San Francisco Sourdough baked in a Pot

Well, I am a convert to Pot baking, I just wish I had a bigger pot, the size of my oven to be exact. The crust comes out incredible, with the crispy, crusty texture and crunch that one is after in a sourdough crust. I mixed up a batch of San Francisco Sourdough using the SF starter, it was slow to bulk ferment because I let it go 24 hours with no refreshment to build up the sour producing bacteria. I shaped the dough into boule shapes this time and proofed overnight in baskets:

I let the dough proof overnight and you wouldn’t believe it but it took a little over four hours to proof, the dough was that slow. It is a good way to get a decent sour however.

I have been trying the dough baking in a cast iron pot. The last bread I tried was the Desem bread which came out pretty nice. This time it was a white bread, so the outcome was more dramatic…and was not disappointing! This was the first loaf of the batch to be baked:

This was the second loaf to be baked:

This was the third loaf to be baked and I believe it was perfectly proofed and the oven was thoroughly heated, as I also used stones besides the pot:

Here is the same loaf while still in the pot:

All three loaves together:

Here is the crumb of the first loaf:

As you can see the pot baking is a tremendous success. I feel the heavy pot and the lid keeps the heat wrapped around the loaf, and provides for it’s own steam. The third loaf’s crust came out the best, I sprayed that loaf with water just before I popped on the lid.

With the long proofing, the bread came out with a very nice tangy sour. All around a great baking day!