BREAD baking

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

After baking a few more varied types of round bread loaves in my cast iron Dutch oven pot, I see that the crust comes out by far the BEST this way, and without needing a steam pan or spraying the loaves either. Very simple! The crusts are coming out absolutely PERFECT- thin, crackly crisp, and golden.
Using a piece of parchment makes it easy to just lower the risen loaf gently into the hot pot, cover quickly, and bake, parchment and all.

I ordered a second Dutch oven of the same size as my ancient garage sale one (6 qts), so that I can bake my usual 2 loaves both at once in the oven. Both pots will fit side by side, and it will save 45 minutes of oven 'on' time and saves me additional running around when timing and tending two baking loaves in succession.

This afternoon I made a regular white boule with white sesame seed topping, and a parmesan cheese-laced boule with black sesame crust. The dough for those two loaves had been in the fridge for about a week already. (I think 10 days is the max I want to go on storing the dough {the book says 12 days is max}, and it definitely has better flavor and texture when stored at least 2 or 3 days)

I also mixed up a wet sticky sour dough batch today (enough for 2 loaves) which will sit overnight on the counter and get baked tomorrow afternoon. That'll be enough bread for the next 3 or 4 days.

I love the convenience of simply mixing up dough batches ahead of time and then refrigerating them until it's convenient to bake a loaf or two. This bread method really suits my lifestyle, as opposed to years ago when I had to spend a whole day baking bread from start to finish. The bread is 100 times superior, too!