Has anyone used a professional Combi Oven to bake artisan loaves?  The website for this brand (www.rationalusa.com) says that it's perfect for bread baking, but I am so used to baking in a deck oven this crazy digital touch screen technology scares me.  

Hi,

So i was mulling over baking techniques and adding a few things together. Namely:

- professional restaurant ovens are optimally sized to bake whatever they're baking. eg pizzeria ovens are just tall enough to clear a pizza. this reduces wasted energy, heating only a volume of air that is in contact with the baked good.

- heating a small space is cheaper and quicker than heating a large space.

- the Oven in an Oven method traps moisture from the dough and keeps it close to the crust.

- most baked goods do not fill up an entire oven. a 16 lb turkey does, but not three one-lb loaves.

ok, so the distillation of all that is: can we modify our kitchen ovens to bake bread in the most efficient way possible?

essentially, can we form an insulating barrier inside the oven, effectively minimizing the amount of energy needed to keep it hot?

has anyone attempted this? i'd be very interested in trying something like this, considering that when i make 1 lb of bread, i have to heat up a space maybe 20-30x larger than i need to.

All the "artisan baking" (I know the adjective is "artisinal," Mike!) books I have provide instructions for humidifying the oven to approximate the function of steam injectors in professional bread ovens. Some recommend using ice cubes. Some recommend hot water. Some recommend humidifying the oven before putting loaves in. Others humidify after loading the loaves.

 I think it is Maggie Glezer in her recipe for Dan Lepards Country French Bread who recommends putting ice cubes in a pan before loading to "humidify" the oven and putting hot water in a skillet after loading the oven to "steam" it.

 Can anyone comment on this procedure and clarify 1) the difference between humidifying the oven and steaming the oven, 2) the difference in the timing of adding water (in whichever form) on oven spring and crust formation?

And, has anyone tried the garden sprayer method Glezer recommends? If so, does it really yield a different result than throwing hot water into a hot skillet?

 Thanks.

David

I didn't the last time, and I think the loaf could have risen better.  Does it matter much if I use hot or cold water in a cold oven?  One of these days I'll rig some steam injection, but that's a ways down my project list.

I am brand new to The Fresh Loaf and have read the content with great interest. I have tried just about every method ever suggested for creating steam in my home oven with varying results. My latest attempt to mimic the commercial steam injection is a relatively simple modification to my oven. I bought a quarter inch copper tube and inserted it into the vent for the oven. This took some disassembly of the oven which some may find daunting, but it's really just removing screws.

I didn't want to hijack the other question where BROTKUNST suggested a turkey roaster cover so I thought I would start another thread.

Here's a tip from the San Francisco Baking Institute ( http://www.sfbi.com/bakers_tips.html ) regarding steaming loaves for crisp crust.

 *****

Yesterday morning I was busy feeding starters and I recalled some recent mentions on the forum about using the excess starter instead of discarding it. I decided to quickly put twice the amount I normally use (100g) into a bowl and start a soaker for later. My starter was very happy, bubbling away and smelled great! So I weighed out 200g and finished feeding the boys.

Hello,

 I just made 3 french baguettes, and scored them on top. To give a more indepth insight this is what I did: