Oven Spring and Oven Issues
Greetings!
I have been baking sourdough breads for a few months now, and have been trying to troubleshoot issues with my bread...
I currently bake in an electric oven with a roasting pan of hot soaked towels, a cast iron skillet filled with rocks/ice, and a baking steel. I have the oven preheating at 500 F for 1.5 hours in just the Bake setting. I get really great oven spring after the first 20 minutes of steaming, but as soon as I switch to Convection Bake at 450 F without steam for the remainder of the bake, my bread seems to collapse a bit, and it has a noticeable flatter part on the "back" of the bread that faces the fans. It has been really, really disappointing.
Prior to this, I was steaming for the first 20 minutes at 500 F, then continued to use the Bake setting for the remainder of the bake without steam. Unfortunately, a few hours after removing the bread from the oven, the crust lost its crispiness. So I tried the above convection bake method after reading several posts on TFL.
I really thought the bake and convection bake was my solution! My crust stays crispy all day, but after several notes/pictures, I realized that the oven spring is lacking especially when it gets really high right before I remove the steam and switch to convection mode.
Any assistance and information would be greatly appreciated to help troubleshoot my oven spring/oven issues!
With appreciation,
Michelle
First of all you are wasting electricity by preheating your oven for that long a period of time. I use a baking steel and at most preheat for 45 minutes in what is probably an oven similar to yours. Why are you using two methods for delivering steam? I use the towel method and that generates lots of steam (you can tell when you open the oven door that you should see the steam escaping from the oven.
Second, what recipe are you using and what are the size of the loaves that you are baking. Mostly I use a variation of the San Joaquin Sour Dough recipe and bake 500g batards that are shaped and the final proof is done in a linen couche. They get baked at 460F (following preheat at 500F) with steam for 15 minutes using NO convection and then 15 minutes at 420F with convection after removing the towel pan. Oven spring is fine and I see no issues with the crumb that would be an indication of a lack of oven spring.
I wonder if maybe you are over proofing or you have too much whole grain flour in the recipe that could impact gluten development. Other than that your method is sound other than the caveats mentioned above.
Hi Alan,
My recipe is 60% Central Milling ABC + 30% KA white whole wheat + 10% dark rye; hydration at 83%. The leaven is a young leaven, fed two times daily. The size of the loaves are 850 grams. My loaves do not seem to be overproofed (they pass the finger poke test)... I shape/final proof in wooden pulp baskets for about 10-12 hours in the refrigerator.
Thanks for the tip on not needing to preheat for too long! I was just following some of what other bread bakers on TFL and blogs do to preheat for longer times, likewise for the double steam method. Honestly, I have not tried just the towel method, but definitely worth a try the next time.
My loaves are not flat, but they definitely could have better/higher oven spring as they did right before I switched to convection mode. I didn't know if it's because the fan is blowing too hard or drying out the loaves too quickly?
Thanks for your comment/tips/help!
450 F after 5 minutes of steam and steam for 15 minutes longer. When the steam comes out turn the oven down to 425 F fan on and rotate the bread every 7 minutes 90 degrees until the cumb hits 207 F. Perfect every time.
You are just baking too hot especially under fan and not rotating the bread under convection blistering one poor side.
Happy baking
I understand that steam in the oven is to keep the loaf surface supple to maximize spring. Besides this, does the steam help with a thicker, chewy crust (as in a country loaf), or a thin crispy crackling crust,(as in a Vietnamese baguette) ?
A French-style baguette loaf in a Cuisinart steam combo toaster oven turned out very nicely with a chewy crust. Any trick to get a Vietnamese thin crust?
Besides keeping the loaf surface supple for maximum spring, does the burst of steam help make a chewy thick crust (as in a country loaf), or a thin crispy crust (as in a Vietnamese baguette)?
I am using a Cuisinart steam combo toaster oven. A French-style baguette (using a recipe from King Arthur Flour) turned out very nicely with a chewy crust. Any trick to get a thin crusted Vietnamese baguette?