The Challenger Bread Pan

Jim Challenger, guest on the podcast, developed this one of a kind bread baking pan to meet the needs of the home baker based on input from the instagram sourdough community. Beautifully designed and ergonomically and functionally superior to a standard dutch oven - Jim’s pan will have you “baking bread like a pro!”

Here’s my REVIEW that I posted on Instagram shortly after its release:

First of all, thank you @jimchall for sending me these beautiful pans to test. It has been so fun to watch your vision come to life. I’m lucky to have had the opportunity to interview you back when the #challengerbreadpan was still just a dream you shared on the podcast. From interactions with the sourdough instagram community that inspired the original concept, to prototype, through frustrating hurdles - congratulations on all your hard work. You’re an inspiration.
First impression: This is a beautifully designed pan! The perfect shape for various sized loaves. No longer will I have to use both a circular and oval shaped dutch oven. It perfectly baked my 900g boules and batards with room to spare.
This pan is built to last. It won’t chip or scratch like my enameled dutch ovens have and the walls are significantly thicker as well. The added thermal mass makes for more heat retention and a better bake.
The heavy domed lid and low profile bottom make a great seal keeping the steam right where you want it. Before I would use parchment paper to lower the bread into the dutch oven - being careful not to burn my hands on the sides. No longer. Now I place my loaves directly from the baskets onto the base of the pan, without parchment paper. What I’ve noticed is that without the extra paper, in essence, serving as a heat shield, the crust (particularly the sides of my bread) bakes properly/evenly and develops a perfectly crisp, thin crust with the most amazing blisters I’ve ever baked!

I am looking forward to baking with these pans for many years to come. And I can’t wait to see the amazing bread our sourdough community will make in their Challenger bread pans!