Sorry...disappeared faster than I thought. Made a killer grilled cheese but no pics. My bad. Made some turkey sandwiches for my son's lunches and that was that.
I missed this, Andy! Glad you liked the flour mix! I love playing around with different combos. Semolina and rye both add some great flavors!
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Easiest solution would be if you had a pizza stone. You could preheat that as you would normally preheat your Dutch, launch the loaf on the stone, and cover with your large turkey pan. You aren't really looking for radiant heat as much as you are looking for steam capture. If you don't have a pizza stone, what about a CI griddle? That could work, too, with the inverted turkey pan, but I'd keep an eye on the bottom to be sure it doesn't scorch.....you can move to a sheet pan mid bake if needed. Failing all of that, you could just use a sheet/cookie sheet as your bottom layer with the inverted turkey pan, though you may need to start with a higher initial heat to be sure you get that quick blast that really helps the rise.I’m currently in the middle of another bread experiment that I hope goes well.
I was going to ask you for some advice on this Rich but I’ll just post it here to see if anyone else has any recommendation'.
I currently make 2 loafs at a time, each weighing 925 grams.
I make 1,850 gram batches then cut them in half before before I pre shape them or add inclusions in one half via laminations.
I use a standard large Lodge Dutch oven for the cook.
This cook I’m adding 50% to each loaf and using a flat cast iron pizza pan with some sort of a dome type cover.
I bought a large turkey aluminum pan but I don’t like that idea.
I’m going downtown to see about a large roast pan.
I’m not sure about adding steam.
I think pre heating a very small staines bowl under the dome and then adding water.
My kitchen aid oven has a steam mode but I’ve never used it and don’t think it will work for this situation.
So how would you cobble together an extra large loaf on a shoe string budget?
One idea is to fall on my butt and tell the wife that I need a Challenger Bread Pan
