The majority of us have tried different steaming techniques..professional steamers, ice cubes in the bottom of the oven, ice cubes in cast iron pan, spraying the loaves, spraying the oven walls, drip pans, pouring water into hot pans, pans with water heated during the preheat and combos of these techniques.
I have found that heating 1/4" hot water in a metal pan during the preheat gives me an oven full of steam by baking time, so much so that I have to be careful and keep my face away from the oven door when I open it to avoid getting a steam burn. Even after loading the oven, a few minutes later I see steam coming out the vent.
I recently tried the suggested method of pouring 3/4 cup hot water into a sheet pan that had been preheated with the oven. I thought even better was to use boiling water. Quite frankly, it seemed that I hardly had any steam compared to the way I had been doing it.
Does the temperature of the water poured into the pan make any difference? If I had used just hot water vs boiling would there have been more steam? It looked like it evaporated almost as fast as I poured it.
I do remember (I think) that someone said what was being produced was vapor not steam by most of these methods.
Betty
One caveat for all new bakers..If you have glass doors, be sure to cover with a dry towel when pouring water to avoid cracking the window.
Bread Fix: Not the best picture, blurrrry! Having been on vacation, I have gone without touching my sourdough starter for more than a month. Amazingly to me, with a few feedings we were back in business. I just went crazy, sourdough bagels with the help of Susan & Bill, sourdough waffles with fresh strawberries & raspberries for Father’s Day breakfast with the kids, yeasted BBA’s Vienna bread and Multigrain Extraordinaire. I also made 2 carrot cakes..the first one I neglected to put the sugar in..can you imagine that?! The sourdough bagel formula is awesome. Thank you susanfnp and bwraith. Finally, a bagel that tastes like home. My attempt at a garlic bagel needs some work, but the cheese bagel was to die for. I was a little hesitant at caraway and fennel, but OMG I think that is my new fav. My husband looked a little skeptical at the sound of the combo, but he really liked it too! I always feel like the seeded varieties are a waste of money, since most of the goods end up on the floor, counter, table, down your shirt, you know what I mean! And they are pricey! the seeds that is.. The kids had never had sourdough waffles and loved them. They had 2 belgian waffles each! They are so light..ethereal comes to mind as a descriptive word. Vienna bread is a lovely soft creamy bread and the Multigrain, just darn good. It has that Mt. St. Helen's look, don't ya think?