Sante Cabin Kitchen Cast Iron Bread Pan

Comment: The pan seems a little shallow; but if used properly my bread comes out proper sandwich loaf shaped, just as store bought bread. It's also seasoned as well as any other cast iron cookware (i.e. Lodge), which means you'll want to re-season it: rub down with Crisco vegetable shortening and pass with a paper towel to massage the shortening into it (and make the layer thin), then bake for an hour at 450F. Apply at least two coats of seasoning.

This is not a glass or aluminum-Teflon loaf pan; therefor, if you use it as such, your bread will come out horribly.

Cast iron has a huge heat capacity, and thus poor heat conduction; in other words, it tends to retain temperature, but develop hot spots. The second isn't an issue in baking; the first is, and should be attended to. Overall, however, this gives cast iron pans a huge advantage for baking if used properly.

When using this pan, keep it in your rising environment: let the pan warm to rising temperatures, for example in a gas oven with a pilot light or in a warmed oven. In this way, the whole pan will be warm during the final rising; when you shape the dough into the pan to rise, it will rise quickly and evenly from all sides. Using a cold pan will cause an extremely dense region to form along a one-inch thick U shaped area following the bottom and sides.

I also tend to pre-heat my oven with the pans inside. The black, high-heat-capacity cast iron cooks faster, so the cook time doesn't lengthen by doing this; indeed, I also tend to remove the bread 5-10 minutes early and place it directly on the oven rack to finish.

In any case, due to the high heat capacity of cast iron, you must remove the bread from the pans immediately when finished cooking; otherwise the bread will continue to cook for another half hour. Sometimes you can get away with cooling in a pan in Teflon pans (you shouldn't), but NOT with cast iron.

Once you've learned to use these pans properly, they will enable you to rise and bake your bread much better than thin aluminum pans.

Comment: This pan is simply phenomenal. If you like to bake bread, buy it now. You will not regret it.

Comment: I asked for some of these pans for Mother's Day and received them. I love them. They really do bake evenly. The bread I have made has turned out wonderfully. On the box they have the Camp Chef label. I also noticed the Sante Cookware company is located in Utah, where I also reside. The phone number is on the literature that is included. I had a few questions and called them. They said that they and Camp Chef are owned by the same parent company. I asked them about the issue that has been raised in a few reviews about their being made in China and the possibility of containing lead. They said that there is strict monitoring of the factory in China and that they constantly test. They affirmed that there is no lead in their products. They ARE pans to enyoy!

Comment: Only four stars for a couple of reasons.
First, because it's not made here. So few items are actually made in the US anymore, even if the company is US owned.
I prefer to purchase made in the US products but it's not always possible or practical.

The other reason for only 4 stars is a complaint about all "new" cast iron pieces, even those made by Lodge.
Many brands of the "old" cast iron cookware was machined on the inside cooking surface so it started out smooth and even.
While I understand that extra steps, especially if they must be done by humans, add to the overall cost - many of us would gladly pay more for products that have been machined smooth on the inside.

I seasoned this pan several times before baking in it.
We've been making our own bread using the five minutes a day basic recipe for quite awhile.
Since it's a very wet dough, I was leery of making it in this pan, but decided to try anyway.

I oiled the inside of the pan well with grapeseed oil and sprinked the inside surfaces with cornmeal.
Making sure my loosely formed loaf was floured on the outside, I plopped it into the prepared cast iron loaf pan.

Because I was worried about temperature shock damaging the loaf pan, I put it into a cold oven after a letting it sit for half an hour. I set the oven at 450 with a pan on the bottom shelf and added a little water to the bottom shelf pan once the oven was hot. The bread took longer to bake than it would have on a stone, but the end product was very good.

I know the time would have been shortened if I'd preheated the pan in the oven and plopped the loaf into an already hot pan.
I'll try that method next time. I plan to try baking the bread on the cast iron pizza pan too.

We did notice differences in the bread baked in this pan compared to bread baked on a stone or in a regular nonstick loaf pan.
The interior (crumb) was very moist and the crust was crunchy, but thinner than baking on a stone.

I expect this pan to serve us for a very long time.
While I have some quality nonstick pans, I'm phasing nonstick out of our kitchen.
I've ordered a couple of the Lodge loaf pans (available at [...]), but they haven't arrived yet.
It will be interesting to compare the two brands.

Comment: This pan showed-up seasoned. Somebody else wrote that theirs hadn't.

We stopped using bread makers and started making bread by hand. Much better than the bread makers. They don't allow for any variables in the rise. At least the cheap ones don't. Anyway, this has been a great pan. Nothing sticks and it browns well. We were using some Teflon pans before, but decided to try one of these. I am going to purchase two more and toss the Teflon. Long after the Teflon wears out these will still have another lifetime left.

These pans will make a loaf 8.5 x 5 x 3.5. 3.5 is dependent on the rise. It's about our average. This make a traditional sized loaf. My mother (80) says these are the size she grew-up with, not the giant ones of today. The bread that comes out is perfect sized sandwich bread. If you are looking to cut some calories, this would be a good place to start. Smaller bread, smaller sandwiches and a smaller amount of calories. Win win win.

Since it's only 8.5" long, you will need to cut thinner slices if you want to get some good use out of it. I would recommend you get a really GOOD serrated knife or put a new edge on the one you have. I always keep mine sharpened to make cutting thin slices easy.

All our cookware is slowly moving to cast iron.