I’ve been experimenting with my new Römertopf loaf pans (yes, plural, I now have two) and have found that they work particularly well with a sourdough version of Joanna’s white bread formula.
As I’ve talked a few of you into buying the pan, I thought I’d share this recipe as well (this quantity makes one loaf)..
- 200g active sourdough starter (at 166% hydration, ie. fed at a ratio of one cup bread flour to one cup water*)
- 700g white bread/bakers flour
- 375g water
- 15g extra virgin olive oil
- 10g brown sugar
- 13g fine sea salt
* Note: if you’d like to try this recipe with a 100% hydration starter, reduce the flour to 675g and increase the water to 400g. If my maths is correct, that should work!
1. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the starter, water, oil and brown sugar, then add the flour and sea salt. Mix the whole lot together with clean hands to form a firm dough, squishing the ingredients together to ensure all the flour is incorporated. Scrape the dough off your fingers and cover the bowl; allow to rest for 30 minutes.
2. Uncover the dough and give it a quick knead in the mixing bowl. I only knead for about a minute or so, which is all it takes to get the dough quite smooth and elastic. Cover the bowl again and allow it to rise until doubled in size (in our Sydney winter, my starter is quite sluggish and this can take 6 – 8 hours).
3. Prepare the Römertopf loaf pan by spraying the inside lightly with vegetable oil. Do NOT preheat the oven.
4. Turn the risen dough onto a lightly oiled bench and shape it into a loaf. Place the dough into the greased loaf pan and cover with oiled plastic wrap or a shower cap. Fill the sink with enough hot water (ours is approximately 40C in temperature) to come up to just below the rim of the loaf pan. Now place the pan into the water and allow the dough to rise again for another 30 minutes, or until it has filled the pan and risen nearly to the top.
5. Remove the pan from the sink, and slash the top with a serrated knife or razor blade. Place the wet, dough-filled pan into a cold oven and then turn the heat up to 200C with fan. Bake for 40 minutes, then remove from the oven and carefully turn out the loaf from the pan (I wear my welding gloves to do this).
Warning: make sure you place the empty loaf pan onto a folded tea towel or other gentle surface, as it will crack if it goes onto something cold at this stage!
6. Drop the heat to 175C with fan and return the naked loaf to the oven for a further 20 minutes, sitting it straight onto the rack to allow the sides and bottom to brown up. The overall cooking time will be a little variable depending on how long it takes your oven to heat up.
This is a very big loaf – about 1.3kg in weight – and it’s been perfect for school holiday lunches. The crumb is tender with a little elasticity, and the crust is thin and crunchy. Best of all, it makes my Pete very happy, as it reminds him of the bread his grandmother used to bake when he was a young lad visiting her farm in Mudgee!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Very nice loaves Celia. I have one question ….. When you shape the loaves, do you take all the air out of the dough?
Glenda, it depends on the type of loaf that I’m making. When I’m making ciabattas, I handle the dough very gently – fold it on itself a couple of times and then just cut it into pieces and bake without a second rise. With the loaves in this post, the hydration was quite low, so the dough wasn’t very bubbly or airy when fully risen. I turned the dough out and folded it on itself, then shaped it first into a round, then into a long loaf. Having said that, I never pummel a dough to “knock it back” like they used to teach in the past. Hope that helps?
Dear Celia,
I can’t bake to save my life and this would give me endless nightmares. Think I’ll stick to spreading the butter on freshly baked loaves.
Nah, it’s not that hard once you get the hang of it.. ;-)
What a great looking loaf Celia and yes, perfect for large boys hanging around the house during the school holidays. The larger the better xx
Charlie, they can eat almost a loaf a day! :)
Yummy! SO need to create myself a starter. I’m loving these Romertopf loaves, Celia!
Thanks Nick! I love having a starter. It’s quite cold here in Sydney at the moment, so I made a batch of dough last night, left it on the kitchen bench while I slept, and then baked it when I got up this morning. It felt like no work at all! Using a SD starter instead of bakers yeast affords us a lot of flexibility with time.
That’s awesome! I’m moving in a couple of months so I’m not sure there’s any point me making a starter yet, since it would be a shame to leave, but also a pain to bring… I utterly commit to making one this year though!
Nick, I haven’t made my own starter (I bought mine), but let me know if you’d like me to send you via email photocopied instructions on how to do it. A friend asked recently, so I’ve got them scanned and ready to go. :)
Why not?! Could you forward them to frugalfeeding@gmail.com?
Sent the email to you yesterday – it has four pages attached, so if you don’t get it, it might be in your spam folder. :)
I saw it, no worries – thanks!
Beautiful loaves, Celia! I love your new pans….they look like such fun. :)
Thanks Abby! I love having new toys to play with (which I think is pretty obvious by now..hahaha)
High five dear girl! Guess what I’m playing with tomorrow?
Rose, have fun! Look forward to seeing what you come up with! :)
Just curious, are there other uses for the Römertopf loaf pans, for instance would you make a meatloaf in it or would that ruin it? At that sale price I would probably but 4.
Norma, I was wondering that myself. I think you could use it for meatloaf, but I’m not sure how cakes would respond to going into a cold oven? The clay pans have been going straight into the dishwasher and coming out clean, but I’m not sure if something like meatloaf would leave residual flavours in the pan?
looking good Celia. looking forward to see how the crumb turns out.
I’ve ordered my Römertopf pan, you know what they went out of stock last weekend, I blame you for it :D.
Anyway I’ve researched more about Römertopf and decided to buy the casserole dish. Lucky Victoria’s basement have them on sale for $19.95 it’s Rustico 2.5L feeds 4ppl. Sadly you can only buy them in Auburn or Artarmon. I think Auburn only have 5 left in stock.
Diana, I’ve posted a crumb shot at the top of the post. I’m very pleased with it, as Small Man made very positive comments this morning. :) And I just had a look on the Peters site, and the loaf pan is back in stock again!
I adore my Romertopf baker – the Rustico is the exact one we have – and I’ve actually written quite a few posts about them. Here are a few:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/08/01/romertopf/
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2010/02/28/romertopf-bakers-revisited/
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2010/03/01/romertopf-roast-lamb/
I’m about to put a large free range duck into the baker to roast for tonight’s dinner.. :)
Well done Celia! I love that you keep experimenting till you perfect the recipe!
Thanks Lizzy! I was really pleased with these loaves – got it right on the third attempt, I think. The big thing was dropping the heat down to 200C with fan, and pulling the loaves out of the pans to allow the sides and bottom to brown up. Both Pete and Small Man are very taken with our new loaves! :)
I have bread envy when I visit this blog! I can smell my bread baking in the oven right now but I doubt it will look as good as this does. Yes, I have bread envy. I apologise.
to prove how sorry I am, I used an s in apologise. It doesn’t come naturally. :)
Thank you for the “s” rather than “z”, it’s the little things that really touch me. :)
I love making bread! Just love it.
Me too, Pamela! I’m quite hooked on it, actually! We haven’t bought a loaf of bread (except when we’re away) in over five years now. :)
Here’s a post I wrote about it when I first started the blog…
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/03/07/sourdough/
We haven’t bought bread is quite some time as well. I grew my starter to supply all my current students with a bit of starter.
I have created bread monsters – they love the process and for some of the students, it is the first time they have ever cooked or baked anything.
how fun it is bread that gets them started in the food world.
Have you checked out Barbara from My Italian Smorgasbord yet? She is also a fanatic bread baker. ;)
What a great gift for your students! And thank you, yes I have visited Barbara’s blog, and it’s fabulous! :)
Don’t you just love the blogging community! It makes the world so small and accessible.
I loved finding out that your name isn’t really Charlotte, and that even half way around the world, we’re sharing both a love of food, and the same concerns about our sons moving out of home.. ;-)
Have a great weekend! x
Lordy, I must get me one of these pans!!
If you are going to buy one, I’d get it soon, as Peters really did run out of stock last week. Looks like they’ve got more for sale now though…
http://www.petersofkensington.com.au/Public/Romertopf-Pane-Loaf-Dish.aspx
It looks so lovely, what a fantastic method indeed!
Thanks Becca! I wish you could eat gluten! :)
Hello Celia, I realize this is wrong spot to be leaving thanks for your cannelé recipe from some years ago, but the comments are closed there so I couldn’t leave it in the appropriate spot. I’ve just posted my version, and there’s a line of gratitude for your /Anna’s simple instructions in the recipe at the bottom, which I just wanted to reiterate here. Thanks for making it easy! No doubt your sourdough will be inspiration enough for the next time : ) Deepa
Deepa, thank you for your lovely note and for taking the time to let us know that the recipe worked well for you. Anna will be delighted! :)
Squelch? Is that an Aussie baking term? Oh dear, I doubt I’ll ever catch up with international semantic differences. Hey, here’s that ‘cold oven start’ again – this is going to haunt me until I try it myself. Nice loaves, my dear.
Squish? :) I’ve amended to clarify, thanks.
Hope the cold oven bit works for you! :)
What an amazing looking loaf, as ever. I thought it looked amazing even before you updated with the crumb shot. I can just imagine how delicious this must taste, and it’s torture to read about it while my dinner cooks! I may have to try the cold start at some point. But not yet!
Thanks Caroline! I’m used to making hard crusted, rubbery crumbed (in a good way) Italian style sourdough. This has made such a nice change, and the boys are really enjoying it. :)
wow! what a gorgeous loaf! it looks so airy and delicious!!
Thank you! Sadly not gluten-free though. This one is though! :)
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/05/22/best-gluten-free-bread-ever/
Another interesting bread post Celia. Your experiments are great :) Perfect weather for baking bread…I have my SD starters sitting in the sun this afternoon to try and get them moving a little quicker!
I’ve had mine in front of the gas heater, Jane.. :)
Those pans are gorgeous, reminds me of when I made bread in little flower pots, the terra cotta is lovely for baking in.
They really are! And they probably work a bit better than the old flower pots, as they’re glazed.. :)
You are a genuis! Think that bread would be particularly good toasted with butter and vegemite.
Anna, thank you! And that’s exactly how Small Man has been eating it! :)
Celia they look so good. I love how much they rise!
Thanks Claire! My friend and neighbour Maude underestimated the rise, and put even more dough into the pan than I did. It came up over the top like a muffin top and stuck to all the unglazed bits.. :)
MMM,..Your home-made white sourdough bread looks so lovely & fabulous even, Celia! I absolutely love sourdough!
Thanks Sophie! It always surprises me how many different types of bread we’re able to make with our sourdough starter!
I’m on the hunt for these. The kitchen shop said they ‘used to stock them’ – not very helpful then!
Sally, I know you can get them from Amazon UK, hopefully you can pick one up when you’re on holidays, if you don’t find one locally?
[…] I don’t usually do white bread, but, in the interests of science I made the first loaf out of my new Römertopf pan a white bread with the idea of seeing if I could reproduce Celia’s Römertopf White Sourdough Loaf. […]
Great looking loaf and neat method!