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Dutch oven with inside rack

DennyONeal's picture
DennyONeal

Dutch oven with inside rack

 

To get more steam in my graniteware Dutch oven, how do you think the following would work:

Place a stainless rack on the bottom (inside) and pour a little water underneath it, and loaf on top. 

 

This would affect heat heat exchange in some fashion since loaf no longer sitting directly on bottom surface. I always put loaf in cold graniteware but preheated oven. 

Thanks. 

BobBoule's picture
BobBoule

It would probably not work well. I suspect that he dough would ooze down through the stainless rack and contact the water, causing it to get gooey. It would eventually cook but you would have to surgically remove the rack from the dough or possibly have to eat around the dough.

What I would do is to move unto a higher percentage hydration dough to simply spray the top of the dough with plain water and the rapidly put the cover on, so it all gets trapped as steam.

old baker's picture
old baker

You will probably get enough steam by simply keeping the lid on during the first part of the bake.  Then remove it for final baking and browning.