The recipe I used for a medium sized loaf (normally I make regular sized ones about 985g but for experimenting I decided on this medium sized loaf):
-100g starter
– 272g water
– 400g flour
– 8 g salt
I mixed the dough and let it rest for 1 hr. Then performed 2 sets of stretch and folds every 30 mins. Switch to 2 sets of coil and folds every 30 mins and then let my dough ferment. Total process maybe around 6 hr bulk fermentation at 75-78°f. At the 5.5 hr mark I pre shaped the dough to let rest for 30 mins before final shaping.
For the open baking I used a cookie tray to cook my dough on. And for the steam I used a cast iron. I wanted to try the ice method for the steam and I think that’s where it went a little wrong. I preheated my oven for 30 mins before I put the dough in and about 7 ice cubes. I feel like my steam escaped quickly because of the ice and maneuvering to place the cast iron in the bottom and then close the door.
I cooked it with the steam at 475°f for 15 mins and then removed the cast iron, dropped the temp to 450°f for 15 mins. The crust got a lot darker and harder than I’m used to getting from my Dutch oven.
Should I have added a few more ice cubes in the beginning to account for the loss of steam from maneuvering the cast iron and closing the door?
by Majestic-Tie3384
5 Comments
It honestly looks great to me! The rise seems fine.
For the steam, perhaps you could just use a sprayer to spritz a few times rather than having to keep the oven door open for the ice cubes? I feel like a (high temp, oven safe) bowl of water might work better for steam, but I don’t know if this would ruin the bowl or not from temperature shock; perhaps if its in the oven while its pre-heating? Worth trying imo!
That looks great! Are you trying to get a less dark crust? What’s your objective?
I did open baking for over a year, I ended up preheating a tray with lava rocks and water. Then when loading I would just drop some additional ice cubes on it. Reduced the time the oven was open to ~15 seconds. That worked well for me. I have a post on my profile about open baking and there are lots of good comments there that helped me improve the process.
I might write something in our wiki if there isn’t something already
Nice crumb!
Most home ovens can be very difficult to successfully trap steam in for bread baking. I’ve had success with using two steam methods at once, Maurizio Leo has a great write up on this exact method.
Use a deep baking dish of some kind with two old kitchen towels rolled up tightly and mostly submerged in boiling water. Preheat that in the back of your oven for fifteen minutes to saturate with steam, but also have a preheated cast iron that you can throw about 8-10 big ice cubes onto for extra steam right after loading the bread onto the stone.
Basically just steam as much as possible. I’d be cautious with splashing any water on your oven door obviously. Steaming with home ovens can be a little risky
Looks like you nailed it to me.
When you open the oven door, steam escapes. There’s no getting around it. I wear glasses, it seems like most of it condenses on them. It’s unavoidable.