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What are you baking next?
Real adventurers also need a break sometimes! How about a succulent muffin right by the fire? Or a hearty snack on your hike? With the various cast-iron baking forms from Petromax you can prepare breads, cakes, casseroles and even crispy roasts for you and your troop, depending on the size and type of the mold. Find out here what you should consider when choosing the right cast-iron baking form.
What is the best bread pan?
To choose the best bread pan you should consider what kind of bread you want to bake. For a free-form bread, all you need is the Baking Tray and a bowl of water at the bottom of the oven to steam your bread. Steaming is the process by which the water in the bowl evaporates and condenses on the skin of the dough, allowing the egg whites to coagulate and the starch to gelatinize. This gives your bread a crispy crust. A bread pan is therefore not necessary in all cases, but it is immensely useful when using a lid because the water condenses on it. A danger with free-form breads can be that the bread burns from the top or does not form a nice crust.
Another issue is the quality of your bread pan: if it's not of good quality, you may not be able to bake good bread. Some molds cannot even withstand temperatures from 250°C, so you should always pay attention to what temperature the mold you choose is designed for. If the temperature is too high, the coating, the paint or the plastic of cheap bread molds may peel off.
Your bread pan must fit in your oven. It should also be multifunctional and not just to be used in the oven, for example, it should also be suitable for use in the embers or over the fire, so that you can bake your bread outdoors in good weather. Being able to prepare more than one type of pastry in it is also important, because otherwise you will have 10 different molds instead of three, with which you can prepare a variety of dishes.
The mold must be able to withstand high temperatures as well as retain heat. Since your bread dough should be placed in a mold preheated in the oven, the material you use is very important. Cast iron, for example, retains heat very well and for a long time.
The baking form should also be easy to clean. A cumbersome scraping off of dough residues is not only time-consuming, but also damages the mold.
Most baking forms differ either by their material or their application.
There are the following baking forms:
- Baking Tray
- Baking pans
- Baguette Pan
- Loaf pan
- Bread roll form
- Brownie mold
- Ring Cake Pan
- Motif moulds (heart, Easter lamb)
- Springform Pan
- Madeleine Pan
- Muffin Tin
- Chocolate mold
- Quiche dish
- Silicone mold
- and many more
Material | Advantages | Disadvantages |
Cast iron |
| if handled incorrectly, e.g. use of detergent, cast iron may rust (in case of rust, the cast iron mold can be easily re-seasoned and then used again |
Stainless steel |
|
|
Silicone |
|
|
Tin plate |
|
|
Black plate |
|
|
Glass |
|
|
Enamel |
|
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Ceramic coating/ glazed ceramic (Römertopf – clay pot) |
|
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Petromax Loaf Pans k4 to k12 are ideal for baking bread and have numerous appealing advantages (see table under "Cast iron"). Thanks to their different sizes, they are suitable for many baking projects and to prepare food, casseroles or to use the lid as a pan. This multifunctionality makes the Loaf Pans a useful cooking utensil for culinary projects in the kitchen and outdoor cooking. Thus, you don't need to buy a baking dish, a casserole dish, a pot or a pan because the Loaf Pans combine them all, saving space in the kitchen cupboard or in the camper. The cast-iron molds stand out thanks to their excellent properties and easy handling, so they will definitely be one of the cookware you will probably use the most - whether in the campfire kitchen or in the kitchen at home. The high quality from Petromax guarantees a long service life and reliability, allowing you to enjoy many years of baking and cooking. With proper care, cast iron lasts a lifetime so that you, your friends and your family will always remember the unique flavor of the patina formed and it will inspire you to create new baking and cooking delights.
What are the advantages of baking in the Cast-iron Baking Pan?
Requirements for a good baking pan | Petromax box molds k4, k8, k12 (cast iron) |
Condensation lid | ✔️ Loaf Pan with lid |
Quality | ✔️ particularly few inclusions in the cast iron |
Temperature resistance up to 250°C | ✔️ 300°C and more |
Coating, paint or plastic does not peel off | ✔️ No coating |
fits in the oven | ✔️ all 3 molds fit in the oven |
over/on the fire, can also be used in the embers | ✔️ over/on the fire, can also be used in the embers |
additional uses | ✔️ k8 and k12: lid can be used as a pan k4 to k12: Loaf Pan can be used as a casserole dish, a pot, an oven when embers are placed on the lid. |
Heat retention | ✔️ Cast iron naturally retains heat |
easy cleaning | ✔️ soak in warm water and remove any remaining dough residues with a Chain Mail Cleaner or Scraper, then polish with Care Conditioner for cast and wrought-iron and allow to dry well, e.g. with the Silicone Trivet for Dutch Ovens or the Lid Spacer for Dutch Ovens |
Can you bake bread in a baking dish?
The Loaf Pans k4 to k12 are perfectly suitable for baking bread. The advantage is that they have a lid and therefore the moisture can condense on it. The situation is different for baking dishes without lids - the bread can burn from above. The baking dish must not be completely filled, since the dough may rise and spill over the edge of the dish. You also need to put a bowl of water in the baking dish allowing the bread to steam, which means that the water in the bowl evaporates and condenses on the skin of the dough, allowing the egg whites to coagulate and the starch to gelatinize. This gives your bread a crispy crust.
All ceramic or porcelain baking dishes should have a high rim and be well greased. Alternatively, you could also bake your bread in the Dutch Oven, for example in the Dutch Oven ft9. The lid offers the same advantages as the Loaf Pan.
In summary, you can certainly bake bread in a baking dish, but the lack of a lid is a disadvantage and baking in a baking dish will only ever be an emergency solution. Therefore, it is better to get a cast-iron Loaf Pan with a lid, because in it not only the casserole, but also the bread will turn out perfectly.
Which baking dish size for 500 g flour?
The Loaf Pan k4 with its size of 30 x 11 cm (internal dimensions) is suitable for 500g of flour. Here you will find a recipe for apple bread with vanilla sugar , for which you only need 400 g flour. Have fun baking it!
Which Loaf Pan should be used for 1 kg of bread?
While the Loaf Pan k4 is ideal for 750 g of dough, the k8 is suitable for more than 1 kg of bread. With its interior size of 30 x 14.5 cm, the dough can rise well. Here you can try a recipe in the k4 or k8 or k12: A pumpkin bread with Hokkaido pumpkin and 500 g wheat flour.
Rustic Potato Gratin in the k12
Find the recipe for a great side dish to your barbecue meals that will satiate everyone here: Rustic Potato Gratin
Muffins from the Muffin Tin
If you're in the mood for something sweet by the fire, here's a recipe for some apple cinnamon muffins in the Muffin Tin mf6.
Moussaka in the Loaf Pan k8
You can find a hearty recipe for moussaka here . The minced meat is prepared in the Fire Skillet and then the meat-eggplant dish is baked with cheese in the large Loaf Pan.