Juggling fridge and oven times for multiple loaves.
I have enough dough for 4 loaves.
I only have 2 round bannetons (which I've never used, though they've made pretty wall decor, oy!)
And the bigger kicker, I only have one baking stone and oven.
How in the world do you juggle multiple loaves like this? I'm doing the first rise now. Once that's done, I'm guessing I'm going to stick half the dough back into the fridge, unshaped, then shape two boules in the bannetons and stick one banneton back in the fridge. Wait about 20 minutes or so while the first loaf rises, then pull it out so that it has time to rise while the first one is cooking.
I suppose the worst is that I have to turn my oven off rather than waste electricity while waiting for bread to rise after coming out of the fridge and taking longer. On the other hand, it's nearly 80F in my apartment. I might not have long to wait.
I find that overnight proofing my loaves, covered in plastic bags, in their bannetons works great. I take them out of the frig, one, two, a few, at a time, ' about ' 30 minutes apart for baking inside. Adding in a firing and baking in my wfo, is another step. I sometimes also have to add in the extra timing it takes for heating up my wood fired oven for bread baking temperatures...this works great for me, because the proofing loaves don't have to come out of the frig at an exact hour and I can use the wfo for other cooking, roasting, before baking. Your bread won't take much time out of the fridge after overnight proofing, some even bake right away, I time by how long it takes my first loaves out to be proofed enough to bake, allowing for my kitchen temperature sometimes to speed up or slow things down, before bringing out the next batch. This is what works for me.
ADDED: I use floured linen type tea towels in kitchen bowls lined for extra loaves.
Sylvia
Thanks. I got it all sorted out in the end.
It's been a long time since I made bread, and it shows. It still tastes good, but I just can't get the nice big holes like I'd like, or that glossy crust. I love the rosemary sourdough from Whole Foods. Their ingredients don't list oil or eggs, but their crust is SO shiny, they have to be doing something to it!
A light cornstarch-water applied to a hot loaf will give it shine. Not uncommon for a New York rye, but I've seldom seen it applied elsewhere.
Eggwash would work also, depending on the bread.
I'm pretty new around here, but from what I gather...misting your loaves with water before baking will give you some of the shine you are seeking :) I used to bake professionally and we never misted the loaves, but we had a huge deck oven with a very powerful steam injection function...really let loose a lot of steam into the oven and I think misting the loaves directly replicates this to a certain extent.
Cheers~
~Krista