Brunswick Bakers Seasoned Cast Iron Bread Pan

A safer, easier, and cost effective way to make better bread at home – PLEASE NOTE: I use capitals for headings and emphasis, not yelling. I do this because I don't have the usual italics and other formatting options we normally see on this site. Since writing this review, I have also purchased one of the competitors of this pan. The Brisbane Sourdough "Max" by Skitchen. You can find that review here: … Read more

https://www.productreview.com.au/reviews/1bb62e0c-0a95-591c-abab-ee754db56536

This is a long review, so please take your time, grab a snack, and get comfortable. I've tried to give you as much information as possible, because I actually found it hard to find, and I'm trying to save you some time.

All good? Let's begin.

Are you (or is someone you know) a home bread maker? Are you looking for a way to get all the bread-related benefits of a lidded cast iron dutch oven, such better oven spring (better rise) or more evenly, beautifully browned crust that imparts amazing flavours… without the associated issues of using a dutch oven? If so, you're certainly not alone. This is why I bought the Brunswick cast iron, lidded loaf pan.

There are a few issues with baking bread in a dutch oven. I've found that there's a good chance of burning your hands on the walls of the pot as you delicately lower shaped dough balls into your pre-heated pot. Perhaps, like me, you’ve found that ideal baking temperatures (say 270 Celsius) exceed the safe temperatures of even high-end pots (Le Creuset or Chasseur for example). Perhaps you had to remove the handle on the lid to stop it from melting and then struggled to remove that lid while wearing oven mitts? Perhaps you’ve had a bread loaf stick to the bottom of the pot, those high walls make it REALLY hard to remove. Some people may use baking paper, but even baking paper doesn’t stop the bottom of your loaf from burning and sticking sometimes.

As someone who’s blown numerous heating elements cranking his oven “all the way” and cracked his partners enamelled cast iron pot by cooking at 275 Celsius, and experienced the aforementioned issues with using a Dutch oven.... I’ve sometimes put the work in, then "ditched the whole Dutch oven idea" and just put my ready-to-bake dough balls into a lidded non-stick baking dish, despite the inferior quality that produces. This undermines the whole point of baking my own bread... but if I've got a burned hand, that's not my priority.

I discovered the Challenger Bread Pan online early last year, the design was intriguing because it has a shallow pan as a base, more like a baking tray made of cast iron. This makes putting the dough ball in, and taking the baked loaf out MUCH easier than a pot with high walls. The depth (the area that the dough is allowed to rise) was provided by the domed lid. In short, this is the cast iron equivalent to a Tupperware cake box, where you put the cake on the lid, and use the box as the dome. (I mean in arrangement, I certainly do NOT recommend trying to bake bread in any sort of plastic box, that's a terrible idea).

COMPARING PRICE AND SPECIFICATIONS BETWEEN THE BRUNSWICK, THE BRISBANE, AND THE CHALLENGER:

I really liked the design of the Challenger, but the insane and eye-wateringly high cost to have one delivered to my home made a new Le Creuset stock pot look positively cheap. However, bread bakers around the globe were singing it’s praises, and I REALLY wanted one. So I looked around for months for cheaper alternatives, and found a couple, but none were what I’d call “affordable” until I found this one.

The Brunswick Bread Loaf pan, might be seen as a “cheap clone” of the “Challenger Bread Pan” or the “Brisbane Sourdough Pans (which come in two differently-sized models”.

Cheap is right, when it has a delivered price of just $130, compared to the $290/$340 delivered price of the Brisbane Sourdough Regular/Max options (delivered to the ACT at least, less if you’re in Queensland, and more if you’re further away). It may shock you to find that the Brisbane offerings were still CONSIDERABLY cheaper than the delivered price of the Challenger Bread Pan, which at the time of writing, comes in at just over $600 Australian dollars, factoring in US/Aussie exchange rate plus the extortionist price of nearly $200 in delivery.

NOVEMBER 2022 PRICE UPDATE: Recent inflation, has now pushed the delivered price of the Challenger Pan to just over $730 Australian (delivered to Canberra) The Brunswick is still selling for $130 at the time of this update. The Brisbane Sourdough Regular and Sourdough Max are priced at $240 and $270 respectively (sans shipping). So shopping for loaf pan options from Australia make a great deal of financial sense. Back to the original review...

In the Brunswick’s case, cheap doesn’t mean bad, in fact, the Brunswick offers specifications that rival, and perhaps, exceed the competition in some ways, let me explain:

In short, if you had to compare the online specifications, particularly the internal dimensions (baking volume) of each offering, you’ll find the Challenger, the “Brisbane Sourdough Pan Max” and the Brunswick to be very close to one another.

The differences come down to minor deviations in design (the number and size of the handles on the domed lid), as well as the thickness of cast iron material, and whether or not it’s made in the U.S.A. It might shock you that the U.S. made Challenger comes in at 10Kg of weight, the Brisbane Sourdough Max is 9.4Kg, and the Chinese made Brunswick comes in at 7Kg (precisely, according to my kitchen scales). Both the Challenger and the Brisbane series have FOUR handles on the lid, rather than the two of the Brunswick, this probably accounts for at least some of the weight difference.. and while the extra handles make it easier to lift the lid in some circumstances, it isn’t difficult to remove the lid of the Brunswick, and the baking performance is not impacted much at all by handles.

I have not cooked with the Challenger or Brisbane "Sourdough Regular" pans (but I own and have used the Sourdough Max, as mentioned above). While I’m sure the thicker iron helps to even out and maintain temperatures even more, I've looked at the composition of the iron, and from what information I can get, it's near identical across all four pans. The Brunswick, both Brisbanes, and the Challenger are made of "Grey" cast iron. Ok sure, there will be minor variances in the "trace elements" (silicone, phosphorus, sulphur, manganese and carbon) as there will be from one batch to the next, but the Challenger's iron is no better or worse than the others.

The lack of handles acting as heat sinks on the Brunswick means that a preheated pan is still hot enough, slow enough to cool down, and even enough... that after considerable thought (and my background in material science) I’m not sure the extra 2-2.5Kg of iron, in a pre-heated oven would make much difference to the finished bread at all.

So how much "extra cast iron" does that weight difference entail?

Well if we assume cast iron weighs 7.784g per cubic centimetre, the maximum 3KG difference between the Challenger and Brunswick is 385 cubic centimetres. To help visualisation, this makes a cube of cast iron, with sides JUST 7.27cm long. Spread that iron out over the entire surface of the pan, we're talking a thickness difference of LESS THAN a quarter of a millimetre, (even less if some of that extra weight goes into the handles).

Similarly, the lack of extra handles makes the Brunswick require less storage space for the baking volume, as well as the thinner materials means it’s lighter to move around. This will suit people with smaller kitchens and who might struggle with heavier loads. Remember, these are EMPTY weights, adding 1Kg of dough to the pan won’t make them any lighter. :-) (Obviously).

SO HOW IS THE PERFORMANCE, AND IS THE BRUNSWICK WORTH IT?

This has made my bread better, and made it safer for me to use than my pre-existing setup with a dutch oven. So for me, the answer is a resounding yes. Although I still use the Dutch oven occasionally. Is The Brunswick necessary? Of course not, I made artisanal grade bread in the dutch oven for years. Just know that higher bread baking temperatures (usually 220-250 Celsius) may well exceed the expansion tolerances of most enamel of coated bakeware, (that cracks the enamel coating) and may melt/burn plastic handles. If you have to improvise and use a lidded aluminium baking dish, the heat transfer rates are much higher, but the thermal load capacity/even heating capability of Aluminium is considerably lower, so you’ll have to bake for longer, or make smaller loaves, and/or rotate aluminium pans as they cook. Similarly, if you use ceramic based cookware, while they can handle very high temperatures, they’re often susceptible to chipping (which reduces the non-stick nature of the glazes) and you can’t just stick an ice cube onto them in order to encourage more steam (they’ll crack, or even break).

I really like the fact that you can take the dome off once the dough has risen to brown a much larger portion the crust. However, it is an improvement over the dutch oven when you place the domed lid "open side up", then place the "base" into it. This allows the dome to shield the bottom of the loaf, and this reduces burned loaf bottoms, and ensures that it's easy to remove by avoiding any issues with sticking.

ALTERNATIVE APPLICATIONS:

I've actually come home and found a family member roasting a slab of eye fillet in the pan, and while the meat came out beautifully. Especially when cooked "low and slow". However, cleaning it out and making it fit for bread baking was a less-than-ideal experience due to the acidic marinade. I imagine that if you lose interest in bread baking, you could use this for camping, barbecuing, as a baking dish and even an improvised griddle over a stove.

However, please note that that certain foods (usually the acidic kind) like tomatoes, citrus, vinegar, wine reductions can attack the seasoning, so if you do that, you may need to place a few layers of seasoning on the pan first and apply new layers of seasoning more frequently.. which leads me to maintenance.

MAINTENANCE:

This is a "seasoned" cast iron piece of cookware. There's no enamel to crack or chip, it also means there's only a thin layer of cooked-on oil that's providing a "non-stick surface", as well as stopping your pan from rusting.

You'll have to apply new coats of seasoning (oil) periodically. I season all of my cast iron barbecue plates, and iron pots/pans with grape-seed oil since it seems to work better and is generally less sticky than olive and canola oils. There are plenty of YouTube videos on how to season a pan.

Because the baked on oil would be easily and often completely removed by common dishwashing detergents, ALL CAST IRON COOKWARE IS NOT DISHWASHER SAFE. Sure, it'll look clean when it comes out of the machine, but rust will follow surprisingly quickly. When cleaning, I wash it with some warm, detergent-free water by hand, wipe it dry, then gently heat it to 150C in the oven to remove any excess moisture on the stove or oven.

Speaking of maintenance, perhaps a better question is "How often will you use this pan?"

Seasoned cast iron REQUIRES regular use in order to have the best protection. If you rarely use the pan, the polymerised oil will eventually decay, and stop protecting your pan. If you're not going to use the pan for a while, season it just before storage, then place it in an air-tight container (possibly with silica gel to reduce humidity). If you use it weekly, or even monthly, seasoned cast iron will work for you beautifully.

WHO SHOULD GET THIS PAN?

I genuinely believe that any serious bread baker who likes the effect of baking bread in cast iron cookware should at least consider it. Bread bakers with less strength (or bad backs) such as the younger, the injured or older home baker, would definitely benefit from the lighter weight this pan has over some of the alternatives.

Should beginners get this pan? Well if you have the space to store it and a spare $130 to burn, why not? But if you’re not sure you want to bake bread every week, then use what you already have. If like me, you’ve seen the rave reviews of the Challenger/Brisbane, and just couldn’t justify the cost. $300 ish to $600 for the pans ($600 buys you an awful lot of bread after all), then give the Brunswick a try. Having done physics and material science at university, I have a hard time believing that the Brisbane or Challenger would perform so substantially better, that the difference in price would be justified.

ANOTHER UPDATE (NOVEMBER 2022): A NOTE TO FANCY STEAM OVEN OWNERS (AND THOSE WHO ARE CONSIDERING GETTING ONE):

We recently upgraded our oven, from an 18 year old cheap Chef-branded oven to a fancy "Neff" (That review will probably be done some time around or after Christmas when I get some spare time, and really put it through the Christmas "stress test"). You might think that spending thousands of dollars on an oven would UNIVERSALLY produce better bread than using this pan in a old oven with no fancy features whatsoever... It's simply not true. It really depends on what bread you're trying to make, and some are STILL made better with this pan on a basic fan-forced heating mode, even in a fancier oven.

While you can get some fantastic results baking bread in a steam oven. Most high-end ovens (even those without steam) with a dedicated bread baking function could still benefit from using a loaf pan like this. From what I've seen, it seems that the moisture is more efficiently trapped in a pan like this than even new ovens, and the heating is still more even in a pre-heated pan than the entire oven's cavity. But the differences aren't always pronounced. That said, with the high humidity of a steam oven (or steam capable oven) you need to maintain the seasoning with this pan a little more often to prevent rust. So please keep this in mind.

PHOTOS (from original review, using our old beaten up Chef oven):

I’ve included two photos, one included the photo of the Brunswick pan sitting on a standard sized, non-stick aluminium lidded baking dish for size reference of the pans themselves.

I’ve then included a second photo showing the loaves cooked with the same dough, same temperatures, and for the same length of time, literally about to be removed from the oven. The cast iron has done wonders, both in getting the bread to rise more, and brown the crust.

I hope this helps, happy bread baking! Harmo