the dough pressed into
>> intimate contact with the pot surface, you definitely want to purchase new
>> pots. If you plan to use it like a cloche, that's less important.
>
> The dough rises, in my experience, to fill the space, so it does come into
> contact with the pot. If I want to use a cloche I use a large stainless
> steel bowl - but the result isn't as good as when I use a pot.
Sorry. My misunderstanding.
>
> In any case, I doubt that there'd be much leaching of nitrates across the
> oil and into the dough but what harm would it do if there were?
>
No, I don't suppose there would be much across an oil film. Perhaps a
little. As to what harm, some people prefer not to season their food
with nitrates. As a person who eats categories of food you eschew, some
of which are nitrate-rich, I'm not one to talk. I just thought it was
worth mentioning.
Mary Fisher
>>
>> I don't use fertilised potting soil :-)
>
> Of course you do. Whether the fertility results from your adding compost
> or otherwise, if there were no available nitrogen, your plants would not
> do well.
I suspect that we're using different meanings of compost :-)
>
>
>>
>> In any case, I doubt that there'd be much leaching of nitrates across the
>> oil and into the dough but what harm would it do if there were?
>>
>
> No, I don't suppose there would be much across an oil film. Perhaps a
> little. As to what harm, some people prefer not to season their food with
> nitrates. As a person who eats categories of food you eschew,
That's interesting, wht foods are they?
Mary
Dick Margulis
> "Dick Margulis" <marg...@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:ldOdnQHpOIlGoEPV...@supernews.com...
>>> I don't use fertilised potting soil :-)
>> Of course you do. Whether the fertility results from your adding compost
>> or otherwise, if there were no available nitrogen, your plants would not
>> do well.
>
> I suspect that we're using different meanings of compost :-)
Perhaps, but I doubt it. Compost is decomposed (hence the word compost)
vegetable matter of whatever source, perhaps run through some worms in
the process. Regardless, if you're growing plants in pots, you need to
supply fertility somehow, whether by adding soluble chemicals to a
sterile medium or by potting in pure compost or anything in between.
>>
>>> As a person who eats categories of food you eschew,
>
> That's interesting, wht foods are they?
Commercially preserved meats such as bacon and sausage, for example. I
don't eat a lot of them, but I don't avoid them, either. I was under the
impression they do not form a significant part of your diet.
Ed B.
True Boston Brown Bread is steamed, not baked.
--
~)< Love & Peace Ed B.
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice
of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of
increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to
all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
-Harry S. Truman, 33rd US president (1884-1972)
We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association,
covenant to affirm and promote:
the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in
our congregations. -Unitarian Universalist 3rd Principle
Mary Fisher
> Mary Fisher wrote:
>> "Dick Margulis" <marg...@comcast.net> wrote in message
>> news:ldOdnQHpOIlGoEPV...@supernews.com...
>>>> I don't use fertilised potting soil :-)
>>> Of course you do. Whether the fertility results from your adding compost
>>> or otherwise, if there were no available nitrogen, your plants would not
>>> do well.
>>
>> I suspect that we're using different meanings of compost :-)
>
> Perhaps, but I doubt it. Compost is decomposed (hence the word compost)
> vegetable matter of whatever source, perhaps run through some worms in the
> process.
Yebbut nitrogen can't be eliminated from any ingestion.
> Regardless, if you're growing plants in pots, you need to supply fertility
> somehow, whether by adding soluble chemicals to a sterile medium or by
> potting in pure compost or anything in between.
I grow very few plants in pots. Currently I have five capsicum plants in
pots and three aubergines. In the greenhouse. The peppers are fruiting well,
the aubergines (egg plants) have produced one and a bit fruits - it's the
first time I've tried either. I used my home-made compost (pronounced here
comp- ost, not 'compot') Yes, no doubt some of it had been through worms and
insects but nothing has been added by me. Or mine.
Actually, when I think about it, that's not quite true. Fom time to time we
'activate'; the compost with a man-made additive collected in bottles in
Spouse's workshop ...
>>>
>>>> As a person who eats categories of food you eschew,
>>
>> That's interesting, what foods are they?
>
> Commercially preserved meats such as bacon and sausage, for example. I
> don't eat a lot of them, but I don't avoid them, either. I was under the
> impression they do not form a significant part of your diet.
Ah, I see. Well, not a significant part but we don't eschew them. You might
be thinking of someone else. There are so many delicious meats that each can
only come around so often :-) Today we've had hot smoked wild salmon,
tomorrow it will be pork chops from Rosie.
I'm particular about which sausages we eat and we only eat dry cured bacon -
and as with all meats we like to know the source and how they were produced.
Preferably the animal's name Sometimes we make our own sausages and bacon
but they're not as good as some :-(
Now, as for the Kaiser rolls, I practised (that's the correct English way of
spelling participles from the verb) the shaping on a dough made from a
multi-grain 'flour'. I was surprised at how easy it was, the results were
like crowns, with five rounded 'points'. They weren't at all like the
pictures of impressed or cut shapes, I can't see how the shape could be
reproduced in any other way. But what do I know?
:-)
I'm afraid I didn't get round to the white flour recipe - Spouse came home
early and on a high because his presentation had gone so well. He's not a
man who has a lot of self confidence in passing on his multiple skills :-(
So we've celebrated and soon (when he's washed up) we'll watch a video I
bought from Salts Mills yesterday.
Look it up.
Mary
Dave Bell
> Actually, when I think about it, that's not quite true. Fom time to time we
> 'activate'; the compost with a man-made additive collected in bottles in
> Spouse's workshop ...
Ah - man-made, indeed...
Dave Bell
> I recall seeing the idea for using 'flower pots' for making novelty bread
> shapes. First seen in Better Homes and Gardens magazine (or the like) around
> late '60's or early '70's. Apparently it works out as described. The idea
> was to do a regular yeasted loaf for gifting or table presentation. In my
> experience, a Boston Brown Bread is a quick bread and would certainly run
> through the hole in the bottom of the pot.
Cut a disk of foil of baking parchment, and voila! - no leakage.
Barry Harmon
> I grow very few plants in pots. Currently I have five capsicum plants
> in pots and three aubergines. In the greenhouse. The peppers are
> fruiting well, the aubergines (egg plants) have produced one and a bit
> fruits - it's the first time I've tried either. I used my home-made
> compost (pronounced here comp- ost, not 'compot') Yes, no doubt some
> of it had been through worms and insects but nothing has been added by
> me. Or mine.
Ever tried hydroponics?
Barry
Graham
"Mary Fisher" <mary....@zetnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:48de8b92$0$766$4c56...@master.news.zetnet.net...
>
> I used my home-made compost (pronounced here comp- ost, not 'compot')
IME Usually pronounced with a long second "o" as "compoast" in N.America.
Graham
Mary Fisher
"Barry Harmon" <john...@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:Xns9B26CFF97D25Ajo...@209.197.15.254...
No, it doesn't atract me in the least.
Mary
Felix Karpfen
> I've got a pair of stone molds that are 3 3/4" diameter and 5" high.
> They're from Sassafras, the same people who made my cloche and
Spelling!
Try Roemertopf (or Römertopf or Romerpot or anything in between).
>
> . I've used them off and on for at least 20 years.
Flowerpots are geared to the "do-it-yourself" market.
Serious amateur bakers use a Roemertopf.
The archives (3-4 years ago?) of <alt.bread.recipes|rec.foods.soudough>
contain some comments on Roemertopf-baked breads. Web pages of
Roemertopf suppliers probably have more info.
Google to the rescue.
Felix Karpfen
--
Felix Karpfen
Public Key 72FDF9DF (DH/DSA)
--
Felix Karpfen
Public Key 72FDF9DF (DH/DSA)