“I love how durable & solid this pan feels. It's great to be able to make longer loafs or batons. It does give me a good rise on the sourdoughs I make & a lovely colour to the bread, but I still think my Le Creuset holds the steam better & helps the bread rise better in my electric oven. Still love it though.”
“I am delighted with this purchase - it is expensive but worth the investment. It does everything others have said about it.
It bakes a great loaf and although heavy is easier to manage in and out of the oven because of the great handles.I would recommend this to serious bakers.
My cast iron casserole produced good bread but the handles were small and difficult to grip with oven gloves also I could only bake a boule due to its size and shape - now I have more options.
I am novice to making sourdough but very happy with my results so far - especially the spring.”
“This was purchased for me as a Christmas present. I have already used it with good results. My loaves had good oven spring and crust, and the crumb was nicely moist. The Challenger Bread Pan fits well inside my standard sized oven. I highly recommend getting heavy duty heat resistant gloves to maneuver the searingly hot metal pan in the oven, The pan is heavy but the handles are well positioned and the lid fits well making a good seal.
It would be helpful if the Challenger Bread Pan included helpful hints for the first time user, i.e. how to season the pan and what sort of temperature to bake bread for the first time? There are endless U tube videos of varying degrees of help but some simple written instruction would be better!”
“I am new to sourdough making and wasn’t sure I could justify the expense of this Dutch oven so I used other tricks like ice cubes in the oven to try and imitate the Dutch oven which I thought was good, however.... my Dutch oven arrived after a couple of months of trying the other method and I thought why not give it a go! Well... all I can say is WOW! It took my bread to the next level, absolutely delicious!! My children now refuse to eat shop brought bread as the sourdough in this is so amazing. Definitely worth it!”
“Purchase sent as a gift, but super efficient, friendly service. Well informed on progress of delivery down to an hour time slot. Would definitly use again. Thanks Bakery Bits. My son was delighted with his Challenge bread pan present.”
“This device is very satisfying to use. So much easier than a casserole. And the results are fantastic. My loaves look so much better and the crust is so delicious now. It's very large and very heavy, necessarily so, but handling it takes a bit of getting used to. Plus you will need heavy duty oven gloves as it gets so very, very hot!”
“My daughter who is a sourdough baker is thrilled with the pan which lived up to all her hopes and expectations. Great loaves, but be aware it does cook more quickly than if you’d previously used a casserole pan, no bad thing really. Bakery bits communication was great, even giving me a link to track the ship from USA - a long journey!”
“It is a very good product. Baking bread has become much easier. The challenger is extremely well constructed and provides uniform heating. This has a wonderful on the quality of the loaf. A very good life time investment. It is also beautiful it sits very well in any kitchen.”
