bakingbread
I'm contemplating buying a dutch oven to make tartine bread. It would be a strict unitasker for my purposes. It's bulky and if I get a bare one, I might not bake often and it could rust. An enameled one can't handle high heat and shouldn't be heated empty.
I do already have some heavy carbon steel De Buyer pans. What would be the disadvantage of using an upside down mixing bowl as a dome lid to raise humidity?
There's two important distinctions:
The dutch oven is preheated, so the oven conveys a lot of heat, rather quickly. This causes some steam to be pretty much immediately made.
The dutch oven is covered. This traps the steam previously made. This is trying to replicate steam injection and the goal of most methods that cover the loaf.
Steam keeps the crust from hardening and promotes better oven spring and crisper crust. The steam basically allows the bread to 'swell' more in the oven. Steam also gelatinizes the starches in the crust and formes a better 'shine' and 'crisp' on the finished product. The dutch oven is then uncovered after awhile and the crust hardens.
I did not get an answer from America's Test Kitchen beyond that the written recipe supersedes the video, so I proceeded with the experiment. I made two identical doughs following ATK's recipe for Almost No-Knead Bread with Olives, Rosemary, and Parmesan. Knowing that I would bake them two hours apart, I even started the doughs two hours apart, so the two doughs were truly identical in every way possible. They were both allowed 18 hours for the first rise and 2 hours for the second.
For the first loaf I followed the written instructions for baking. I did not preheat the oven or the Dutch oven. When I put the loaf in, I turned the oven to 425F (219C). One half hour later I removed the lid and continued to bake until the dough registered 210F (99C), which took about another 35 minutes.
For the second loaf, I followed the instructions in the video. I preheated the oven and the Dutch oven to 500F (260C), put the ball of dough in the Dutch oven, returned it to the oven and immediately reduced the oven temperature to 425F (218C). It baked covered for one half hour, then baked uncovered until it registered 210F (99C), which took about another 25 minutes.
RESULTS
The loaf on the right was made per the instructions in the video, it used a pre-heated oven and Dutch oven. That loaf is superior in every way. As you can see in the second picture, it rose higher and the crumb is lighter. The first loaf is dense. The crust on the second loaf is perfectly crunchy. The crust on the first loaf is just hard. And, on the first loaf, the bottom burned before the bread was done.
I didn't think starting the bread in a cold Dutch oven made any sense, this experiment clinches it for me. If you're going to bake bread in a Dutch oven, I recommend that you pre-heat it.
Best Answer
Overall, you should be fine.
The purpose of the dutch oven is trapping moisture and, to some extent, coralling the dough.
Keep the following in mind:
----Edit----
There are a couple of ways how to bake tartine bread w/o a dutch oven. For one example from our seasoned advice, see here.