Pale bread tops | The Fresh Loaf

Howdy y'all,

I recently moved into a new apartment with a relatively functional gas oven which is giving me a little trouble. The pilot light apparently died so it requires manual lighting at each time, a detail just to assure you that I am not working with the latest and greatest in technological wizardry. I wouldn't mind lighting it by hand each time if it meant that it would produce some good bread, but unfortunately, my breads have been coming out burnt on the bottom with very pale tops. I'm referring to the breads that I make in loaf pans (don't have a stone yet) rather than the breads I make in the dutch oven -- the latter simply burn on the bottom, but the top comes out very nicely.

So I've put in an order for an oven stone, which I used to bake on when I lived back in the US. I am hoping that this will help to even out the temperature of the oven : I think the problem is that the heat of the oven escapes too quickly when I open the door and the burners on the bottom have to work too hard to bring the temperature back up, thus scorching the bottom. However, it seems like it still takes too long to get back up to temperature, because the breads are going pale on top . . . it's an ugly sort of dull gray. Gross.

The formula is not the issue since it produced magnificent bread in an electric oven, but here it is out of curiosity :

100% T80 flour

70% water

2% salt

a handful of levain (let's say 10-15%)

Bulk ferment, proof, all of that goes perfectly. Then the oven massacres my hard work. Wondering if anyone else has run into this problem and what solutions they found. All I can think to do is get the stone and bake everything on that in order to regulate the heat a little bit. Thanks !

Put the loaf higher up in your oven so the bottom of your pan is farther from the presumed bottom heating element.

Put something below the pan to block some of the direct bottom heat. I use an old pizza stone on the rack one slot below where my pan sits, but I suspect you can use many other things as long as they can take the heat.

That's exactly what I do. I have a large basalt stone that cover 22 inches length and 12 inches deep. On the lower rack is a (now shattered but pieced together) pizza stone. This seems to dissipate heat pretty well. The forward and rear sections are hotter surely due to the rising heat but over all pretty even bake. It does require 180 flip but overall works well. In addition the pizza stone is good for a little splash of water as it absorbs and releases some nice steam action.if I bake on the l lower stone I need to be real careful as a burned bottom is imminent and requires a watchful eye and some shuffling. So yeah lower baking seems to mean higher levels of monitoring and adjusting and also this is a gas situation as well :)

Hmm, if the oven isn't ancient, then it may have a glow plug, rather than a pilot light. They do wear out, often without too much advance warning, but are easy to replace.

I haven't seen a gas oven that heats other than from the bottom - since it heats, well, with fire. But you may want to consider a few things: Is the door sealing effectively? And is the thermostat working properly? I agree that a stone will help moderate the heat to compensate for heating time, open door time, etc.

All the best,

Cathy