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See why.The Best Cast-Iron Bread Ovens
Curious about the Challenger Bread Pan, the Le Creuset Bread Oven, or the Lodge Combo Cooker? We’ll tell you which bread oven is best.
Looking for more on homemade bread baking? Check out our new cookbook Everyday Bread for convenient failproof recipes.
Top Picks
What You Need To Know
If you bake bread regularly, you might want to invest in a dedicated bread oven. Our favorite, the Challenger Bread Pan, allows you to bake gorgeous large round and oval loaves and is fairly easy to use. The Le Creuset Bread Oven is our Best Lightweight Option. It’s nearly as pricey as our favorite and isn’t quite as versatile—it can make large round loaves but can only do smaller oval ones. But at just under 10 pounds, it’s the easiest bread oven to lift and maneuver. Finally, the Lodge 3.2 Quart Cast Iron Combo Cooker is our Best Buy. Like the Le Creuset, it can make large round loaves or smaller oval ones. But we think many bakers will appreciate its more compact size, relatively light weight, and significantly lower price.
What You Need to Know
We love baking bread in a Dutch oven. Because it’s made of cast iron, a Dutch oven retains and radiates heat beautifully, and its tight-fitting lid helps keep in steam so that the bread rises properly and develops a beautiful, crackly crust. Better still, it’s a piece of cookware that many home cooks already own.
But there are a few drawbacks to using our favorite Dutch ovens. First, they limit the shapes of loaves you can make: Although they’re spacious, they’re round, so you can’t bake large batards (oval-shaped loaves) in them, only boules (round loaves). Second, it’s easy to burn your knuckles or forearms on the tall sides of a hot Dutch oven while you’re lowering in dough or lifting bread out. And finally, if you use your Dutch oven for cooking other foods—stews, braises, soups—any traces of oil or fat leftover from cooking can polymerize and form sticky patches when exposed to the high heat used to bake bread. While these sticky patches don’t affect the pot’s performance, they are unappealing to look at and difficult to get rid of.
If you bake bread often, you might want to invest in a dedicated bread oven. While this piece of bakeware can be made from different materials, we focused on models made from cast iron, as they have all of the advantages that Dutch ovens have—and then some. Whether made from traditional or enameled cast iron, these ovens typically have dark interiors—a big plus, since dark cast iron radiates more heat than the light-colored interiors of our favorite Dutch ovens. As a result, all the models we tested are capable of making bread with crusts that were even more appealingly blistered and deeply caramelized than those made in a Dutch oven.
In addition, bread ovens are less likely to stain, and in some ways, are a lot easier to use. Most are constructed similarly, with two basic parts: a shallow base and a domed top. You preheat both parts in...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 3 stars out of 3.
The Challenger Bread Pan produced gorgeous loaves of bread with moist crumbs and blistered, deeply caramelized crusts. Its base was big and broad enough to accommodate large kilogram–weight boules and batards. While its heavy weight made it a bear to lift, it also ensured great heat retention and quick baking. And it was otherwise a pleasure to work with. We loved that it came with two sets of handles—one set for transporting it into and out of the oven and another set on the lid that made it particularly easy to lift or lower. While it’s not cheap, this sturdy, well-designed oven will reward you with wonderful bread for years to come.
- Performance: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 2 stars out of 3.
This attractive bread oven made crusty, well-blistered bread and proved the easiest to use. Its light weight and large side handles made it a breeze to move in and out of the oven, and a metal knob on its domed top allowed us to lift and lower the top effortlessly. It requires no maintenance, since it’s made of enameled, not raw, cast iron. (Note that like other enameled cast iron, that pretty enameled exterior can discolor if any oil gets on it and polymerizes.) We didn’t love the raised circles and logo on the oven’s base. They browned the bread more deeply than in the surrounding areas, making the bottom of our loaves look like they’d been branded by an electric coil. And while it’s big enough to make 1-kilogram boules, the oven’s hemispherical, “cloche-like” shape means it can only make smaller batards, about 750 grams.
Recommended
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 2 stars out of 3.
Originally intended for use over a campfire, this “combo cooker”—essentially a shallow cast-iron skillet and saucepan—became a cult item for many home bakers after it was championed by well-known baker Chad Robertson. It’s relatively compact and lightweight, so it’s easy to move and maneuver, and it can make beautiful, well-browned boules weighing up to a kilogram. Because it’s round, it can only make smaller batards. Its single pair of handles makes it a touch trickier to use—you must remember to offset the handle on top from the handle on the base if you want to be able to pry the two halves apart during use. For the price, though, it’s a fantastic option, especially if you have limited storage space for an extra piece of cookware.
- Performance: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 3 stars out of 3.
This bread oven is designed a little differently from the others; it’s got a Cordierite baking stone for a base and a domed cast-iron hood that you stick on top. A removable cast-iron door covers the opening in the hood; to insert dough, let steam out, or take out the finished bread, you just remove the door and set it aside. This design feature is advertised as a boon for bakers who don’t want to have to keep lifting the heavy top off a piece of cookware every time they make bread. Unfortunately, unless you only use your big oven for baking bread, you’ll still have to lift the whole unit in and out of the oven whenever you want to use it—and it’s on the heavier side. On the plus side, the Forneau produces excellent boules and batards weighing a kilogram or smaller, though you’ll need to add water to the base in order to get a crust that’s as crackly and well-blistered as those made in the other models. That’s because the Cordierite baking stone doesn’t radiate quite as much heat and the loose door doesn’t seal as tightly as the tops of the cast-iron ovens. We also wish the oven were a touch simpler, with fewer loose (and losable) parts; you’ll need to keep track of the Forneau’s special baking peel and its removable handle, without which it’s nearly impossible to insert or remove bread. (Forneau sells replacement parts if you do lose any.)
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 3 stars out of 3.
This oversized oval roaster was meant for campfire cooking but also makes great, well-browned loaves of bread. It’s just as versatile as our winner, easily accommodating boules and batards weighing up to 1 kilogram, and costs quite a bit less. Unfortunately, it’s even heavier than our winner, making it a real chore to transport in and out of the oven. And it has a single set of tiny side handles, so it can be quite tricky to separate the top from the base when you need to load in your dough or let steam out of the unit.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Versatility: 2.5 stars out of 3.
This relatively inexpensive campfire cooker produced excellent bread and was capable of accommodating large batards and slightly smaller boules. Like most of the bread ovens we tested, though, it was quite heavy. And it was hard to pry open its single pair of tiny side handles when we needed to separate the top from the base, as when loading in dough or opening the whole oven to let steam out.
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing.
Miye Bromberg
Miye is a senior editor for ATK Reviews. She covers booze, blades, and gadgets of questionable value.