April 14, 2018 - 12:58am
Hot or room temperature dutch ovens?
Does a room temperature Dutch Oven result in reduced oven spring? I have read conflicting views so I would be interested to learn about the experience of TFLers. My bread does not have great oven spring but taste does not seem to be affected when using a room temperature DO. Many thanks in anticipation. Valerie.
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Valerie, there have been quite a few posts here on that subject, and most posters have found no real difference in oven spring between hot or cold DO.
cold oven/cold pot, hot oven/ cold pot, hot oven/hot pot and preferred the hot oven/ hot pot results. There was a slightly better oven spring and a rounder loaf. Was there a huge difference! Nope! So really, pick what works for you.
Thank you Danni and Barry for your responses. Now I know I should look elsewhere for the cause of an unimpressive oven spring. It is so helpful being able to tap into the experiences of those who, have already travelled along the road to the perfect loaf! I am grateful for your generosity. Valerie.
I don’t have oven spring nailed down but there are a few things you might want to look at:
Are you overproofing your loaves? Is it hard to judge when a loaf is ready for the oven. There is the poke test but even then a loaf can be overproofed. For white bread, bake when it has risen 90%. For while grain bread, bake when it has risen 75-80%. You can save a bit of dough and put it in a straight sided container to judge the amount of rise.
Then again, you might want to just shove your shaped loaves in a very cold fridge 36-37F) and bake the next day. Make sure to cover them so they don’t dry out and bake them cold right out of the fridge.
The other thing is how tight is your shaping? If you aren’t getting a nice tight skin on those loaves, they seem to fall flat when baking. Take a look at various shaping videos and try them. I am finding that the method doesn’t matter but getting that nice tight skin without squeezing all the built up gas is key.
I am sure others will pipe in with more ideas but those two questions were what I thought of when you mentioned lack of oven spring.