Baking in a Cloche

Emile Henry Cloche 09

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

Baking in Cloche | Breadin5

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.

Emile Henry Cloche 02

The dough will rise, but may not double in size, this is perfectly normal for this method.

Emile Henry Cloche 05

About 40 minutes before baking, preheat your cloche to 450°F.

Emile Henry Cloche 06

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,

Emile Henry Cloche 07

or until the loaf is a deep caramel color.

Emile Henry Cloche 08

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.

Emile Henry Cloche 10

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.

Emile Henry Cloche 03

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.

561 thoughts to “Baking in a Cloche”

  1. I like the books and the Bread in Five website. And if I don’t win the cloche :), where is a good place to buy one?

  2. I bought the Nook version of the book and tried the recipe last weekend. Came out pretty good and looking forward to trying it again this weekend

  3. My Aunt turned me on to your books and I love them! There is nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread wafting through the house. Thanks for making it so easy!

  4. We just recently purchased and moved into our first house, and all I’ve asked for as a housewarming gift is the new book!

  5. I love your photography. Just fabulous. I’ve never tried bread as yeast seems scary to me. What a perfect opportunity to try … and that red cloche? Beautiful!

  6. I’m so anxious to read the new book! I have so enjoyed the 5 min a day strategy. Thank you for sharing your work with the world!

  7. Love this giveaway! For the last 2 years, I’ve been making your Rosemary Crescent Rolls for Thanksgiving! Thank you for the giveaway!

      1. I do have the book. Both! I am looking to hide some spinach to make green pizza dough for my kids this weekend. Maybe I should follow the broccoli cheese bun recipe ratios?

  8. I bought Pizza in 5 first, then thumbed through Healthy Bread and bought it. One day later I ordered the NewABin5. Please keep up your wonderful work — I’m looking forward to the next book!

  9. I have all three books and plan to give the new book to my sister for Christmas. I would love to try a cloche.

  10. I have a new gas range, of course it won’t hold the steam, so I broke down and bought a new enameled Dutch Oven from Costco, Kirkland brand made in France. It’s beautiful and only $79. I baked in it for the first time last night, the crust was beautiful all over. I had a hard time on the preheated stone getting the bottom nice and brown (???). The Kirkland dutch oven has a knob that can heat up to 500 degrees. I baked at 500 covered for 15 minutes then took the lid off and finished for 20 minutes at 450.

  11. Just learned about your updated book and new gluten free options and found you today! Very interested in hearing how others like the GF options!

  12. Just got my The New Artisan Bread yesterday and I can’t stop reading it! Thank you for devoting time to publish this wonderful book.
    The largest container I usually mix dough in has a 9-cup capacity. I made a master dough in half the recipe last night and after the initial 2-hr rise, it almost outgrew my container, but I have to leave the lid cracked open so didn’t bother me. The question I have here is that is it okay if my dough STICKS TO THE LID even when it went back down a little in the fridge? Will I do any harm to the gluten when pulling the lid open?
    Or should I adjust the recipe to fit my container, (say, less than 40% of the original master dough?)

  13. What a Gorgeous book! My first loaf is baking right now – the house Smells heavenly!! Keep up the Great job of making bread baking a simple work of art!

  14. Heard about you thru my awesome Niece Katty! Than you for the opportunity and thanks to Katty for introducing me to something new. Suz

  15. I just discovered Bread in 5 a couple months ago when I found the recipe on the Gold Medal Unbleached Flour bag I had just purchased. What a great recipe, almost too easy to have such a yummy loaf of fresh bread! I’m looking forward to more when I have the full book collection. Thank you!

  16. A very good friend of mine showed me how easy it was to bake bread using your method and also how good it tasted! I am going to try it myself this week. I feel confident that I will be successful, thanks to not only your book, but also your website and videos. I can’t wait to bake my first loaf of bread! Thank you!!

  17. What an incredible way to have fresh breads… I am so excited at the concept and look forward to making this a part of my meal prep.

  18. What a beautiful loaf of bread, staff of life. Beautiful gift…I now know what I’ll be giving to my friends and boss this Christmas.

  19. We have a bucket of dough almost permanently in our fridge and use it for all of our bread items. I’d love to have a chance to read the new edition and try the cloche.

  20. I can’t wait to try this method for bread! All the other things I’ve done never seem to match my hectic schedule, I think this may be the key to doing bread much more often than I used to.

  21. Your cookbook works! My loaves look like your photo. Always like a cookbook that actually works and tastes good. Thanks!

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