“Have been thinking of buying a la cloche for a while and having put it on my Christmas list, I finally got one this Christmas. Delighted with the results - just wish I had got it sooner.”
“I have baked for years in an open oven. Recently I have been baking loaves under an inverted cast iron pan. I found that using the pan resulted in larger loaves with better crumb and crust. I thought that La Cloche could be better again as it might, being purpose made, retain more steam. I have found that loaves from La Cloche are at least as good as those baked under cast iron (and better therefore than those baked without cover), but I don't think La Cloche bakes better loaves than did the cast iron I was using. It is however easier to use - the base is shallow and easy to place a loaf on and the dome can easily be lifted on and off. If you are not already using a cover and are considering La Cloche, then go for it. If you are wondering whether La Cloche will give better results than some other cover, I'm not sure. A final note - La Cloche is not small and being ceramic is breakable, so you will need free shelf space on which to store it.”
“Bought as a Christmas gift for my bread baking husband. After about 3 attempts, he managed to get a well shaped dough into the cloche. Bread turned out well and tasty. Looking forward to more crusty, tasty loaves.”
“Transformative. I am a rank amateur. Keen, enthusiastic but not too experienced. I was baking good sourdough on an oven stone. Enter the dome and suddenly the crust is just a whole level above what I was able to produce before. My only advice from personal experience is to pre-heat the dome rather than bake from cold. I've even ventured into 40% rye sourdough - superb.”
“I've been making my own bread for a number of years and although I've improved as time's gone on, it's been difficult to achieve consistency in a domestic oven. Since buying La Cloche back in July I've produced loaf after loaf of perfect bread. I mainly use this in conjunction with recipes from Ken Forkish's book on artisan bread which works very well, but I've used it with other techniques too. It's not cheap, but it does work!”
