June 18, 2015 - 10:21am
Getting Steam for the Oven
I wrote a short piece about different strategies and tools for supplying steam for an oven when baking bread. Of course, since then I have read about yet another method - spritzing the dough every two minutes with water for the first 10 minutes - but that seems problematic for a home oven, not to mention that most of the recipes in that particular Reinhart book called for relatively cool baking temperatures, nothing in the 400-to-500 degree range.
The book's prose were fine, but the reliance on commercial yeast and plenty of sugars in the recipes did not endear me to the overall message.
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Which book was it? I didn't know Reinhart was a fan of sugar and commercial yeast. Is it quite old? And I like the blog. Great idea.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20162/oven-steaming-my-new-favorite-way I can get an oven fully steamed five minutes before the bread goes in and then only need to add 1/2 cup of very hot water to the pan once the bread is loaded onto the baking steel. The time the oven door is open is minimal and I don't have to remove a heavy, hot cast iron skillet full of lava rocks after the first part of the bake.
I find it helpful to preheat the water for two minutes in a Pyrex vessel in a microwave oven before putting it in the oven. It then turns to steam more quickly.
Inverting an aluminum turkey roasting pan over the loaf "on the stone" with parchment underneath will yield perfect steam results every time (the baking bread creates its own steam).
Spritz the inside of the roasting pan with water before inverting over the loaf - bake the loaf for 10-15 minutes before removing to allow the crust to brown. Cheap roasting pans that come three or four-to-a-pack work great and they're reusable. Center it on the loaf and pooch up the middle of the roaster a bit if your loaf has that much spring (make sure the rim still sits flat on the baking stone's surface).
Wild-Yeast
I will definitely try out these suggestions and put them in my blog piece as recommended strategies.
1. I would never have thought of using towels because my guess would be that towels in a 475 or 500-degree oven might burn or bust into flames. I'm rather cautious about stuff like that.
2. I love the idea of using aluminum roasting pans. Big fan of cheap and effective. Goes with the shower caps I now use to cover dough bowls, another idea from a freshloaf person. My only question would be whether the roasting pan is tight enough on the baking stone so that steam does not escape on the bottom.
...and won't catch fire. I load them into a 500F oven with out a problem. They are still soaking wet when they come out of the oven 15 minutes into the bake. There is close to zero fire danger from this technique. I've used the roasting pan technique as well and it works fine. Enough steam stays inside that you get good crust formation. Only issue would be if the pan were bent and did not lie flat on the cooking surface.
Ideally the pan would fit perfectly flat on the stone. As it works out it really doesn't matter all that much. The steam is super-heated rising in the enclosed chamber (think bread loaf in a steam bubble). Steam escapes from around the edge as more steam is added from the baking loaf. So as long as the pan's edge is "reasonably" flat against the stone the loaf will "bathe" in the steam bubble maintaining the all important skin elasticity resulting in a perfect oven spring every time...,
Wild-Yeast
The Peter Reinhart book I referred to is an updated version of Brother Juniper's Bread Book. A nice read; a nice meditation on bread. I did not appreciate the sugary and commercial yeast recipes.
The towels-in-the-oven idea does recommend putting a material in the oven, that being cotton, that one, as a general rule, does not put near a very hot heat source.
Something that is wet with water cannot exceed 212℉ (at sea level). You can fold a paper container and boil water in it over an open flame. That's basic jr high school science.
cheers,
gary
Towels in the oven's water bath accomplish nothing. They contribute no additional heat or moisture.
The efficient way to steam up an oven is to use as large a surface area of water as possible.
The towels do wick moisture, and if not fully covered, increase the effective surface area quite a bit.
The main thing I see is the reduced slosh when transporting and reduced splash when pouring hot water. The safety effect alone may make it a worthwhile method.
g
You would have to roll up or pleat the towels vertically to increase the effective surface area over a flat pan of water, and yes the water would be less likely to slosh.
that you did not read the original post referred to. The rolled terry towels provides many times the evaporative area of a flat pan of water.
g
In junior high school, I had a brilliant lab partner who was happy to do all the work and I was willing to let him do it. I took notes and aced my tests, but, apparently, I retained little information. Never assume someone knows what you consider to be basic knowledge. Here in DC, we assume everyone is interested in politics 24/7, but that is certainly not the case. We all have our own bubbles. Glad to be here in the bread bubble. And thanks for the scientific explanation.
The remark about 9th grade science was snarky and uncalled for. I apologize.
gary
If that remark was directed at me, I was agreeing with you so I don't see why you're arguing.
Now you owe two apologies.
g