baking bread

DWFII · July 2021

Our 'indoor' cooker is on the fritz. I want to bake some sourdough bread on my Kamado. My wife usually sticks a pan with water in the bottom of the indoor oven .

Is that a reasonable idea when baking with a BGE?

JohnInCarolina · July 2021

You do not need a water pan in the Egg to bake a nice SD loaf. You don’t even need one in the home oven, frankly.

bigguy136 · July 2021

I bake a lot of pastries and bread, typically ciabatta. On BGE, I do exactly as I do in my oven and all works perfect. I use plate setter with legs up. I have left new lump burn for 1 hour+ and I can pick up on more smoke flavor than I want in my pastries. I have much better luck using used lump. Also, I lower the temp by 50° than what I would have in my oven.
Enjoy and post some pics.

DWFII · July 2021

Thank you both. I will run this by my bread maker.

JohnInCarolina · July 2021

DWFII said:

Thank you both. I will run this by my bread maker.

If you don’t have it yet, I highly recommend Ken Forkish’s book titled Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast. Many great bread recipes and baking tips.

DWFII · July 2021

Thank you again...

I have a further question...My wife likes bread in a bread pan, she says it insures a tender crumb (not for me to say). But I am thinking I would bake it up in the dome like I would do a pizza but without the pizza stone (just on an elevated rack)...of course the plate setter between the fire and the bread and maybe a pottery saucer about three inches below below with water in it.

I would appreciate any further advice and your thoughts...

fishlessman · July 2021

this was my setup years ago, the pan gets hot enough to flash steam the water when you add the dough then add the water. wear gloves if you are working with steam and high temps, worst burn ive had from an egg cook was from steam

have only done a few bread cooks and this was my first

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/157863/new-years-bread-bowls-and-bisque

DWFII · July 2021

So you add the water to the hot pan as you are putting the dough in? You are obviously more experience with this than I...could I just add the pan with water in it at the same time I add the dough or would that reduce the effectiveness of the steam? Since the temp of the water would have to come up after the dough had already started baking a little?

fishlessman · July 2021

DWFII said:

So you add the water to the hot pan as you are putting the dough in? You are obviously more experience with this than I...could I just add the pan with water in it at the same time I add the dough or would that reduce the effectiveness of the steam? Since the temp of the water would have to come up after the dough had already started baking a little?

the automatic ovens ive worked on the steam is blast injected into the oven, i dont think just putting the water into a pan and heating it up will do the same thing. note, ive only worked in syrian bread ovens which were pretty crude by todays standards (coal fired converted to gas). not sure its even needed as mentioned but the crust on these did have a nice chew. the setup i used was not hard to use

HeavyG · July 2021

DWFII said:

So you add the water to the hot pan as you are putting the dough in? You are obviously more experience with this than I...could I just add the pan with water in it at the same time I add the dough or would that reduce the effectiveness of the steam? Since the temp of the water would have to come up after the dough had already started baking a little?

An option is to not use a pan full of water but to use an empty pan. Place it in there a few minutes before you place the dough in so it can preheat.

When you place the dough in drop a few ice cubes into the pan.

fishlessman · July 2021

HeavyG said:

DWFII said:

So you add the water to the hot pan as you are putting the dough in? You are obviously more experience with this than I...could I just add the pan with water in it at the same time I add the dough or would that reduce the effectiveness of the steam? Since the temp of the water would have to come up after the dough had already started baking a little?

An option is to not use a pan full of water but to use an empty pan. Place it in there a few minutes before you place the dough in so it can preheat.
When you place the dough in drop a few ice cubes into the pan.

pretty much replicates what those old ovens did. the pita was put on a crude conveyor and moved thru an oven built like a long narrow hallway with the pita swiveling 90 degrees every few feet. the steam injection was only in the first few feet of hallway. the whole oven, maybe 20 feet long was just hand stacked firebricks and the conveyor circled thru for loading and unloading, very quick and simple

ColbyLang · July 2021

Steam injection is the key. My commercial ovens can blast steam at any point in the bake cycle from the time we push start all the way until the end of the bake cycle. You want to introduce cold water to an already hot pan at the beginning of the bake cycle to get true steam. Opening and closing of the baking chamber (in this case your egg) will cause too much heat loss and your bread can/will collapse. I’ll double what @fishlessman told you about steam burns, they’re no joke

DWFII · July 2021

So I like this idea of ice cubes --heat up the egg and the ceramic basin, put in the loaf pans and drop a couple of ice cubes in the water basin and shut the dome. Open 40 minutes later. Sound about right?

baking bread

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