Bakers Pride deck oven experiments.
Hey guys, been getting a LOT of useful information from these forums the past couple of years, although have not contributed really to any conversation until now. Excellent site though, I recommend this to any friends who are interesting in learning to bake. Anyway, I've been selling some hearth style sourdough loaves and pan style sandwich loaves at a local yoga studio where some friends work for fun, and in the past few months I've been attempting to bake at a pizza place that I work at part time....with mixed results. On one hand it's sooo much nicer because I can load in six or eight loaves at a time instead of one or two in my home oven, and the extra heat from the stone gives a much better crumb I feel. I'm still having trouble with getting the proper amount of steam though. It's an old Bakers Pride oven from 1977 and probably leaks a little, and of course there are no steam injectors. At first I was placing a large flat metal pan with a bunch of crushed ice toward the back of the deck, but lately I've been doing that in combination with spraying the door and floor of the oven with a small garden sprayer. Some of the loaves open up nicely, others rise up well but end up with just a really dark crust on top and not much bloom from the scores on the loaves. I know this topic has been covered here before, but just checking if anyone had any new thoughts or experiences to share regarding using these types of ovens for hearth bread baking.
Thanks! this site is awesome!
Kyle