Flowerpot Bread

Baking Bread in Clay Flowerpots
For me it is not enough enjoy to gardening outside with clay pots, I like to use them inside for cooking and decorating. I hope you enjoy baking in clay flowerpots too. Please let me know your thoughts.


Flowerpot Bread in the oven

 Why bake bread in a flowerpot? The baked clay that flowerpots are made of is a perfect mold for bread, ensuring a crust that metal pans never quite achieve. But you must season the pots so that the dough won't stick to them.

Treating the Flowerpots: Use very clean flowerpot and generously rub the insides all over with vegetable oil. Place the pots in a 450 degree F. oven and let them bake for one hour(do this, if possible, alongside something else that may be baking, so as not to waste fuel).

After this treatment the pots need simply to be washed in warm water after you've baked in them. (Avoid soap:it can absorb into the porous clay, leaving a soapy residue.) If you notice any sticking, repeat the treatment.

Recipe for Flowerpot Bread:

1 1/2 packages of dry active yeast
2 cups warm water(105 to 115 degrees)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
6 to 7 cups all purpose flour(I like to use King Arthur Flour)
1 cup of finely minced fresh herbs(I used a melange of these rosemary, thyme, basil, mexican mint marigold, chives, flat leafed Italian parsley), I also did another batch of edible flowers bread that I used the following (johnny-jump-up petals, snapdragons, rose petals, mexican mint marigold flowers and lavender, as well as the zest of 1 lemon)

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and add the salt and the sugar. Stir thoroughly. Set aside for 10 to 20 minutes until foamy.

Using a wooden spoon stir in the flour, one cup at a time, and add the finely minced herbs or edible flowers combination with the lemon zest, until a smooth dough forms. Flour a board or your counter and turn out the dough and let it rest a few minutes. Now knead until the dough is elastic. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, and cover with a towel and let set in a warm draft free place for about an hour and thirty minutes.

Turn the dough onto the floured board or counter, punch it down and knead it again. Divide the dough into how many clay flower pots you have. (The recipe makes to regular size loaves) So it depends on the size of your pots.

Place each piece of dough into each oiled clay pot, making sure not to put dough more than halfway up, as it will rise. Clay pots dough expand more readily, so if they are more than half full, the bread with mushroom over the top so much that it will fall over to one side.Let the dough rise another 5 to 10 minutes.

Place a pan of boiling water in the bottom of  a cold oven, turn the oven on to 400 degrees and bake the flowerpot bread for about 30 to 40 minutes, until browned. Place on a rack to cool.  The bread will just slide out of the flowerpots.

The flowerpots make a great presentaion to gardening friends, or cooks or just for fun.


Flowerpot Herb Bread Cooling



Edible Flowers for Flowerpot Bread

                                         


Fresh Herbs For Bread

Hope you have a glorious day, gardening, baking and having a glass of wine.

Bill Varney

"A loaf a bread, a jug of wine, and thou." Omar Khayyam