Cast Iron and Dutch Ovens On Fridays

        Welcome to Cast Iron and Dutch Ovens on Fridays

   I just created this event last week to share recipes and information about cast iron cooking-bake ware-I love it and have been around it since childhood.
   The link button in the right hand column will take you to the information post--any of you are invited to write a post for Cast Iron and Dutch Ovens just title it so, link up at end of this post, and link back to this post. Please use your post url not your blog url-the link up will work midnight the night before and last 6 days. (we had lots of t storms last night so all electronics here were unplugged-so just getting this up this morning)

  Cast iron cookware has been around a very long time, served the pioneers and cowboys and more recently again has become more popular for camping, backyard cooking, and I have read about many dutch oven cook offs.
     I had joined a couple of groups on facebook over the past year but geesh they all have so many rules-some for dutch ovens outdoors only, some any cast iron but outdoors only and some for cast iron indoors, some you can share knowledge and link to recipes some you can't-so I dropped out of all that-to me cast iron is cast iron no matter what the form-even the pieces that are enamelled over and cooking-baking indoors or outdoors is still cast iron-right? lol 
  Sometime I run into good information and recipes online so you are most welcome to share that too.
  
   Soooo I want this to be full of fun and sharing!!

I use my cast iron pieces mostly indoors-for everything. I would like to get back into baking breads and do that outdoors in my dutch oven.

Dutch Ovens come in different sizes and they have legs and they have a special lid to hold the coals-so there is heat on top as well as the bottom.

You can also improvise and use any cast iron with a lid to also bake. Just raise the cast iron by placing it on a trivet or a spider-which is made for setting cast iron on and has enough space underneath for the coals. and for the top I use heavy duty foil and shape to the lid making sides in the foil to hold the coals (click to enlarge photos)

I have not made bread yet outdoors and there are so many delicious looking recipes I want to try this year. Thought I would share a few that are on my list.



      Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls



     Dutch Oven Farmers Bread



        No Knead Crusty Bread


I love to explore Pinterest for recipes  Most recipes that say dutch oven breads are actually baking them in a cast iron with no legs and in a home oven.  Just set up for outdoors instead.
    When I bake in my dutch ovens outdoors I set the coals just around the outer edge and slightly under the oven. For the top I place coals all around the edge of the lid and a few in the middle. I don't mess with how many coals for each temperature I just "wing" it lol I do always have hot coals hot and ready to replace as needed. 
   I also always bake with a trivet inside of the dutch oven and then I place parchment paper to fit up around the edges and then place what I am baking in its own pan on top of that. This technique really  keeps things from burning on the bottom.

I would love to see what you are baking-cooking in your cast iron.  Link up below: