Covering the loaf in the oven
Apologies for starting a new thread on this subject; most other threads are from 2010 or 2011...
I primarily bake Sourdough. Never used a cover in the oven before. I spray my dough with water and have a small cast iron skillet that I add a quarter cup of water to when I put the dough in the oven, and the oven holds the steam very well; if I open the door I get steamed glasses. However I am always looking to improve my bread.
Do you prefer to use a lid and not add water in a pan? Do you always spray the top of the dough with water before placing in the oven?
Is there a name for this lid? I was looking online for something and if you look for "cover" and "dough" you mostly get "cover your dough with a cloth to rise..." and not "use XYZ to cover your dough in the oven"
I see bakers here using metal roasting pans, terracotta, cast iron, etc. Does one work better than another?
Does the lid need to seal to the baking stone (fit inside the baking stone dimensions) or better to hang over the edge?
I appreciate any and all thoughts on the subject!
Jibsman
I usually bake my breads on pre-heated stones, with no cover but with water poured into pans full of lava rock in the bottom of the oven. It works fine. Sometimes I bake in covered, pre-heated cast iron pots. Also works fine. I think any way to trap a bit of moisture while keeping the top crust a little cooler than the rest of the loaf while the yeast is still active (so it springs the right way) probably works just as well as any other method, but it depends on your oven, your dough and a whole host of other factors as well.
partly because I bought 2 specifically for bread baking, but also because I don't burn myself as easily with the steam that is coming out of the oven. For some reason my oven really throws the steam is when you open the door. When I bake baguettes, I have to use a stone and a steam tray, it is a given that I will burn myself somehow with the steam.
The name that I think you're looking for is cloche. They can be made with a number of materials but the most common one is ceramic or terra-cotta.
Thanks Danni3ll3! OK so do you heat the top & bottom and turn the risen loaf onto the bottom? Seems like a great way to burn yourself! Or do you just heat the top? No that doesn't make sense. I guess you heat both. I see one for ~$50 on Amazon.
I hear some people heat both, some heat the top and keep the bottom cold and I would guess some heat the bottom and not the top. This would be a great thing to experiment with to see what works better.
On second thought, If you cloche is made out of clay or some kind of pottery, I think putting cold pottery in a hot oven is a recipe for disaster so heating both is probably the way to go.
I prefer a cloche, or a cast iron dutch oven. Both parts are pre-heated for a long time (like 45 minutes) to make sure they are very very hot. I have an easier time w the cloche b/c the bottom has a lip but isn't deep so the risk of burning myself is slim. With a dutch oven the risk is greater, but you can get it to work. IF you get a cast iron combo cooker on Amazon (I got one for a friend for $36 for X-Mas) you can use the lid as the bottom part and the 'pot' as the cover. Some people swear by that arrangement. I love cast iron for breads. Fwiw.
With either a cloche or dutch oven, I don't spritz the breads. The covers, if they fit properly create all the steam you need. Then you remove the cover after about 15 minutes to allow your bread to brown.
Good luck
hester
Another approach is a combo cooker, I went with one and it is easy to load the bread onto it, even when preheated. I actually just put the bottom on a burner stove and preheat it for 4 or 5 minutes before I load the loaf and through it in the oven, and the loaves come out with a well baked bottom.
For many years before the "artisan" bread movement I used the upside down bottom of a very large cast iron skillet as a landing pad to keep from burning myself putting dough in the oven. That wasn't idea but it was basically all I had other than cheap cookie sheets or tin bread pans. I went to using an upside down heavy half sheet pan (when I could finally afford a couple of commercial ones (heated) and a very large stainless steel bowl to cover the loaf. That worked pretty good for my "Italian" or french bread recipes I got in an old Farm Journal bread cookbook circa 1969. Back then I had no idea what "real" french or Italian bread was and no one complained or went hungry.
Then I got an OLD stained enameled baker from Holland at a garage sale and just plopped my spongy dough into it when super busy canning and it was great for making a crunchy crust. Worked since I never had anything "artisan" (lol) before just good farm food to feed everyone. Had to convince family I was not burning the bread...it was suppose to be that way.
Having grown up in the 60's I just baked whatever recipe I found and with whatever I could bake on that didn't burn. But if I was starting all over and had only 1 thing to buy for baking...it would simply be a good hearth stone. 2nd thing would be to get another oval enameled baker from Holland that had built in handle on the lid. I still chuckle over the "artisan" label...back then only the old ladies too busy to roll out and tightly form beautiful loaves could get away with such "rustic" bread in Texas. LOL!
your post made me laugh
wonderful old book you mention, FARM JOURNAL BREAD COOKBOOK; I have it right here, it's a fun read. The FJ candy cookbook is a good one, as well
cheapest and most light weight of all the methods to steam an oven. I found the original method on this website and it has never failed me. Just a couple of rolled towels soaked in water and heated in a microwave at high setting for four minutes. Towels transferred to a rectangular baking pan that goes right into the preheated oven below the baking steel for five minutes before the bread is loaded. After loading the bread dough, I add about 3/4 cup of boiling water to the towel pan and that's it. Pan is removed half way through baking to firm up the crust.
Thanks all for the great responses! I have a "pizza stone" that I place on the bottom rack in the oven, and put my dough on a piece of parchment paper cut to fit my pizza peel (I love to make homemade pizza!), since every time I try to use flour or corn meal the dough sticks and gives me a major headache getting the dough on to the stone.
I found a huge metal bowl at Goodwill last night. Cost a whole $1.49. I plan to drill a hole in the bottom (now the top) and put a eyehook connected to the bowl with washers and a couple nuts to hold it in place, so I can use an oven glove to grab the eyehook to place and remove it. This will work for round loaves but not my loaves from the 12" brotform.
I'm thinking longer term getting a roaster pan (if I can find one at Goodwill) to use for the long breads. I don't have the cash for a $60 cloche at the moment, so like most of you, it's use what I can find!
Thanks again!
Happy Baking
Jibsman
I have a cheap StSt deep pan that I got at a local restaurant supply store for something like $6. The inside diameter at the top is just about 1/4" smaller than the outside diameter of my stone so I get a nice tight seal. Works great and cheap.
I recently bought a Lodge Combo Cooker, from Amazon for $59 CDN (which is like $2.56 USD, LOL) and that works great. Even Chad Robertson and Ken FOrkish recommend them.
Also, I have a clay baking pot I used to only use for my 40 Garlic Chicken, but I'll use this when I want to do a 3 lb batard, it's that big. And Danni is right, if you ever get one, make sure it's preheated.
Jamie
$2.56 USD LOL