hi all, is this possible to do? I'm making 'my daily bread' at the moment and want to underproof and then bake from a cold oven, but would also like to bake with steam for that lovely shiny crust and bloom. any advice?
The easiest way is probably to bake your loaf in a dutch oven with the lid on. The dough itself will supply all the moisture you need, and the dutch oven will trap the steam inside.
Besides a "real" Dutch Oven, other things work well too:
an upside down foil turkey roasting pan
an upside down metal mixing bowl
the lid of an old fashioned "roasting pan"
an enamelled casserole dish with a lid
a clay cooking pot with a lid
and so forth...
(If the "handle" isn't metal, check that it can take the heat. You might need to simply remove it to avoid having a melted blob in your oven.)
(If you use just a "cover", you need something flat and solid underneath -like a baking stone or a sheet pan. A cover over bread on a plain old rack doesn't do a whole lot of good because of all the spaces through the rack..)
The easiest way is probably to bake your loaf in a dutch oven with the lid on. The dough itself will supply all the moisture you need, and the dutch oven will trap the steam inside.
Besides a "real" Dutch Oven, other things work well too:
(If the "handle" isn't metal, check that it can take the heat. You might need to simply remove it to avoid having a melted blob in your oven.)
(If you use just a "cover", you need something flat and solid underneath -like a baking stone or a sheet pan. A cover over bread on a plain old rack doesn't do a whole lot of good because of all the spaces through the rack..)