Hot Oven or Cold
Since I was trying something new I thought I'd try two things new..well, new to me. Thanks to you, Dabrownman and Barbara for the information about using cold or hot DO's . I put the first loaf into the cold DO, cold oven. Put combo cooker in at same time (empty). Fifteen minutes later when the oven was hot, I put second loaf into the heated combo cooker and started timing about 15 minutes for covered steaming time. Thought this would give me a good side to side comparison. And it certainly did, --you can hardly tell which loaf is which! I still cannot imagine using fresh starter much less baking from a cold oven....but the results are just short of amazing.
Our sisterly challenge this weekend is to make Bretzel Rolls. Today is a baking in tandem kind of schedule but by the end of the afternoon we will be sending pictures and results back and forth from Texas to Washington state. Helen is all done, and her rolls are beautiful, crusty brown and shiny. Time to get floured up here!