When you start baking bread at home, you may be striving for the crust quality you find at your local bakery: shiny, bubbly, browned, and crispy. And while there are plenty of basic baking techniques to nail, nothing will get you closer to that goal than steam.
First, get to know me the basics of steam. And to really ensure the shimmiest, freshest, most bubbly crust, follow these seven tips.
Jennifer May
Tip 1: Dust lightly
When you clean your dust brotforms OR bread diaper of flour (to make sure the bread doesn't stick after proofing), a light coating is best. Too much flour on the outside of your bread creates a dry, dusty surface that acts as a barrier between the dough (where blisters form) and steam (which allows bubbles to form). So use a fine mesh sieve to lightly dust your brotform or toaster oven, applying just enough to keep the bread from sticking, no more.
Tip 2: Dust with a mixture of rice, white and whole wheat flour
To use as little flour as possible, we recommend a mixture of 50% rice flour, 25% white flour and 25% whole wheat flour. Rice flour is naturally non-sticky and releases bread better than anything else. Its combination of white flour and whole wheat flour balances the taste and appearance of wheat with the more granular texture of rice flour.
Tip 3: Cover and chill before baking
Cold fermentation (a long cold period after shaping and before baking) directly contributes to the appearance of bubbles in the crust of your baked bread. During the long rise, dough gases are created as a byproduct of fermentation. These gases find their way to the surface of the dough during baking, expanding and blowing into spots right on the surface, forming bubbles. For abundant and sparkling bubbles, long cold fermentation is best. (Looking for a cold-fermented recipe? Try our recipe for Sourdough breadbe sure to cover and refrigerate the loaves overnight before baking.)
Photography by Kristin Teig; Food styling by Liz Neily
Tip 4: Use a covered oven
Since steam is essential for a great crust, we want to make as much as possible and keep it in place, right next to the bread. To contain it, our best tool is one covered baker with a tight lid. From a dutch oven to one challenge loaf panthey are indispensable for one shiny, bubbly crust.
Tip 5: Heat the pan and add water
For the best spring and oven humidity at the beginning of baking, preheat the baking dish for 45 to 60 minutes. A warm baking environment prompts a burst of activity within the dough early in baking as temperatures rise and yeast activity increases. To further aid the process – and ensure that the bread is able to expand to its maximum potential – add a small amount of water or ice cubes to the baking dish. This step produces even more steam during baking.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Tip 6: No bakers covered? Use a baking steel, metal bowl and ice.
If you don't have one covered baker, here's a trick that's almost as good. Preheat yours baking steel with an ovenproof metal mixing bowl that is large enough to cover the bread. (There may be some trial and error in choosing the right bowl.) To steam, load your bread, add a few ice cubes, then cover the bread and ice with the preheated bowl, centering it as best you can. you can.
Tip 7: After steaming, remove the lid and continue baking
With all types of covered ovens (including the metal bowl), we want to start the bread covered (to trap the steam we've created). Then, during the second half of baking, we want to uncover the bread, letting it dry out, harden and darken. So for a loaf that bakes for 40 to 45 minutes, remove the lid or bowl after about 20 minutes of baking, then let the bread bake until completely golden brown, about another 25 minutes or so.
More of a visual learner? Let's take a look at these tips in action:
Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Martin Philip.
