Getting Ears* (not "Grigne"): An Observation
I have the opportunity now to use steam injection in my baking. I was curious as to what effect the timing of steaming from the time of loading would have. I prepared a formula and created two identical loaves. I preheated the oven to 425º and loaded the first loaf dry with no presteam. After about 1.5 minutes, I loaded the second loaf in the same oven and steamed as soon as the oven door closed. I was amazed at the results:
The loaf on the left was the dry start loaf. There is actually a tiny bit of grigne ear* at the upper left side of the score but the score is otherwise flat. The loaf on the right started to bloom about 3 minutes into the bake and developed the gorgeous grigne ears* you can see.
My inference from this is that for maximum grigne ears*, the earlier the steaming the better. On a future bake, I will try a presteam just before loading as well as the initial loading steam to see what effect this will have. This also helps me understand one of the reasons I have had such a wide variation in the quality of my grigne ears* from bake to bake.
Hope this helps someone. Comments and questions are welcome.
*Edited on 4/8/11 to correct misuse of "grigne". The raised flap of crust is actually an "ear".