SOS! New to deck oven baking
HELP! I got a Nero 400 last month after waiting what felt like an eternity. I very quickly realized that I would have to relearn how to bake bread (ugh), but I can't figure out how to get a quality loaf of sourdough to bake in my new oven. I get very little oven spring, absolutely zero ear, and the bread blows out the side despite having a deep score. It has been a very disappointing experience so far.
Here's my process:
- Preheat oven to 250˚C for about 2 hours.
- Load oven (I'm only baking 1-2 loaves at a time on the middle shelf because flour is expensive for these experiments), spray the back and sides of the deck with a pressure sprayer, and quickly spray the door before I close it.
- Bake for 10 minutes, open steam vent, rotate loaves. Turn oven down to 50˚C and bake with residual heat for another 10-12 minutes.
I've tried leaving the oven at 250˚C for the whole baking time, but it scorches the tops of the loaves well before the interior is baked through.