Butternut squash roast chicken in La Cloche

One thing I like about winter is the winter veggies. Butternut squash is probably one of my favourite

For an easy to make dinner, I decided to roast my chicken with the squash in the La Cloche.
It only takes about an hour to an hour and 15 mins depending on the size of your chicken. It allows you time to do other things while it's baking and you get a nice and moist chicken when it's all said and done.
Simple and delicious. 

Ingredients

• 1 Whole chicken
• 1-2 Tbsp Minced Garlic
• 1 tsp Oregano
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 butternut squash
• 1 1/2 tsp Olive oil

Directions 

1. Preheat the oven to 375 Degrees F.
2. Wash the chicken
3. Put 1/2 tbsp of garlic, 1/2 tsp of oregano and 1/2 tsp olive oil on your hand and rub it in-between the skin and the breast meat under the chicken if you're able reach in without breaking
   
   skin. This is similar to what I do to turkey but the chicken skin is much more delicate so I try to be more careful.
4. Salt and pepper the entire chicken and rub 1/2 tbsp garlic and 1/2 tsp oregano over the skin of the chicken.
5. Set it in the la cloche
6. Take the butternut squash and peel it with a peeler.
7. Cut it in half and scoop out the seeds and stingy inside with a spoon.
8. Cut it down to strips about 3/4 inch thick
9. Toss the squash with the rest of the garlic 1 tsp of olive oil and salt and pepper.
10. Put the squash around the chicken. I even put a couple of slices on top of the chicken breast.
11. Cook with the la cloche covered for 45-55 mins depending on your bird size
12. Take off the lid and let it cook for an other 15 mins for color.

Then you're done :)

Cranberry, Sunflower seeds and Flax Seed Bread

I've been baking bread from the Bread Bible ever since I got it.
There's so many recipes to try but recently I've been playing around with the basic hearth bread recipe (page 305).
What I like about this one is that it has that nice rustic crust I like from artisan bread and because it's a basic recipe, I can use it as a base to try different things.
This is one I've recently finished perfecting and I'm quite happy with this variation.

Toasted slice of bread

You can borrow the book from the library. I found that it was available in both Markham and Toronto.

For this variation, I used half the recipe to create a loaf bread.
I like the loaf bread because I find it easier to cut and it's perfect size for 2 people to eat within 1 week.

Modifications
1. Add 1/3 cup of soaked dried cranberries.
2. Use the water used to soak the dried cranberries as the water the recipe calls for in the dough starter.
3. Add sunflower seeds
4. Add Ground Flaxseeds. (I've done with both whole and ground but I read that it's better to use ground because you can absorb all the benefits Flaxseeds bring vs it going through your system undigested)
5. Baking with La Cloche instead of just straight into the oven.

Method Modifications
In regards to adding the extra ingredients, I added them before the first rise so it has time to meld into the dough.

After Kneading the dough and it's ready, let it rest for 10 mins for the dough to relax.

Then press out the dough into a rectangle.

Do not press too thin or else the seeds and berries will cut right through the dough.

Once it's pressed out, I spread the ground flax seeds all over.

Then sprinkled both cranberries and sunflower seeds to cover the dough. (Picture to the Right)

Once that's done, I rolled it up like a jelly roll.
(Picture below)

Connect the ends to make a donut shape and knead softly a couple of times.








Then proceed as the instructions in the recipe.
You can make a round shape loaf or a loaf
If you wish to make a loaf, then follow the instructions for how to roll a loaf bread

The picture below is my loaf without tucked ends. You can tuck the ends to make it look prettier on the ends.

Baking with la cloche
I've tried both starting with a cold oven and starting with a preheated oven.
Some people say the crust is crisper if you preheat the over.
I do agree but honestly if you're scared of the la cloche cracking, go with the cold oven.
I found the baking time different between cold and preheated to be about 10 mins for my oven. It may very pending on how fast your oven heats up, so please check your break before you turn off the oven.

Cold Oven
If you decide to use a cold oven, place the bread in the la cloche with the top on and turn the oven on to 475 degree F.
Once the oven reaches temperature, start the timer for 10 mins then turn it down to 425.
I lifted the lid after 10 mins and only needed to bake it for an other 5 mins and it was done.

Preheated Oven
The Bread Bible will tell you to preheat the oven with the lid inside. The la cloche instructions will just tell you to preheat the oven.
I tried the Bread Bible method and my la cloche did not crack. This will be up to you for how confident you are with cracking or not.
Preheat to 475 degrees F, lid is optional.
Once it's preheated, place the bread in with both la cloche top and bottom and start the timer for 10 mins.
Turn down the heat to 425 and bake for 15 mins.
Lift the lid and cook for about 10 more mins afterwards. Check your bread as it will vary oven to oven.
Cooking time is very similar and to cold oven start. Really depends on how long it takes for your oven to heat up.

Happy baking

Pesto Chicken Baked in La Cloche

I've been having a lot of fun with the la cloche. I found that baking chicken in the la cloche actually helped keep the chicken moist.

I had left over pesto sauce that we made an other day so I decided to use it on the chicken.
I rubbed the sauce in-between the chicken breast and the skin so it would get to the meat directly.
It's my favourite thing to do when baking a turkey and I'm glad it also works for a chicken.

Pesto Chicken Baked in La Cloche

Makes 1 Chicken, Prep time: 15 mins Cook Time: 40-60mins

Ingredients

• 1 Whole Chicken, washed and dried
• 3 carrots
• 3 sticks of celery
• 1 Onion, quartered and 1 quart cut into 1/8
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• Salt and peper
• 1 Tbsp Pesto sauce

Directions

1. Preheat the over to 375 F.
2. Wash and cut all the veggies
3. Placed the washed and dried chicken onto the la cloche dish.
4. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and rubbed it in.
5. Use your hand to separate the skin from the breast meat of the chicken. The middle part to separate the 2 halves of the breast will stay but that's ok.
6. Use your hands and rub the pesto sauce on the breast meat under the skin. This will help marinate the meat directly
7. Put a quarter of the onion and half the garlic in the tummy of the chicken.
8. Rub the rest of the garlic along with left over pesto sauce onto rest of the chicken (the legs, wings and back)
9. Sprinkle the veggies around the chicken.
10. Put it in the oven with the lid on top.
11. For a 1.4kg Chicken, I cooked it for 40 mins covered                                                                               and 15 mins uncovered.

Enjoy

Using La Cloche Bottom for Pizza

I've been playing around with the La Cloche whenever I can and I know one of the things you can do with it is make pizza. If I look at their instructions, they put the pizza into the deep dish itself but if I want to make multiple, I don't know how to get a cooked pizza out and a new one in!

I don't have anything that can dig into the dish itself to get the pizza out so I had to figure out another way to use it.
My husband suggested using it upside down and I was very skeptical because it's bumpy and there's words. I really thought the dough would just stick to the bottom. But we tried it out and it worked great. No sticky at all!

Same pizza beer dough that I normally use, I'll eventually write up a post on it. ;)

When I put on the first pizza, the La Cloche was cold and out of the oven.
The oven was preheated and I put it in at 350 degrees. The dish didn't crack.
Once it was done I just used a normal plate and I lifted the pizza right off.

Getting the second one on was a little tricky since the stone was not hot.
I don't have a bread paddle so it was tricky.
We took the stone out of the oven and quickly put the rolled out dough on the stone.
Then the 2 of us put on all the toppings in less then 3 mins cause we didn't want the stone to get cold.
Then we popped it back in the oven. :)

Next time I'm going to try with my cookie sheet and lots of cornmeal to see if I can slide the pizza off of the sheet onto the plate right away.