I knead help! Getting frustrated that my breads are sticking to all the various pans I have. Here’s the deal: I really like the no knead bread. But I end up having to chisel it out of all my pans. I’ve tried bread pans (various bread loaf sizes), corning ware, casserole dishes, etc. Have tried a thin coat of oil and lightly dusted with flour. Today had the brilliant idea of putting down a layer of foil and now am trying to scrape the foil off the loaf.
Have a convection oven with the highest setting at 450F or 230C. Usually preheat for 15 minutes or so and then slide in the pan.
What should I be doing to have a nice crusty bread that slides out?
Also what’s the secret to nice ciabatta bread? If I can’t keep bread from sticking, at least toss it on a pre heated cast iron pan, and come out with a nice flat bread that will make great sandwiches. Oh and a nice recipe would be great too!
Do you have well used bread pans? My bread pans have a coating somewhat akin to that on an iron skillet- being steel, they don’t have the same porosity, but use of shortening in their early use has developed a non-stick coating, which is only wiped clean when needed.
If you don’t need a loaf shape, free forms are good on a stone, where they never stick.
That’s all I got.
What temperature are you actually baking at? You may have the temp set too high.
When using a convection oven, as I do at work, I set the temperature somewhat lower than called for in regular cookbooks. So if something calls for 375 degrees, I set it at 325 degrees.
If you try baking in glass, you also need to lower the baking temp a little, by about twenty five degrees.
If you could PM me with the recipe, or post it here, that might give some more ideas on what may be going on.
IIRC, that no-knead bread requires a pre-heated baking dish, with a lid. That should sear the crust so it doesn’t stick - it did when I made it - but it could be a different recipe. I used a glass baking dish, YMMV (and obviously does).
Dust the actual blob (it’s more of a blob than a loaf) with flour or cornmeal before you toss it in the dish. That may help.
The key part about a good no-knead loaf is that you should preheat the pan in the oven, and then slide the dough into the preheated pan once the oven reaches the designated temperature. Like Ginger says, this means the dough creates a crust almost instantly, before it has a chance to stick.
Also, make sure you’re using a fairly heavy-duty pan which will retain the heat like cast iron or Pyrex - silicone pans aren’t suited for this purpose, as they can’t be put in a very hot oven (I think the max on mine is around 400F) and they don’t do a good job of creating a nice crispy crust (I use mine for muffins or cakes, where a crispy crust is the last thing you want).
In this video with Mark Bittman, they’re preheating the pots at high heat AND using cast-iron.
