Wordless Not-Wednesday: who needs Le Creuset?!

O la la!

summary: Chad Robertson’s Tartine bread risen with Jane Mason natural starter (wheat); we don’t have a cast-iron Combo-Cooker or Le Creuset; make-shift cooker using a cast-iron pan and a large stainless steel mixing bowl; let parchment paper be your friend; talk about oven spring!; 6th try at Jane Mason bread just as successful with all-purpose flour; sneak peak at Fesanjun; a Wordless Not-Wednesday post

The photo of the bread lop-sided in the frying pan is our 1st try using the make-shift pan when baking Jane Mason French Bread It turned out that the Jane Mason Bread works just as well made with All Purpose Flour. (I KNEW that bread flour couldn’t be the key ingredient! French flour isn’t nearly that strong and the French have been making brilliant bread for eons, after all.)

I had a little trouble dropping the bread into the hot pan. The transfer from brotform to hot pan was somewhat trying. Luckily the bowl still fit over-top and the bread released easily from the pan once it was baked. For the 2nd try with the make-shift pan, I remembered seeing someone’s YouTube video that suggested carrying the bread on a piece of parchment paper. That’s WAY easier!

Baking Method

Preheat the cast-iron frying pan and stainless steel mixing bowl when turning on the oven to 425F. Drop the shaped and risen bread onto a piece of parchment paper. Lift the bread on the parchment paper into the hot cast-iron pan, cover with the overturned stainless steel bowl and bake for 20-30 minutes, immediately turning the oven down to 400F. Remove the stainless steel bowl hat and bake for a further 20-30 minutes at 375F.

While not exactly a traditional accompaniment for Persian food, Jane Mason’s bread goes brilliantly with Fesanjun (a wonderful Georgian stew made from a recipe in “Taste of Persia: A Cook’s Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan” by Naomi Duguid. (Remind me to rave about Fesanjun AND Duguid’s book.)