Hi, newbie breadbaker and new member here. I have a question for those of you who make sourdough breads. I made my very first sourdough starter tonight using a pineapple juice method that I found on YouTube. I've been watching a lot of videos to learn as much as I can before making my first loaf. I figure I have about 2 weeks before my starter is ready for baking.
My question is this: should I preheat my pot before putting my loaf in? I don't have a dutch oven yet so I'm using an oven safe 3 Qt GreenPan saucepan with a glass lid.
Thanks in advance for any helpful comments and tips. --
Short answer is yes.
Thanks Phaz. May I please have the long answer? What are there advantages and disadvantages of preheating and not preheating? Also, will preheating harm my pan in any way?
Thanks,
Snowppeaks
A little longer would be that preheating would better match the environment of a preheated oven. I think most would say the higher initial heat would also give better oven spring.
I'm unfamiliar with that particular pan, but saw something like it at Williams-Sonoma. They mention the lid is oven safe to 390F. So baking at 500F may cause a problem with the lid. The pan was up to 600F so it should be ok. I doubt you would have to worry about thermal shock, unless maybe you preheat to like 500 and toss in a dough in that came straight from the fridge. Although unfamiliar with the pan, I do know some of these ceramic materials can be more sensitive to shock than the usual cast pots and pans. You may be able to get around the lid issue of you can get a metal bowl big enough to cover the loaf in place of the lid. Keep checking back. I'm sure more will chime in on the subject. Sounds like you've got some time to sort things out anyway.
Does it take long to heat up?
I would use it cold and do the final rise in the greased & floured pan. Use the lid for the first part of the bake (initial spring) then remove it to release the steam and brown the loaf. Be careful with the hot lid to avoid thermal shock, might be better just to remove it and leave it in the oven (to cool down with the oven) or place into a big fluffy towel or cooling rack for it to cool down slowly and evenly.
Thank you both for your replies. Sorry that it took me a while to check in. To answer your question, Mini Oven, my pan heats up quite quickly. And I do plan to do the final proof in the fridge, Phaz. So I think I should bake the first loaf in the unpreheated pan. On my next bake, I plan to do the final proof at room temperature so I can try preheating the pan for product comparison.
As for the glass lid, I think it's not worth risking ruining it as we use it everyday. My metal bowls aren't oven safe and my baking sheets warp at very high temperatures. I know, I need new baking stuff -- I'd appreciate more suggestions for the lid please. Thanks.
~SnowPeaks
have you a small fry pan you can take the handle off? (screwdriver)
Or crimp a double layer of aluminium foil on top of the pan. To make a tent, shape over the inverted pan first, then place over the opening leaving some headspace before crimping. :)
Thanks Mini Oven. My oven safe frying pan is too small to serve as a lid. But I'm sure I can do the foil crimp you described. Thanks a lot! My sourdough starter is getting really bubbly. I'm excited to bake with it.
~Snowpeaks
I did a bit of a search on that Greenpan saucepan, and it really looks like you are limited in temperature range on that glass lid, so I'm glad to see that you are looking at other option (such as Mini Oven's foil tent suggestion).
Just in case you hadn't thought about it, there is a huge range of possible baking utensils that you might already have that would work. The whole point of the "dutch oven" is to retain steam, so any option where you either generate steam separately (for instance - bake just on a cookie sheet, and pour a cup of boiling water in to a different pan at the bottom of the oven when starting the bake), or just whatever you have that will hold steam in.
Personally, I usually use my roaster (http://graniteware.com/product/covered-oval-roaster/) with either the dough placed in using parchment paper, or even putting the dough in to a bread tin and then in to the roaster. I have also used a cookie sheet and the bottom of my larger roaster as a "lid" to cover them. There are lots of folks here who bake on a stone or baking steel or cookie sheet, and use a stainless steel bowl or big oven-safe pot as the "lid" - or who picked up a steamer-table insert second-hand from a local restaurant supply place.
Take a look around your kitchen while you're waiting for that starter to be ready to go, and see if there just might be something there that will do the trick. Looking forward to seeing your first bake!
Hi IceDemeter,
Thanks for the tips and the link. I'll see if there are metal lids or small round pans I can invert. If not, I will look for a roaster. I think I've seen similar ones to yours at the mall.
I tried using my greenpan lidless last weekend just to see how well it works. I'm embarrassed to admit that I was a bit of a numpty. I made more Banh Mi dough than needed and shaped one as a round loaf. I plopped the dough on the cool GreenPan and placed it in the oven alongside my baguette pans and a preheated old loaf pan with lava rocks that I doused with boiling water for steam. The Banh Mi in the baguette pans turned out ok but the one in the Greenpan was completely stuck to the pan. :-( I will keep practicing until I find what works best.