Baking bread in the Fourneau Grande is easy. Follow along with our simple instructions below and you'll be cranking out loaf after beautiful loaf in no time.
Preheat your Fourneau Grande in the oven for at least 45 minutes at 480-500 degrees fahrenheit. Place your bread dough onto the Fourneau silicone mat and tray by either rolling a formed loaf onto the mat or placing the tray on a banneton before flipping the basket to transfer the loaf.
Open the oven, use a hot pad to remove the hatch, and use the tray handle to lift the tray and load it into the baking chamber.
Optionally, using care, pour 1-3 tablespoons of water (20-60 grams/ml water) under the tray bracket, into the inner channel of the baking stone. The water doesn't need to stay in the channel to turn into effective steam– it is fine if it flows elsewhere on the stone.
During the first stage of baking allow the loaf to “spring” inside the closed baking chamber.
After 15-25 minutes, depending on your recipe, remove the hatch with a hot pad and finish the second stage of baking, again typically 15-25 minutes.
In the second stage the loaf can remain in the baking chamber with the hatch removed, or the loaf and tray can be moved to another open spot in the oven, below or to the side of the Grande. Moving the loaf and tray for the second stage allows you to begin the first stage of baking in the cloche with a new loaf.