Shiny, bubbly, flaky crust and a big open crumb: These are two of the most sought-after signs of sourdough bread. How do you get them? There are so many factors that get you there, but one of the biggest is the open secret that all professional bakers know: You need steam. And a lot of it.
Why steam is necessary for large bread
The steam at the beginning of baking does several things. First, it keeps the outside of the bread moist and pliable, which prevents a crust from forming before the bread has fully risen in the oven. (Bread is the volume the bread reaches when it hits the hot oven.) As a result, the bread can expand to its full potential, producing great height and an open crumb. The steam also gelatinizes the starch on the outside of the bread, causing that shiny, crumbly finish. While steam can technically be used on pan loaves, it is usually most important for hearth loaves (those baked freeform) as most of their crust is exposed and because they are characterized by being tall and with a fresh crust.
Most professional bread ovens have a steam injection function. During the first half of the baking process, a baker will fill the chamber with steam; then, during the last half of baking, the ovens vent the steam so the crusts brown and harden. Some home ovens have steam functions – if you have one of these and you're a baker, you're in luck! But for the most part, home ovens—especially gas ovens—are designed to continuously emit steam. This means home bakers have to be strategic about steaming their bread, using a variety of tools, tricks and techniques to ensure loaves get the steam they need for great crusts and crumb.
Martin Philip
Start with steam, but finish in a dry oven
With any steaming method, you'll want to blow the steam away from the bread after it has reached maximum oven spring and the crust has begun to color—this dry finish allows the crust to firm up and become crisp and crunchy. If you're using a steam-trapped method like a Dutch oven or a cloche roaster, remove the lid about twenty minutes into the roasting process. If you introduced steam by placing a pan of water in the oven, remove it at the same point (after twenty minutes or so). If you used a sprayer or spray bottle, all the steam will usually escape halfway through baking and you don't need to do anything.
There are two main ways to steam bread: to capture the steam that a loaf produces on its own during baking, or to introduce steam through an external source, such as adding boiling water. Here is a breakdown:
Steaming Methods #1: Capture the steam generated by the bread
Most hearth breads are high hydration, which means they are made with a higher water-to-flour ratio. This results in a dough that is moist and will release a lot of steam when placed in a hot oven. If you can catch the steam that the bread itself produces, it's enough to get maximum oven spring and a nice shiny, bubbly surface. There are several ways to do this.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Dutch oven
If you have baked bread with sourdough (such as country bread), chances are you've come across instructions that include baking in a dutch oven. Dutch ovens they are like their own little bakery. They do a great job of trapping steam created by a loaf of bread while also creating radiant heat.
There are two main types of dutch ovens you can use: classic and double dutch. If you use the classic, you will lower your bread in the deep part of the dutch oven using parchment or a silicone liner, which you leave on while baking and then use to remove the pasta after baking. Put the lid on for the first half of baking and remove it for the second half.
The Double Dutch Oven lid is meant to be used as a pan when turned upside down, so it doesn't have a handle on top. This means you can place your bread on top of the oven's shallower pan, eliminating the tricky step of lowering the bread into the hot, deeper body of the Dutch oven. Then place the body of the dutch oven upside down on top of your bread, like a cube.
The only downside to Dutch oven steaming is that it only allows you to bake round loaves that are roughly the same size and shape as the Dutch oven you're using. For loaves that are oval shaped or other sizes, you will need a different method.
Photography by Danielle Sykes; food styling by Liz Neily
Cloche baking
Has a variety of cloches made only for baking bread. They work on the same principle as Dutch ovens – providing a lidded container that traps steam – but are designed specifically for bread. They also come in different shapes and sizes, so you have more flexibility beyond shaping a round stone. They can be enamel, silicone or stoneware – enamel ones are best, as they trap both radiant heat and steam more efficiently.
Covered baking dish
If you have a covered baking dish, such as a very large pan, this can work too, as long as your bread can fit comfortably inside it with room to expand.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Inverted metal bowl, baking pan, baking shell, etc.
Instead of placing your bread inside a container and sliding on a lid, you can change the setup and place a dome over your bread to catch steam. Any ovenproof dish large enough to sit on top of your bread (without touching the bread itself) is fair game. I've used an aluminum baking pan from the grocery store (with weights on it) to cover baguettes, for example. it Baking shell is designed explicitly for this purpose; is lightweight and shaped to fit perfectly over a large oval loaf (bâtard), trapping steam to promote maximum expansion and beautiful coloring. With all of these tools, you'll want to make sure you're baking on a hard, flat surface like baking steel, STONEor foil pan so that the steam does not escape from the bottom.
Steaming Methods #2: Introducing steam into the roasting chamber
In the following methods, you are introducing steam into the oven rather than trapping the steam from the bread itself. This mimics the steam injection function in a professional bakery. One of the biggest advantages of these methods is that you are not limited to loaves that are the same shape and size as your baking dish – these methods will allow you to bake longer oval loaves, baguettes, or even Cute Thanksgiving Rooster Bread.
A quick note about convection: If your oven has a convection function, you'll want to make sure it's off when you load the loaves, as it's designed to dry out the oven's heat. (However, this setting can be useful to release steam and set the crust at the end of baking.)
Spray bottle or pump sprayer
You can use a spray bottle or a pump sprayer (like the bug sprays available at the hardware store) to spray the bottom and sides of the oven just before and a few times after loading the bread. This is a less effective method for several reasons: The steam generated usually dissipates quickly, and you lose heat by opening and closing the oven to spray. That being said, it is very easy to do.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Pan of boiling water
This is a common technique for home bakers. Preheat a deep, heavy roasting pan or cast-iron skillet in the oven on the bottom rack and fill with boiling water; some bakers like to add the water a few minutes before loading the loaves, while others do it while they are loading. Either way, your bread goes directly on the rack just above the pan. As the water hits the hot pan, it turns into steam. If there's a few inches of water in the pan, it won't all boil by the time you're ready to remove the steam from the oven, but it will keep constant steam in the room as long as it's there. The biggest pitfall with this method is removing a pan of boiling water from the hot oven after the first twenty minutes of baking, but as long as your pan isn't overcrowded and you have a steady hand, it's a good way to go. to keep it. too much steam in the oven.
Maurizio Leo
Lava rocks in a cast iron pan
This is similar to the method above, but instead of just adding a pan of hot water, you're also adding lava rocks to the pan. Lava rocks increase the surface area for water to evaporate, thus increasing the amount of steam. For this method, add lava stones to the heated pan before adding the boiling water. It's a good idea to use an old cast iron pan or an old baking pan for this – the high heat combined with the lava rocks tends to warp the pan and deteriorate the surface. As with the pan method above, remove the lava stone pan about twenty minutes after baking.
Maurizio Leo
The towel method
This method builds on the previous two – instead of just introducing an initial burst of steam at the start of baking, it provides continuous steam throughout the first twenty minutes of baking. Once you have a pan in the oven preheated (either for just water or water and lava stones) get another baking pan. Roll up several kitchen towels (enough to fill the pan) and place them in the baking pan. Then wet the towels with boiling water, being sure to saturate them thoroughly, and place the pan in the oven next to the pan of water (and lava stones, if using). This towel-lined pan will increase the overall amount of steam and, notably, will continue to produce steam steadily as you bake as the water trapped inside the towels turns to steam. After about twenty minutes, remove both pans. See more about this method here: For best steam, bake your bread with a towel.
Learn more tips for baking bread at home with these guides How to bake bread AND How to bake sourdough.
Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.
