The Fresh Loaf

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New Stone - New Issue

JamieOF's picture
JamieOF

New Stone - New Issue

So I have what I think might be a steaming issue. Here is the bread I'm used to getting out of my Lodge combo cooker. Sorry for the length of this post but I want to make sure that anyone willing to offer advice will have all the info on what I did.

Plans in the works are going to potentially substantially increase my baking quantities, so the combo cooker one at a time won't be feasible. Yesterday I bought a "Mexican clay paving stone" from a local supplier. They said they sell more of these 1 or 2 at a time for pizza than they do for the intended purpose. Two of the people who work there said they themselves use them, have for years and have never had an issue. So for 16" X 16" X 1-1/4" for $12.99, it was a no brainer for me.

When I got home I washed it and left it in the garage to dry. This morning, anxious to put it to work, I gave it one more wipe down and put it in the oven, 2nd rack location from the bottom. I turned the oven to 200 deg F and brought it up 50 deg at a time, holding for 10 minutes at each setting, 'till I got to 450 and then let it sit for 20 mins before turning the oven to 475. After 10 mins I checked the oven thermometer sitting on the stove and it was 475 right on.

The loaves I intended to bake were done by the 1:2:3 method; more specifically, the batch was 225 g leaven, 450 gms water and 675 AP unbleached flour. This is the method I typically use and was used for the loaves above, again, in the combo cooker. Normally, 25 mins for a boule and 20 mins for a batard covered, then 12-17 mins uncovered depending on how dark I want the loaves, same temp.

I misted the oven, rolled the boule out of the banneton onto a piece of parchment, slashed and sprayed the loaf, peeled it onto the stone and again misted the oven. I misted it again @ 2 min, 4 min and 6 min after putting the loaf in. I had set the timer to 15 mins to open the oven door, release the steam, pull out the parchment and rotate the loaf. The results at that point weren't pretty, with an internal temp of 160 deg, but I left it in for another few minutes until it was at ~ 206. The resulting loaf is below.

Well crap! (Actually, that isn't EXACTLY what I said, but, well, you get the idea.) So I thought since misting didn't work, I got the tray of lava rocks I have, rearranged the oven a bit and left the rock in there for 20-25 mins. Then I poured a cup of water in on the rocks (and they steamed, spit and sputtered, so they were hot) and closed the oven door while I prepared the batard. Rolled it out onto another piece of parchment, slashed it, peeled it onto the stone and poured another cup of water onto the rocks. Closed the door and set the timer for 15 minutes. I could actually watch the dough grow and expand, but the slash didn't spread, it just "inflated" like a football. After 15 mins I took it out and checked internal, which was ~ 180 deg F! Put it back infor another 5 and the temp then was over 210.

The loaves:

So I'm at a loss. Everything I know about bread tells me this is a steaming (or lack of) issue, but I know what I did and how much water went in.

Any thoughts, suggestions and/or questions would be welcomed and appreciated.

Jamie

 

EDIT:

By the way, this was the strangest thing, when I took the batard out of the oven the first time, I could actually hear steam hissing out of the loaf, and then a stream of steam out of the hole the thermometer made.

barryvabeach's picture
barryvabeach

Since your dough preparation is the same, I agree you need to look at the difference between the combo cooker and the current methods.  The combo cooker does two things when covered, it keeps in the steam, and keeps moving air off the dough.  If you are using a convection setting, you may have a lot of steam, but more airflow which may decrease the moisture on the bread.  If you are using a gas oven, it could be the steam is venting too quickly.  In your description you said you opened the door to vent the steam,  did you actually see or feel steam at that point?  My suggestion is to try to duplicate the combo cooker more closely and see what happens.  Try to load the loaves on the stone and cover with a metal bowl  ( or sealed flower pot ) and see if you get the same results as the combo cooker.  

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Is this one tile a test before purchasing more tiles to bake more than one loaf at a time?  

If so, it seems to me the dynamics would change with more tiles and more loaves in the oven at the same time.  Looks like a singular bake, one loaf at a time.  Use the combo cooker or invert the base over the loaf on the tile for one loaf.  The first thing I looked for was if there were perhaps 2, 3 or 4 tiles in the oven and if they crowded the sides.  Just the one tile. 

For two loaves at a time, you may want to use the large part of a turkey roaster pan or something similar.  Something that covers each loaf or both at the same time.  Will the oven accommodate two adjacent or side-by-side tiles?

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

It looks to me like the top crust is setting before the loaf has a chance to spring (and the slashes to open). The clues are the football shape, and the dark colouring where the slashed opened.

This is partly steam, I think, but also a couple of other things (she says, from experience). I have two stones on different shelves in my oven. I find that, if the top element of the oven is still on (or goes back on) when I load the bread, then sometimes the loaves on the top shelf will crust over before the scoring opens properly. So now, when I load the bread, I pour water into the steam trays after loading the loaves, then after 5 minutes at 475F I lower the heat to 425F. This reduces the chances of the top element staying on too long and causing the crust to set. Spraying the oven can also keep the top element on because it drastically reduces the oven temperature.

So, don't spray. Use the steam trays as you did with the batard. Reduce the oven temperature to 425F after 5 minutes, and don't put the loaves too close to the top of the oven. See if that helps! Here is a photo of some bread I baked using this method