Brotspruher: Is spraying loaves with water a common procedure?

Spraying loaves with water is one of many ways to create steam in the oven, usaully accompanied by spraying the inside of the oven walls.

Spraying loaves with water is one of many ways to create steam in the oven, usaully accompanied by spraying the inside of the oven walls.

My orchids get the same treatment only they don't get baked.  

I spray both my monocots and my dough directing them to rise!       You not?    Have not sprayed them after baking... interesting....

They're cool aren't they?    Decorator colors?

I spray my bread before putting it in the oven and then once more after 2 or 3 minutes.  Ware just refers to the Baker's products, beauty of of translation by Google. 

Gerhard

The point being to keep the crust moist so it can expand. Lately I've been boiling a quarter cup of water in the micro wave (99 secs) and using a pastry brush to lightly coat the loaf (after slashing). For me it's easier and more effective than all the other ice cube/steam methods I've tried. Steaming relies on the moisture settling on the loaf. Why not just brush with hot water in the first place?

Jim

Personally, I don't like spraying the loaf directly because it seems to result in a tougher, chewier crust. Below is a video from SteveB's breadcetera blog in which he demonstrates his steaming method, involving a hotel pan with a hole in it and a sprayer similar to the one you found:

http://www.breadcetera.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/ScoringSteaming.mov

Hi,

Mr Suepke mentions in his blog that spraying white bread directly after the bake creates this crackly effect, he calls it "fenstern".

http://baeckersuepke.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/weisbrot-zum-selber-basteln/

There are also two great white bread recipes.

I tried the recipes, but not the spraying.

Cheers,

Juergen

My understand of the idea behind spraying loaves with water is that its to soften the crust and cause reduced surface tension on the wetter top of the loaf,  and/or;  to create a "crazed" (crackled) crust.  Greater oven spring (rise in the oven) is faciliated by the softer crust, which offers less resistance to the dough's "push" (i.e. expansion of the dough due to the heating/expanding gases trapped in the dough during fermentation).  Hoperfully, spring is mostly upwards - thus creating both taller/larger loaves, and better "bloom", (i.e. the opening, like a flower, of the scored slashes in the top of the loaf).  

"Fensterm" is a german word meaning "an erosional opening down through overthrust rock exposing the underlying rock —also called a window"  (rock-climbers will be familiar with this word).  

"Crazing" is a better word.  It's definition is "Fine cracks resulting from shrinkage on the surface of glazed pottery, concrete, or other material. (e.g. the admired crackle in some Oriental potteries and porcelains is crazing produced in a foreseen and regulated way. )"

Loaves with good crazing have harder crusts (the result of a wetter crust dough) and they "sing" as they cool (the sound of the harder crazed crust shrinking, as it cools at a slightly different rate of contraction than that of the softer cooked dough of the bread below. 

When I was working in a German bakery, we would brush water on most loaves (except for the ones coming out of brotforms). This will allow the crust to stay flexible just a little longer and enable it to expand to the max during oven spring.

When the loaves were taken out, we would brush them with a potatostarch (cooked) solution for a great shine. You can brush loaves with water, but for the best shine, the potatostarch solution will give outstanding results.

"fenstern" indeed means the crumb contracting, but the crust being so nice and hard that it actually cracks while the loaf cools down. It looks like the old, usually irregular shaped stain-glass windows in Europe, hence the term "fenstern" (window).

Stephan