I’ve been making my own bread on and off for a couple of years, relying heavily on the River Cottage standard loaf. A great, reliable white loaf that on occasion I’ve found (probably owing to bad shaping) to become irregularly formed during the bake. No great shakes, but not the most beautiful of loaves.
After seeing someone else’s photos of their Dutch Oven baked loaf yesterday I gave it a go. I used the same recipe for the dough as previously (500g strong white flour, 10g salt, 5g dried yeast, 300ml water, splash of olive oil) but baked it in a large Le Creuset casserole dish inside the oven. The basic idea is that this acts like a mini oven inside the main oven and the moisture in the dough thus acts like the steam in a commercial bread oven. It’s a handsome and tasty loaf.