I'm new to this site and I've been enjoying browsing through everyone's recipes and discussions. After a few years of hiatus, I've just gotten myself back to baking sourdough breads, and I finally got a healthy starter going again after more than 2 months. (of course kicking myself for getting rid of my old starter after realizing how hard it is to get it started!) I am just coming out of the frustrating period of producing hockey pucks with the immature starter paired with an inpatient owner/baker.
Now that this part of the sourdough challenge is over, I'm facing another - creating sufficient enough steam without a cover. I have an awesome cast iron flat griddle that I bought from an antique store many years ago, and I love it. But because of its narrow oblong shape, none of my regular metal or glass bowls fit over. I know that I should just invest in a nice big cast iron dutch oven, but I'm just hesitating to buy more single-purpose items to clutter the kitchen.
Because I'm renting, I cannot make any alterations to my oven, so drilling holes on the side is not an option. And I've just been experimenting with different methods.
Today, I decided to whip up and bake a loaf on a same day. I know that the flavor and the oven spring would be much better after a cold ferment in the fridge, but I was just inpatient. The steaming methods I used today was a combination of steaming towel at the bottom of the oven, plus a few large ice cubes placed in a colander at the top of the oven. The slowly melting ice cubes create a slow trickle of water hitting the bottom of the oven immediately creating steam for good 10 minutes.
Of course, I should've tried this without the towel... but again, I should have also rested my dough in the fridge overnight. So it's not really a conclusive experiment, but I'm enjoying the challenge before I defeat and end up buying a dutch oven....lol I have a few other ideas that I'd like to try in the near future.
The bread was delicious regardless.
- Elsiebake's Blog
- Log in or register to post comments
Those loaves are beautiful!
My favorite way of creating steam (I forgot long ago where I picked it up) is to put a towel spread out in a half sheet pan, and the soak the towel with hot (if not boiling) water, and then slide the pan on a rack underneath the baking bread, and then shut the door quickly. I usually steam for 30 minutes, then take the pan out. I don’t like the Dutch oven method as this allows me to bake two loaves at once (i.e., I’m lazy).
Thank you for your comment! A lot of people seem to like the towel method, and I have yet to experiment with just that. I also want to be able to bake more than one loaf at a time, so I'll continue searching for absolutely the best way to steam without a Dutch oven.
I guess you could have extended the steam period by adding more ice cubes to the colander?
Yes, absolutely, though mine were 2-inch cubes, and those kept melting nice and slow.