**Short & Sweet**I have had the LoafNest for about a month. I’ve made one or two loaves a week in that time. If you read nothing else in this review and you are at all interested in the concept, read this:• Buy the sucker.• Make your first loaf without hesitation.• Enjoy a good loaf of homemade bread that was very easy to make.**Review**Here’s the meat of why I like the LoafNest. Read on below for the reasons I got it in the first place.The LoafNest works as advertised. The recipes are no-knead, but use somewhat extended raise times. I have only tried the basic recipe. Because it’s just flour, yeast, salt and water, I figured I’d be finding a different recipe really fast. However, the basic loaf is a very tasty basic bread.Since the dough is only in a bowl and in the LoafNest, cleanup is easy. The inside of the LoafNest is always spotless. The outside (which is gorgeous!) stains since it takes all the direct heat. However, it has been relatively easy to clean the enamel surface.For my first loaf, I didn’t have the instructions with me at the store and bought a jar of active dry yeast instead of instant. When I realized my mistake I researched the difference and then simply proofed the active yeast following the directions on the jar. Following instructions I found, I used a little more than the amount of yeast from the recipe (¼ tsp) and added ⅛ tsp sugar. For my next loaf I used instant yeast following the directions which do not call for proofing. The dough did not seem to raise as quickly as the first loaf. For the next couple of loaves I tried proofing the instant yeast like I did the active yeast and the dough raised like the first loaf did. The last few loaves that I have made I followed another hint from the yeast jar: Added the ¼ tsp yeast plus ⅛ tsp sugar (not in the recipe) to the dry ingredients, but used warmer water (~113-120°F). So far, that is also working well. Honestly, this may boil down to “there’s no way to screw it up”.When the loaf comes out, I usually brush butter on top and add a very light sprinkle of raw sugar crystals. I have also tried taking the lid off 5—10 minutes before it’s done and coating the top with egg white. That was nice, but didn’t seem to add that much to the already nicely textured top. It makes a dense loaf. For variety, I’d like to find a way to make a lighter loaf sometime.The last thing I want to mention is support. I had a couple of questions on adapting bread recipes so I emailed the company. I heard back from the managing director, Narasima, the next day even though it was two days before Christmas and she dug my email out of her spam folder. She answered my questions along with several followups, explained the concept of gluten and gluten-free and geeked out with me trying to debug why my email went to spam in the first place. All in all, an excellent experience.A month in, I feel the LoafNest was a worthwhile investment. If I don’t get totally lazy, I’m sure it’s an investment that will remain worthwhile for years to come.**Background**I made bread for myself when I was in grad school. I must have done grad school wrong because it seems I had more time on my hands then than I do now. I like good bread but I also like convenience. Commercial bread just wasn’t cutting it anymore so I started buying in-store bakery bread. Unfortunately the quality wasn’t always great. Often the bread was full of holes or just shredded when you cut it. I tried regular bakeries, but getting there when they were open was a hassle, they were very expensive and their selection of “normal” breads was slim.So, I decided to make my own again (I’ve decided that many times over the last 40 years 🤣). Due to time constraints, I thought I’d try frozen bread dough. When I got it home I realized I’d given away my bread pans so I went to Amazon to buy one. That’s how I came across the LoafNest. The bread dough is still in the freezer and the really nice Lodge cast iron bread pan is sitting on the counter unused. The Wekigai LoafNest is coming out of the dish washer for the seventh time.

We've tried so many different methods of baking artisan bread loaves I can hardly count them: round ceramic cloches, long narrow ones, Dutch ovens, steam injection, .... you name it. Most of the time, we followed the now very popular no-knead approach championed by Mark Bittman and Jim Lahey. But we still hadn't found a simple reliable method for producing great loaf we were looking for, with crispy crust and fluffy, open-holed crumb.Then along came LoafNest, and our long search came to an end. An added bonus is that we no longer even need to use our KitchenAid stand mixer to combine the ingredients. The LoafNest method requires nothing more than hand mixing. It takes longer to get the rise you need -- about 12 hours -- but the added time is a small price to pay for all the work you save. And the results are spectacular.Now this is an expensive product, so you really have to be serious about your bread to want to invest in one. There are other cloches out there -- some imported from France -- that cost considerably less. But they are typically ceramic, and hence more fragile than this enameled cast-iron product. This will surely last a lifetime, like my 60 year old LeCreuset skillet.The LoafNest kit includes more than just the 2-piece cast-iron casserole. There is also a custom silicone liner that the dough is placed in, and which itself is what sits in the bottom of the LoafNest. Whereas the cast-iron casserole is made in China, the liner is made in France. And perhaps that explains why the cost of replacing the liner is more than half that of the entire kit! (Wekigai, the manufacturer, claims that the liner "is designed to last for at least 1000 uses and with proper care will last 2000-3000 uses.")But here's the thing: you don't need to use the liner at all! On the very first loaf we baked, in our haste and excitement, we forgot to use the liner. (Otherwise, we followed the LoafNest instructions precisely.) And the result was a perfect loaf, with crispy crust, lovely crumb, and oven spring, as evidenced in the accompanying photographs. And the bread came out of the casserole without any sticking at all. Well, we figured we'd pay the price when clean-up time arrived, since the liner is touted as keeping anything from sticking to the casserole. But there was no price to pay: the clean-up was simple and easy -- nothing stuck.Only time will tell whether we can continue to do without the liner. We'll report back later. But with or without the liner, we have to admit that this thing really works, and produces a beautiful loaf of bread. It's far from the least expensive way to go, but if you haven't had success by any other means, it's probably the best choice out there.---------------------------------------------------------------------UPDATE, a year and a half later: The LoafNest continues to make beautiful bread, and we have given up completely on the silicone liner. It's simply not needed. The baked loaf comes out of the Nest easily, and no dough sticks to the interior. None. So I wonder whether Wekigai might consider offering the liner as an optional accessory, which would give those who feel they do not need it a less expensive alternative.One final word about Wekigai, the small family-run company that makes the LoafNest. I had some questions about mine and contacted the company about them. My questions were addressed promptly, courteously, and appropriately. It's great to know that there are dedicated people who are serious about cooking and cookware standing behind the products they sell. We bake virtually all our own bread now, and can't imagine what we'd do without our LoafNest.

Easiest way to make delicious sourdough bread.

Je doutais depuis longtemps, car il n'y a pas beaucoup d'informations sur Internet, je ne savais pas si LoafNest serait adapté à la cuisson du pain au levain Levito Madré. Le résultat a dépassé mes attentes! Je recommande.

C'est un beau kit pour faire du pain. C'est cher mais la très bonne qualité est là.Il manquait la partie liner à la reception, mais heureusement j'ai pensé à contacter le vendeur. La réponse a été rapide, quasi immédiat pour un weekend. Il ont expédié la pièce immédiatement.Les 5 étoiles general sont surtout pour la qualité du vendeur.

Ottima pentola..cuoce bene..piccola pecca i manici son un po' difficili da gestire quando e ' appena uscita dal forno

Inconvenientes en el suministro resueltos sin problema: no entregaron el primer pedido a precio Flash, pero sí devolvieron el pago; tuve que volver a comprar a precio habitual y llegó sin forro SaSa, pero con excelente servicio de Wekigai me lo remitieron por separado. Destaca su cortesía, eficiencia y suma profesionalidad.Cómo panarra de muchos años aprecio la comodidad de uso del LoafNest. Es robusto al ser de hierro, bien terminado dentro y fuera, tiene un tamaño óptimo y goza de forro separado de SaSa de Francia, lo que permite transferir la masa fácilmente del bol/ banneton.Generalmente trabajo con mi método tradicional de sourdough, no cuesta nada adaptar al uso del LoafNest en lugar de horneado libre sobre placa de horno desde el banneton, o dentro de otra cacerola con tapa de barro. El forro de SaSa es mucho más fácil que la manipulación de papel siliconado o Silpat normal.Ojo: el forro de SaSa no funcionaría como banneton para la fase de fermentación, es demasiado flexible.Útil accesorio para simplificar el proceso, sobre todo para hacer un solo pan, el precio es elevado. Servicio cliente de fabricante inmejorable.