It's probably not new ....
what makes french bread .....french bread? Some of it's attributes are elasticity in the crust and crumb and the amazing to die for crust. I've never baked white flour bread and only want to if I can approximate those attributes.
If anyone has suggestions I'll give them a try. I have to bake bread for a christmas dinner and my usual whole wheat bread it too heavy for that setting. I have read that water is injected into the oven during baking. Wouldn't that mostly affect the crust? Is it just the amount of oil or fats used in the dough that make it so appealingly stretchy and chewey?
I have a mud oven and it would be easy to make up something to get water thru the wall. Does the water need to be a fine mist or arrive from several different directions at once? Should the water be under pressure? What am I not asking that I should?
Ron
You just need to find a kind of a cast-iron skillet or bowl or something that will be temperature shock resistant and put it in the oven while it cools down to the bread baking temperature (like 240-250 dC). Then after loading the oven with loaves you throw into this bowl/skillet 3-5 ice cubes and quickly close the oven with the door you use while baking bread. Alternatively you can pore hot water into this skillet/bowl, but this is more dangerous as it will immediately produce a lot of steam which can burn your hands and also eyes. It is harder this way so I prefer to use former method. This will generate enough steam and you should not open the oven at least 8-10 minutes.
Anything more complicated will just make you a lot of work but will not be more efficient. You can also make a search on this site by putting words like "mud oven steam" in search box in upper right corner of this page and will get a lot of results.
There are many bread recipes available on this site and just depend what kind of bread you would like to make - sourdough or one leavened with bakers yeast. On the top right side of this page is menu with option "Bread browser", you can simply use that.
Congratulations for your mud oven, it looks amazing and I bet you were inspired by Kiko Denzer's book.
Happy baking!
Joze
There are so man kinds of French breads to choose from SD Country, Baguette, Brioche, batards of all kinfs etc. You can also use the search button on this site, upper right, fo find every French bread imaginable.
Happy baking with great oven!