A bread cooked in a pot? Why you ask yourself! In the home oven for baking bread, water should be sprayed before placing the loaf in the oven. This is to increase the humidity in the cooking compartment and thus allow the bread to further develop its leavening, preventing the crust from hardening.

In the pot, on the other hand, the humidity that forms inside the small space is sufficient. This is how the cooking of the bread begins with the pot closed and then uncover it in the last ten minutes and thus give the crust the possibility of becoming very crunchy and the color of honey.

Preparation:

After having made the dough with the polish, the folds, and having waited 2 hours, we carry out the second series of folds, take the dough and put it in a special basket for the leavening of the bread (if you don’t have a basket, leave it on on a floured work surface, covered with celophane), sprinkle it abundantly with flour or semolina, shape the loaf and place it inside.

Get yourself a large food bag, put the basket with the bread inside and tie the bag being careful not to let the plastic adhere to the shape of the bread and wait another 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 260°C – 500°F degrees, and insert the cast iron pan with the lid inside (if you don’t have a cast iron pan, steel ones are fine as long as the handles and lids can withstand high temperatures ). Being very careful, remove the pot from the oven with the help of gloves.

With the help of a sheet of floured parchment paper (to ensure that the dough does not stick and find it hard to swell), on which you have placed the dough, and you have made a cut, place the loaf inside it 9 io on the bottom (I add an aluminum plate for pizza, to ensure that the bottom of the bread does not burn too much).

Cover and bake for:

15 minutes @ 550 with lid
30 minutes @ 450 with lid

Check that the color of the crust is golden brown, and leave it for another 15 minutes @ 400 without the lid.

The times indicated are for a dough of about 850/1000g., the result can vary from oven to oven.

After this time, remove the pot from the oven, remove the bread and place it on a wire rack so that it can cool down.

Loaves made