Had a little experiment last night with two portions of the same dough.
The one of the left is baked with the steam-oven. I just used the standard bread recipe in the oven's settings. The one on the right is baked with a Dutch oven.
Tried to get the variables (like scoring etc.) as consistent as possible. What a different.
Any thoughts? The only thing I can think of is that the Dutch oven wasn't the same temp as the oven, so that stopped the rise of the loaf on the right.
It had the same baking time as the steam oven version. Around 45 - 50 minutes. Maybe it was the temp of the cast iron pot..
You should preheat the Dutch oven for around 1hr before baking. Also you should do the last 1/3 of the bake with the lid off.
Some people toss ice cubes into the dutch oven with the dough to increase the moisture. It never made any difference for me.
A steam oven is superior. That isn’t debatable. The dutch oven is the next best method - steam ovens are expensive.
@markr @Dontbesourdough Yes, Dutch ovens are great for baking bread, but I wish someone would make one with a 'bread pan' shape so I could make sandwich-style bread in it, not just boules.
Do you know about the loaf tins that have a slide on lid? You can leave the lid on for the initial part of the bake (or the entire bake if you like your bread perfectly rectangular).
@desGroles Yes, these are called Pullman pans. I've not used one but I'm aware of them. often used to make Japanese milk bread loaves.
My bread machine makes a loaf with a similar square cross-section, albeit with rounded corners.