The Best Cast-Iron Bread Ovens

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.