March 30, 2020 - 3:14am
Do you get more oven spring from dutch oven or baking stone/oven?
I'm trying to get more oven spring. I've been using the dutch oven, and getting some medium rise but not really springing up. I want to look at using the oven.
I understand that it's all about steam. Dutch ovens keep steam within a small volume but you can't get much moisture in there (moisture in the bread, maybe a spritz of water). The oven methods introduces steam a number of ways. But what creates a more steamy environment for oven spring?
Also, with the oven method, I've seen the use of a baking dish on top of the loaf, with a gap letting steam in from underneath. Is this required?
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Spring is always great for me when I bake in my Le Creuset oval casserole. But part of that is also because the walls of the casserole restrict the outward flow of the dough. But even when I do small longer loaves, spring is greater.
I use a cast iron dutch oven, with 90% whole wheat formulas.
The dutch oven does not guarantee oven rise. The formula/procedure/timing still all need to allow for, or be designed for, oven rise.
The main difference between hearth loaves and pan loaves, is that pan loaves proof/rise in the pan before baking, and don't get the full "bursting" effect in the oven like hearth loaves can.
So you have to limit the proofing of a hearth loaf, compared to a pan loaf. That is, while a pan loaf can double in the pan during final proof stage, you don't want that much in a hearth loaf, because you want the "ballooning" effect to happen later, in the oven. (Hat tip to DanAyo for teaching me that.)
Can you explain what you mean by proofing in the pan before baking? I do the final proof in a proofing basket and then transfer to a preheated DO.
What happens if I made two identical loaves, proof them in the same way and then bake one in a DO and one outside it? I could try this myself but I don't have 2 proofing baskets so I'm limited to 1 loaf at a time
I wanted to explain how hearth loaves are _different_ than pan loaves, because 1) most people have experience with pan loaves, and wrongly try to carry over the same procedure of doubling during proof. or 2) they read a pan-loaf recipe and try to do the same things for a hearth loaf.
If you don't know what a pan loaf is, then you would likely not have the problem.
But the second point is this: if you're taking a pan loaf recipe, and are trying to adapt it to a hearth loaf , then you have to change the amount of rise you are looking for in the bulk ferment phase, and in the final proof phase.
I used to do pan loaves, before doing hearth loaves (free form, baked on stone or in a dutch oven). So I had this idea in my mind that I should have lots of rise in the bulk ferment, and in the final proof. But... that is just not true if you want oven spring in a hearth loaf. I had to _relearn_ what rising and proofing was about for hearth loaves.
Bottom line: oven rise is as much about recipe and procedures, than it is about dutch oven versus baking stone.
I get more rise from a dutch oven, I don't even know where my baking stone is anymore because I gave up on it years ago.
The rise in my loaves soared when
Good luck!