The 5-volume tome called Modernist Bread delved deeply into every aspect of making bread. After thorough testing of many vessels for baking bread at home, the authors determined their favorite was a cast iron combination cooker—an upside down Dutch oven. Except for a very small 3.5 quart model, testers found that other combination cookers didn’t seal well enough to bake professional-quality bread in a home oven. The authors declared that black cast iron “does an excellent job of absorbing, retaining, and radiating heat.” So we designed the perfect pan—a perfectly sealed cover and the right heat—for baking a variety of bread shapes in a home oven.

Chad Robertson started the artisan bread revolution for home bread bakers with his first book, Tartine Bread. He knew that professional bakers saturate their ovens with steam to achieve a moist heat environment to produce bread with crackling crust, rich colors, open scores, and full volume. As home ovens are designed to reduce moisture, Robertson tried many methods for creating steam in a home oven, suggesting that the “sealed environment of a dutch oven solves this problem.” The goal is to trap enough moisture for results similar to a professional deck oven. The sealed environment of the Challenger achieves that goal. Perfectly.

Chad Robertson also acknowledged that even with the benefits of steam, the Dutch oven is too deep—it’s difficult to get well-proofed dough into it without degassing or burning your hands. The Challenger is essentially an upside down Dutch oven with, as Baker Alex Melanidis describes, “multiple and strategically positioned handles.” Bread Magazine’s François Thibeault noted, “The handles are at the right spot, keeping my hands safe when grabbing the pan in and out of the oven.”