How to create a steamy environment in your oven

by Shayna Glick, Posted Sep 10th 2008 @ 11:01AM

Contrary to popular belief, when you're baking at home, you don't need a baking stone or a steamy environment in the oven. Those things are very nice to have, but they just aren't necessary to create a good product.

While I don't bake at home often, on those occasions that I do want to get steam in the oven, I have a method that works very well. Start off by putting a sheet pan or baking pan (something with walls) on the bottom-most shelf of the oven. Place on that something that is heavy and retains heat. Some people use lava rocks that you can get at garden centers, but I use nuts and bolts. A colleague told me about that once, and I found that worked well and they were far easier to come by than a lava rock.

Bring your oven up to temperature with the nuts/bolts/pan set up in place. Whatever medium you use, make sure to give it plenty of time to hot. When the oven has been heated to the recipe-prescribed temperature, put your bread on the rack, pour some water (about a cup) over your steam-creating rig and close the oven door as quickly as possible. The hardware will evaporate the water, creating plenty of steam for that artisan loaf. Make sure to let everything cool down thoroughly when you're done baking before removing it from the oven.

Filed Under: Methods
Tags: baking, baking pan, BakingPan, bread, lava rocks, LavaRocks, nuts and bolts, NutsAndBolts, oven, pan, sheet pan, SheetPan, steam

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-10-2008 @11:35AM Sarah said... That sounds like a pretty easy solution! I got lucky, when my parents retiled their kitchen, I grabbed some of the ceramic tiles that were left over and put those in my oven.

Another option is just putting a jelly roll pan with some water in it on your lowest rack, too.
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9-10-2008 @1:56PM Robin said... Remember! Don't use a glass or pyrex pan!
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9-10-2008 @7:53PM Monty Harris said... Nuts and bolts are machined with oils. Make sure you wash them well or you will be burning some not so palatable oils off in your Viking/Sears/Wolf/whatever. One possibly less oily solution might be river rock which is roundish, smallish, natural and very available too. Nuts and bolts are expensive.
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9-10-2008 @8:19PM rainey said... Careful! I'm a bread baker and was doing this frequently in my Thermador oven. It gummed up all the electronics and I could no longer set the oven to self-clean. Getting it repaired was hideously expensive. I had to replace the whole damned thing -- expensive, but at least I got rid of Thermador which is very expensive to repair and generally sucky.

Since the Lahey no knead/bake in a pot method, I've begun baking my bread under a hot pot. The bread makes its own steam in the enclosed environment BUT I can shape it properly and slash as well.

If you try this, be careful lifting the hot pot off the bread for the final browning. Slide the whole thing forward until you can get a secure hold on the sides or handles with a pot holder. The bread will already be stable and not be deflated or otherwise harmed.
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