July 22, 2011 - 7:05am
Doors and WFO bread
Hi friends,
Some have asked for some pictures of my oven and door. So, here you go...
I LOVE baking bread in this thing, almost more than I do pizza. Yesterday's batch came out nice, but I noticed that only the ones that I really pushed in the oven got the hard crust I was aiming for. I think I may have overdone it with the steam (cast iron skillet with water, plus mister). Is there any way to have to much steam? Is that the cause of my softer, yet dark crust? Thanks for the help! Love this forum!
Jeff
Share
during the last few minutes of baking. Unfortunately, I think everyone's crust tends to loose it's crisp hard crunch after not to long on the shelf. Baking the loaves long enough to get the crumb a little drier helps...like maybe leaving the breads in the oven for several minutes with door off...helps bake some of the moisture out of the crumb, which can release into the crust and softens it. Removing the steam apparatus and leaving the door open for a few minutes to let the excess steam out...when the door is replaced the oven should bring the stored heat right back, unlike an indoor oven that looses that heat and has to be reheated. Just some suggestions, hope they help.
BTW...your breads look just beautiful!
Sylvia
Beautiful oven and bread. Totally agree with Sylvia, removing the door for the last 5 minutes or so will crisp up the crust.
Your oven is beautiful as is your door. Can you show us the back side of yout door? Also your breads look amazing.
Next bread bake use only the mister to steam your oven, load your bread, mist place the door, after 5-7 minutes open the door for a 30 seconds or so and then replace the door for the remainder of the bake.
Thanks for the encouragement! Here are a couple of pix of the inside of the oven door. I used metal, a piece of Isokern (precast insulation), metal, and wood. We'll see if it lasts!
Beautiful oven and bread. i hope to have a setup like that some day.
Your oven build in general looks excellent, great choice in design. If for some reason the door doesn’t work out, I build brick ovens for a living and use cast iron doors you can take a look at on my website. Hope it works out though, beautiful door finish.
http://www.breadstoneovens.com/products/cast-iron-door
May you do much wood fired baking/cooking!
CORDIALLY,
Antoine Cantarel