Baking in a Cloche
There are many ways to get a crusty loaf of bread, but one of our favorites is to use the tried and true method of baking in a clay cloche, here, the Emile Henry brand cloche. It is very similar to using a Dutch Oven, but the cloche was designed to bake bread, so it is an even more intuitive method. In other words, you aren’t lowering the bread into the piping hot vessel, you just lift the lid and slide the loaf onto what is essentially a baking stone. The cloche traps the steam from the dough to create a perfectly crisp and beautifully shiny crust, without having to add steam to the oven.
This loaf was made with the Master Recipe from The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day:1 pound of Master Recipe from TheNewABin5
Shape the loaf into a ball and let it rest for 40 to 90 minutes on a piece of parchment or a Pizza Peel covered in cornmeal.
The dough will rise, but may not double in size, this is perfectly normal for this method.
About 40 minutes before baking, preheat your cloche to 450°F.
Slide the loaf onto the bottom part of the cloche. Put the cover on and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove the cover and continue baking for 5 to 10 minutes,
or until the loaf is a deep caramel color.
Remove the loaf from the cloche and parchment to allow it to cool completely on a wire rack. If you leave it on the parchment, the bottom crust will not be as crisp.
This loaf was rested for about 90 minutes, and you can see that it has a nice open crumb. If you are in a hurry you can reduce it to 40 minutes.
Note: Red Star Yeast (Lesaffre Corp) sponsored this post, and supplied yeast for recipe testing. Emile Henry also sponsored, and provided the cloche for testing. BreadIn5.com is reader supported–when you buy through links on the site, BreadIn5 LLC earns commissions.
Lovely crusty bread… Would love to own a copy…
As a novice bread baker trying to pinch pennies by learning to bake bread, this package would be a mighty welcome addition to get me started.
Thank you for sharing!
What a great gift. I’ve got your old version of the book, but I’d love the new one, along with the rest of the loot.
Wonderful giveaway! Thank you for the opportunity.
What a beautiful loaf of bread!
What a fabulous red cloche! It would be such fun to bake a bread in it. Another great new way to bake bread and a wonderful give away!
I’ve been making your breads for about a year now, and it’s become my ‘hobby’. I’m bringing an assortment of different breads to our holiday party at work as my contribution. Would love to try baking in a cloche – my current go-to pan is a pullman pan (with cover left off).
My family loves our Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day!
I’m curious what the difference is between baking in a cloche and on a stone. I’d love to win this to give it a try!
I’ve got your old version of the book, and was considering buying the new one…a contest like this would make it that much sweeter!
Thank you.
That cloche looks incredible! I’d love to try baking with one of those. And as always, the bread looks gorgeous and I’m sure tastes delicious!
This is a luxe way to start baking bread with your recipes- ! would love to try baking with a cloche, as much as I’ve enjoyed flatbread on the pizza pan. Happy Holidays!
This seriously had my mouth watering!
This looks like a lovely way to make your amazing bread. Wow. A signed copy? A treasure for sure! Thanks for sharing all your tips and recipes. Truly love your breads!
Oh I would be so thrilled! Thanks so much for the chance!
I love crusty bread and am needing to branch out more with baking with yeast!
What a generous give-away… it looks almost as lovely as that bread.
I’ve never baked bread in a cloche before.I would love to try this.Thank you so much for having the giveaway!!!
I love my Emile Henry baking stone, I can only imagine the results with the cloche.
Thank you for the chance. I love your brioche recipe!
What a great giveaway!
Thanks for all the great bread, pizza, brioche and the chance to win.
I am a big fan of your method for baking scrumptious bread! I would love a copy of your new book. The cloche is an intriguing idea too.
This give away might be the best ever!
oh I so want to make this bread to go with a cheese tray during the holidays!
WOW! Love your style of baking bread. I have a few of your books & this would be a nice addition. Would love to try baking in a cloche
I love your books — I always have a tub of olive oil dough going in the fridge. It is my go to for pizza.
My mother has a cloche and I’ve always loved using it. It’s great for making crispy crusts!
I’ve made bread in a covered iron pan before (that’s how I got started on the no-knead bread!) but have moved to a baking stone. This looks like it could be the best of both worlds!
Now I know what I really want for Christmas. I am an avid baker with my ABin5aDay. But I will surely have to get a cloche and try this.
I’ve never baked bread in a cloche but imagine it would trap the steam and make a really nice loaf of bread.
I have recently retired and I am interested in baking bread again–what a giveaway.
Your first book is very dear to me, as my good friend gave it to me only weeks before she unexpectedly passed away. I still love baking your bread, however it is a challenge getting a consistent rise living in northern Utah where the humidity is crazy low. The bread cloche sounds like a great remedy for my humidity issues.
This looks wonderful! You guys keep coming up with such amazing recipes and practical techniques, keep up the great work!
I was considering purchasing one of the electric stand mixers this holiday season to try my hand at bread making. When I saw your resent video on 5 min. bread making It changed my mind and I cant wait to get started in this new adventure. Thanks to both of you for a new hobby and yet another reason to get on the treadmill.
I just started baking bread using your method: got the books, special dough whisk and the bread buckets for both pizza dough and your bread dough. Now, I need to find that Emile Henry cloche!!! LOVE the quality of the bread – it’s fantastic!
I’ve loved this method of bread baking ever since I saw an article about the first book in Mother Earth news. I was skeptical, but I’ve never had a bad loaf since!
Neat – I would love to win! Congrats on your new book.
I do not know what is more beautiful, the golden caramel color of the bread, or the red color of the Emile Henry cloche! I need your book!
I am regularly making bread your way,in typically Indian Stoneware, mud pot with lid besides on out traditional heavy iron “dosa pan”. Every way it has been comng out splendid!!The deep colour and chewy crust are just “adorable”!!I have now completely forgotten my old bread making methods & have decided to gicve away my Braun bread machine!!
I only make bread the ABin5 way anymore, and have introduced many people to this miracle. I can only imagine how wonderful it must be made in the cloche!
…..and now I want a cloche. Adding that to my Christmas list for sure 🙂
I love my Emile Henry baking stone and would love to try the cloche!
This seems like it would make the perfect amount for a dinner for two. I would love to win!
I attended a bread baking class recently, and I used a cloche for the first time. It produced bread with an amazing crust; I’d love to win one for myself!
Amazing bread! Amazing cloche!
I prefer European style bread, and this method has revolutionized my kitchen.
Thanks for holding the giveaway. We have all the books except the most recent. And I’d love to try baking in a cloche!
I just made the rye dough last week and would love to try out the cloche baking method!
I am looking forward to trying this new technique. Keep the books coming and happy baking 🙂