My First Le Crueset Loaf Goes to New Haven

I used our new Le Creuset cast iron pot to make a loaf of artisan bread on Friday night. I followed the directions from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day blog. I used the recipe for Light Wheat Bread from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking. The loaf is too brown because I forgot to turn the oven temperature down to 450° after I took the lid off of the pot after 20 minutes of baking. I used 2 lbs of dough for this loaf. Next time I will try all 3 lbs of dough in the pot because while this loaf was a good size, I would like it bigger for when John and I have guests.

Above, you see the completed loaf on my kitchen counter.
It's looking good!

Above is the same loaf of bread on Anna's kitchen counter. It's looking even better! They are very impressed with my new skills. So I'm very pleased. In the future, I am also going to try baking loaves in my cloche (a closed clay pot that I have and have not used in years). They say the crust is even better in a cloche.

We also took this iced bundt cake for them. I have posted the recipe here. This cake can be dry, so be sure not to over bake. I like the recipe because of the extracts that it uses. I have used vanilla and almond (1 1/2 t. each) and I have also done the recipe as printed. I think you could use any combination of flavorings that you would like. The cake is very sweet. It is so sweet that I cannot eat it on an empty stomach or my blood sugar crashes! I can't have this cake for breakfast! But it sure is good. And of course, I used the bundt pan that John and I found in the dump!


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