You're trapping more moisture from the bread in the the dutch over in the lids on. That would hold the effective temperature down in the dutch oven.

I really want to try making bread, but you guys make it sound like alchemists turning lead to gold. lol. Eric

you want to be a really good at cooking, you gotta know physics and chemistry or suffer the trial and error of tears.

Good point Sniper he will also have less ability to evaporate off the moisture in the smaller pan.

You'd be surprised how much thermal mass plays a part in this even when preheating. Your ovens heat band will kick on and off while it maintains temp along the heat loss when adding the dough will be more present on the smaller pan at the start of the baking process.

Been in the baking industry for 20 years just not for bread. In my opinion it is those 2 things that made the difference.

There would be more moisture for the air volume inside the Dutch ovens on the smaller one. So that may be it. Not that it really matters, just something I was wondering about. With more open surface the larger heavier Dutch oven may evaporate the moisture faster too. I am not going to say my wife knows physics and chemistry. But she has baked 100's of not 1000's of loves of bread and they two she has done in the smaller Dutch oven turned out fine.

I don't know how to copy links but...

Google ...you tube Billy Parisi French boule Poolish bread recipe

I started with this bread....3 -4 years ago...uses commercial yeast..

So if you can follow directions ..it's makes a tasty bread.

K thanks will close this out and get to googling

Not necessarily faster, it just takes longer in the bigger oven for evaporation to stop. More air can absorb more water. Essentially, the smaller dutch is steaming your bread. Course you could increase the temperature you bake at with the smaller dutch as hotter air can hold more moisture if you were really worried about that extra 10 minutes

The extra time is no problem. It is just something I wondered "way" about. Now it has me wondering if the bread is moister in the small oven. I can't say I noticed it when I was eating some with eggs and bacon for breakfast.

probably the only thing that youd probably notice is that the crust might not be quite as hard. Which can be a good thing. I like to make soda bread and that goes in a cast iron skillet instead of the dutch oven. 2-4 tablespoons of melted butter right after it comes out of the oven helps soften the crust and obviously makes it taste better.

Soda bread equals a giant biscuit pretty much doesn't it? Both my wife and I don't wat the crust as hard as glass. The crust on this was pliable but crunchy.

Its close to it but not quite. It mixes in cake flour(3 parts AP to 1 part Cake), cream of tartar.and not quite as much butter. Your still not kneeding the bread as much to avoid developing the gluten.Basically just mix it well enough to soak up all the dry flour and make a ball with it.