Baking with a cloche

                                                   

We’ve recently started baking with a cloche. It’s a great way to create a super crusty bread, and is so easy. It’s great for the lazy baker!

Here is a very simple step by step guide to using a cloche with our delicious bread mixes.                                       

Firstly, purchase a cloche! I got my 30cm Kitchen Craft from Amazon for £26. It’s comes with a 1 year warranty.

When you first get your cloche, you have to season it. This basically means baking it in the oven at its highest temperature. We did ours for around an hour.

Once you’ve done this, it’s ready to use!

                                          

Preheat the oven to 210C, and put the empty cloche into the oven.

You follow the usual instructions with our mix for the first few steps: add water, leave for a minute, stir vigorously for around 50 strokes. Then you place the dough onto a piece of parchment paper (around 30 cm). Shape the dough using a wet spatula. For a really good looking loaf, try to curve up the bottom of the loaf, and smooth the dough as much as possible. Depending on the bread mix, score the dough, and sprinkle any seeds, toppings or gluten free flour.

                                      


Once the dough is ready to bake, take the hot cloche out the oven (using oven gloves), and place the dough on the parchment paper into the cloche. Put the cloche back into the oven, and bake for 90 mins at 210C. If you don’t preheat the cloche in the oven, the bread will take longer to bake.

                                       


After 90 minutes, you’ll have a delicious crusty gluten free bread! Leave the bread to cool on a rack.

Let the cloche cool, then it’s ready to use again next time you want yummy home baked bread!