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Submitted by Mason on January 4, 2010 - 2:28pm My first attempt with Reinhart
My first attempt using Reinhard's "epoxy" method in Whole Grain Breads. Yesterday, I took my San Francisco liquid sourdough (started from a small crock with yeast package I purhased over 12 years ago, and have transported across the continent twice) and made it the core leven in his more dough-like mother starter. It went in to the fridge last night and 14 oz came out before breakfast today. I also made the soaker. This morning I made the dough (his standard whole wheat) and used a basket with foured dishcloth successfully toi make a Banneton (my first attempt at that technique). Baked in my terracotta plant-pot cloche (preheated with the oven, so I could not soak the top in water, to make steam. It seems to have jumped quite well in the oven.(I did not know how to create steam inside the cloche, otherwise). I also forgot to reduce the heat mid-way through baking, so the crust is really dark. I brushed the crust with melted butter to soften it a little.
I'll post a crumb shot when it has cooled. So: how can I create steam inside a terracotta cloche without just misting the dough, which negates the flour dusting from the banneton?
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The dough itself should provide all the steam you need
When using a cloche you shouldn't need to do anything else to add steam.
Occasionally, if the hydration level of the dough is low, I will mist the dough with a fine spray of water, but it's rarely necessary.
cloche and crumb
Thanks. I'll try it without any added water next time. I'd really like to keep the floured look from the banneton.
My concern is when baking bread raised while coated in flour in a banneton. Will that dry surface still express enough water for the dough to create steam in the cloche?
Here's a picture of the cloche I'm using and the crumb of the loaf.
Steam expands to fill its container
If you do a regular old steam pan in the bottom of the oven, it will fill the whole oven - including the cloche.
HUH????
The cloche should be a CLOSED cover over the bread, and the steam comes from the hydration in the dough itself, not from any outside source.
That's the great beauty of using the cloche--you don't have to introduce any water source that threatens to crack your oven glass or your cloche for that matter.
There's enough hyrdration in most doughs to produce sufficient steam in a closed environment to give great oven spring and crispness to the finished bread. If I think the hydration level is a bit low, then I will sometimes add a spritz of water to the dough before closing the cloche, but it's rarely necessary.
Most commercial cloches do not have a hole in them for steam to get IN--they are solid to keep steam from getting OUT. It makes no sense to use a cloche and put steam in oven at the same time!
Of course
Thanks, Dancing Bear!
Of course. This makes perfect sense. The hole in the top of the cloche will make steam ingress easy. It will treat the crust and slowly vent out at the same rate as an exposed loaf on a stone. But I'll still get the brick-oven effects, including nice even heat, from the cloche.
My next experiment, I'll try that. I really need to make two loaves, one with the steam bath and one with just the sealed cloche.
But perhaps I should beware of splatters of water from the frying pan onto the super-hot stone. Could they crack a it?
Have any of you experience in trying a steam bath with a cloche? I guess a preheated baking pan on top of the cast iron frying pan would prevent splatters and allow only the steam to escape. A thinnish one that buckles in the heat would still let the steam out. This is getting elaborate, but not prohibitively so.
Thanks again!
Mason
Doesn't need to be fancy
I use the same ol' half-sheet in the bottom of the oven that I usually do for steam.
Haven't had any problems with cracks in the cloche (and I just use a cheap old flower pot). I've had minor spatters while dumping water in and it doesn't seem to care.
Thanks for the reassurance.
Thanks for the reassurance.
Glad I could help
Now, if you usually do your steam pan in the top of the oven, you may want to move it to the bottom - I wouldn't want to find out what would happen if a lot of water got splashed on your cloche.
Cloche or steam
I use both cloches and steam but never together. If you terra cotta has a hole in the top seal it with something so the steam stays in. You should get plenty of steam unless you are under 60 percent hydration. The other choice is to use steam but using both is not likely to be very helpful. I get almost identical results either way.
Good Luck!
Jay
I disagree - somewhat
The primary difference between having the cloche and not using the cloche is the retained heat from the ceramic. Yes, if it's closed and you're not using steam you'd have a higher level of humidity in the cloche than if it's open and you're not using steam. But the even heating is more important to your results.
Unless your hydration is pretty low, the amount of steam generated from the bread is not going to be significantly different between a closed cloche and a flowerpot - your steam is expanding into about 4x the volume with the cloche open; it's not going to take a lot of water to bring that air to a pretty high relative humidity at that temperature.
If you use the steam pan and an open cloche, the whole oven (including the inside of the cloche, if open) should be at about the same RH.
What would you seal the flowerpot hole with? I feel like it's just easier to go ahead and use the steam pan.