December 21, 2013 - 9:31am
Need help with two bakes in a row
Howdy!
So I have a mixed leavening pain au levain ready to go into the oven in 30 minutes, and a no knead walnut raisin ready in an hour and 45 minutes or so. I'm wondering if I can bake my no knead on the same hot stone, I guess on parchment paper, with a steam tray. If not, is there a way to heat the Dutch Oven up on the stovetop so that it's ready to go into the oven when my pain au levain comes out?
thanks!
Eli
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If you have a Pyrex-glass casserole with lid you can use it instead of the DO. It heats up very fast and you have these few minutes more before your no knead comes in.
If you already have a stone you don't need the feature of the DO to store the heat and not cool down when a lot of cold dough is put inside.
With a stone of course you you can use it together with a stream tray. Without stone I wouldn't use a tray with water as it either has to be warmed up beforehand (same problem as with DO) or will steal the head from below.
I'd use a pressure sprayer.
There are many reports of Pyrex type glass bake ware, that is not made in the United States, exploding in the oven. We had a piece explode for no reason. We didn't subject it to thermal shocks. Some people have been burned or cut by the flying glass. Thermal shocks like adding room temperature Pyrex to a 500-F oven or misting with water may be enough to cause it to fail.
From a Chowhound thread - "Consumer Reports Investigates Exploding Pyrex"
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/751340#6112534
The problem is that Corning stopped making borosilicate glass years ago but licensed the tradename "Pyrex" to another company who puts it on common soda glass which is not heatproof.
Of you search the web you can find the old and new logo which are different and fairly obvious once you know.
I actually use a German brand but well this shouldn't be of any better or worse quality than an US product.
Chemists heat up and cool down glass almost instantly as well. What is their trick?
I've never heard of "exploding" glass anyway. It might crack in two pieces; but exploding? Now as I see the reviews I think I'll have to find a new solution. (Safety glasses ;))
A hot stone needs that much more energy (45 min. as compared to 15 min. without to heat up the oven). This will double the energy costs for small batches.
Happy Holidays
Adrian
Thanks for the advice. I was thinking of using a stainless steel bowl on top of the stone for the no knead bread, but I think I'll just use the stone and steam tray instead. I'm going to try seam side up with a slash, I guess at 450, with a cup of hot water into the steam tray.
:)
They were both quite good, but the no knead didn't have as crisy of a crust as when I've made it in the DO. Once it was cut nobody minded. Happy holidays!