A couple of questions:

I have a Fibrament stone in my oven that maybe leaves an inch or inch and a half around the edges from the oven wall. I always use convection heat, since I thought it might be best to move the hot air around in the oven, but now I wonder if that's still a good idea, with the airflow severely restricted by the stone? I have also noticed a couple of hot spots in the back center of the oven, close to the spot where the convection fan is located.

Also, if I still want to create steam, how would I do it in a way that would be safe for the stone? I imagine a blast of steam coming from the bottom of the oven and then hitting the bottom of the stone would not only be problematic for the stone, but also not reach the breads very well. Is there a better way of delivering steam to the breads - ideally just once, to keep the oven door closed during baking?

I should also add that I recently had to replace the convection heating element in the back of my Maytag oven - I am suspecting that the steam I used in the past had something to do with it. I'd usually pour about a half cup of water onto a hot pan on the bottom of the oven (this was before I got the stone). Somehow, the motor that moves the hot air around burned out. If I use straight heat, will that eliminate the risk of burning out that motor again (since the steam most likely will not get "sucked into" the system?

Stephan

Hi,

I've recently purchased a ceramic pizza baking stone. What's the best way to transfer the bread dough (like a boule) to the baking stone while it is pre-heating inside the oven. I don't have a peel.

At the moment, I proof my dough on a thin silicon mat. Prior to baking, I'll remove the baking stone from the oven, and slide the whole thing (silicon mat and dough) onto the baking stone, before putting it back in the oven again for baking. I do not remove my silicon mat until the baking is complete.

Will i lose significant oven spring by using a thin silicon mat on top of a pre-heated baking stone the whole time? Am I rendering the baking stone ineffective by doing so? Let me emphasis the silicon mats I'm using are pretty thin (similar to parchment paper), and definitely not as thick as SILPAT.

As always, any advice and help is welcome. Thanks.

Sue

Well, as my account name states I am a Kansas girl stuck in Maryland.  Even though I have now officially lived in Maryland (Ellicott City to be exact) longer than I lived in Kansas (Topeka)(I moved right after college graduation) I will ALWAYS consider myself a Kansan (sorry you Marylanders).

 I have always loved making bread, but have had long bouts (we are talking years) of not making bread.  When I first moved out on my own I made all my own bread.  Mostly plain white from a very old copy of a Betty Crocker bread recipe book.  I would occasionally throw in a loaf of french bread (recipe from the same Betty Crocker book).  I also whipped the occasional loaf of Dilly Casserole Bread (the best no knead bread I have ever had).  But until recently I have been in a long dry spell.

 Then this past winter I discovered the John C. Campbell Folk School (http://www.folkschool.org).  (Shameless plug).  I took the week-long breadmaking class.  Think 8-10 hours everyday of making breads and then getting to eat them.  Absolute heaven.  I came home inspired and began making bread weekly.  And I became a bread recipe junkie (you people are really bad for my waistline and pocketbook).  I was also inspired to revamp my kitchen (remodeling is frowned on in rented apartments) to give myself more room to work.  Even though I have a Kitchen Aid mixer I love the process of making the dough by hand.  I fear that when I first came back from my class I may have given King Arthur catalog the false impression that a new bread shop was opening from the continous orders I put in for about 6 weeks.

 One of the best lessons I learned from my week of breadmaking was that really good bread can take 2-3 days to make.  I now know the joy of coming home from work and whipping up a poolish in a few minutes and coming home the next day to complete the actual dough with a few minutes of kneading and coming home the next day to actually bake my bread.

 While I have owned Ruth Levy Beranbaum's Bread Bible for several years I was always intimitated by the recipes.  Now I read throught the recipes and can't wait to try them.  I also purchase Peter Reinhardt's Bread Bakers Apprentice.  Several of the recipes we made in class were from that book.  What a wonderful book.  It is a great read even before you get to the recipes.

So now I come to my quandry.  Maryland (as well as Kansas) gets ungodly hot in the summer time.  AC is a wonderful thing and a blessing, but AC in an apartment is very hard pressed to deal with an oven running at 400+ degrees for an hour+.  Other than getting up at 2:00 AM to bake do you have suggestions for dealing with the heat from the oven.  I am moving into another bout of no bread baking because of the heat and I really don't want to lose my momentum.

I can't wait to read your suggestions and constantly look forward to being inspired by the recipes posted.

Anne

Hi,

So i was mulling over baking techniques and adding a few things together. Namely:

- professional restaurant ovens are optimally sized to bake whatever they're baking. eg pizzeria ovens are just tall enough to clear a pizza. this reduces wasted energy, heating only a volume of air that is in contact with the baked good.

- heating a small space is cheaper and quicker than heating a large space.

- the Oven in an Oven method traps moisture from the dough and keeps it close to the crust.

- most baked goods do not fill up an entire oven. a 16 lb turkey does, but not three one-lb loaves.

ok, so the distillation of all that is: can we modify our kitchen ovens to bake bread in the most efficient way possible?

essentially, can we form an insulating barrier inside the oven, effectively minimizing the amount of energy needed to keep it hot?

has anyone attempted this? i'd be very interested in trying something like this, considering that when i make 1 lb of bread, i have to heat up a space maybe 20-30x larger than i need to.

Hi again,
I posted a couple days ago when I was having trouble getting my 1st seed culture to come together.. Well, I finally got it to hold its rise and made the barm (starter- I'm using BBA). Today I took it out of the fridge and made a loaf.. It turned out very, very dense and never did get to 205 degrees.. in fact the crust is almost impossible up cut through without a chisel and the very middle is pretty raw..
Am I correct to think that the starter will become stronger as it gets older? When it was rising (both when the barm was trying to double, and when the bread was trying to 'almost double' today) I felt it was more relaxing and spreading than rising in all directions..

More importantly, I'm having trouble with my super, super cheap oven getting up to 500 degrees- only got to about 425, 450- and when I opened the door to put the bread in it went down to about 375 and never got back to 450 as it was supposed to (in the hour I spent baking it). BBA put the bake time at 20-30 min total, but I was not even gone at 1 hr.

Can anyone advise me how long I should expect to bake a 1 1/2 lb boule at 350?

I may try some rolls tomorrow, or another loaf using a longer rise time and less-interrupted bake at 350. I made a second bach of firm starter today..

Thanks in advance for any help..

Hi. I've been lurking for a month or so (and baking for about a year)--what a wonderful community!  I'm excited that I'm going to have significant time this summer to spend baking, and I was wondering if any of you had some advice.  My apartment doesn't have air conditioning, so it is often upwards of 85 F.  I don't mind baking in the heat, but I’d like to figure out how to compensate for such warm ambient conditions.