See postscript below for additional suggestions from freshloaf members.
Last night, I ruined a perfectly good dough, a dough waiting to turn into a beautiful bread, by forgetting to provide steam. The bread turned out flat and sad, like an emoticon in gray with a frown and tired eyes. This was a valuable lesson because it is pretty simple to make sure that the oven has steam, in fact, steam sufficient to fool your dough into feeling like it is baking in a professional oven or even a backyard brick oven or in an oven reminiscent of the Roman ovens.
This can get expensive. Easier strategies involve some money, but there are alternatives.
Foundation
Buy a baking stone or use oven-safe tiles to put the dough (or parchment paper) on. I have heard of using a baking sheet, preferably with parchment paper, but my breads improved significantly when I started using a baking stone. The bottoms of your breads will be equivalent to that produced by the best bakeries.
Perhaps this did not fit in a "steam" essay, but it has to do with crust and, further, what will go on the stone, if anything. I consider a baking stone a must. It needs little cleaning and no other maintenance. Just preheat before baking and keep it in the oven until it cools down. I generally just leave mine in.
Easiest
Pay the money, about $60, and buy a la cloche. The Wild Yeast blog has instructions to make a DIY la cloche top that will cost a lot less than buying one. Advantage: You get a Roman oven within your oven. The clay bell-shaped contraption covers the dough and becomes a small enough oven that the moisture from the one dough is sufficient for nice oven spring. Disadvantage: Only one bread at a time can be baked, versus maybe two to four without such a space-consuming accouterment. The DIY la cloche mentioned above is small enough for two to fit on an oven rack.
I just use the top of the la cloche over the baking stone. The exception is that I sometimes use an oblong la cloche, the top of which also works well over loaf pans to ensure that sandwich breads get a good rise as well.
Dutch ovens
As far as steam, dutch ovens do the same thing as the la cloche. They create a small oven within the oven and use the moisture from the dough to produce oven spring during the first 10 minutes of baking. Four caveats: (1) Check the maximum oven temperature for the dutch oven. Mine has a maximum of 475 degrees, but cast iron ones can go higher. (2) Aim seems to be everything: The dough has to be dropped into an incredibly hot receptacle. I have done terribly at this, getting my dough all over the side of the dutch oven, and somehow the breads and their shapes turned out fine. (3) Put flour, seeds, and/or parchment paper at the bottom of the dough so that it does not get stuck in the dutch oven. If it does, wait a few hours for the dutch oven to cool before fighting to liberate the bread. (4) Be careful. The dutch oven gets way hotter than anything else I've put into my oven at the same temperature. I use an oven mitt and a kitchen towel when handling it. Stay calm, breath, and be confident.
The dutch oven produces magnificent results in turns of steam. It retains heat like nobody's business and, in a very small space, efficiently converts moisture to steam to get a rise out of a dough while it turns into a bread. The only disadvantages are the intense heat and the spacial aspect as only one bread at a time can be baked.
Ice or water
Most bread books recommend that either ice or water be used to produce steam in the oven for those first crucial 10 minutes of bread baking. The advice will be to put a pan on the lower rack, underneath the baking stone. Preheat the pan with the oven before baking. I always preheat for an hour to make sure everything I am using - whether a baking stone, a dutch oven, or whatever - is sufficiently hot when the dough goes in the oven.
Immediately after placing the dough on the baking stone, pour a cup of water or ice cubes into the pan. Quickly close the oven door!!! The quicker the H2O is poured and the oven door is closed, the more steam that stays inside the oven and the more steam available to the dough for a lovely oven spring burst of rising.
Beware
The advantage of ice is that it is a solid and easier to throw quickly into the pan. It also will not turn to steam - in your face - as quickly. Water can drip. Be VERY careful not to let the water drip onto the oven door because it can crack the glass. Also, the steam from the water can be dangerously hot. These are the reasons why I have only used ice cubes, which, by the way, work quite well.
Rocks
Disclaimer: I have not tried this. Just intrigued. Many sources recommend preheating lava rocks, the kind used for barbecue, in a pan. They are available at local hardware stores or Home Depot. Pouring water over the rocks just after putting the dough in the oven provides sauna-quality steam. Some recommend pouring a cup of water right before loading the dough as well. Just google "lava rocks bread" and plenty of information will appear at your fingertips.
Dont' cry; eat
The ending to the ruined bread story is a happy one. The freshly ground whole wheat flour infused the bread that hardly rose with such a good taste that I enjoyed the bread and learned my lesson. The bread was dense and not very pretty, but delicious.
P.S. Suggestions from the freshloaf that I have not yet tried - go at your own risk
These are quotes from a freshloaf (bread forum) conversation.
Steamed towel strategy - http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20162/oven-steaming-my-new-favorite-way I can get an oven fully steamed five minutes before the bread goes in and then only need to add 1/2 cup of very hot water to the pan once the bread is loaded onto the baking steel. The time the oven door is open is minimal and I don't have to remove a heavy, hot cast iron skillet full of lava rocks after the first part of the bake.
I wonder at the safety of putting towels, wet or otherwise, into a hot oven, but there are a few people who have tried this method and they have lived to proclaim its wonders.
Another hot-water-in-the-oven strategy - I find it helpful to preheat the water for two minutes in a Pyrex vessel in a microwave oven before putting it in the oven. It then turns to steam more quickly.
Using an aluminum roasting pan - Inverting an aluminum turkey roasting pan over the loaf "on the stone" with parchment underneath will yield perfect steam results every time (the baking bread creates its own steam).
Spritz the inside of the roasting pan with water before inverting over the loaf - bake the loaf for 10-15 minutes before removing to allow the crust to brown. Cheap roasting pans that come three or four-to-a-pack work great and they're reusable. Center it on the loaf and pooch up the middle of the roaster a bit if your loaf has that much spring (make sure the rim still sits flat on the baking stone's surface).
Wild-Yeast
I love this idea; it's cheap, easy, and requires no hot water or heavy equipment. Plus, unlike my la cloche, with its two long, thin cracks, the roasting pan can be replaced for very little cost and will not fall apart when it goes quickly from hot oven to cold kitchen. Cheap and effective go well together.
When the term "internal thermometer" crosses my mind, invariably I think of the home thermometer my mother used to shake before using, the one that was difficult to read, and taken out when a child was sick. My mother's preference for the uncomfortable place in the body where common lore had it she would get the most accurate reading was definitely one all children fought against and the impetus, no doubt, for the invention of easy in-the-mouth thermometers ubiquitous today.
I'm not talking about that internal thermometer. I'm talking about the food kind, the kind you stick inside a food - in this case a bread - to determine its readiness.
Ode to the internal thermometer
I count an internal thermometer as a must-have tool, way ahead of bannetons, ahead of fancy proofers, ahead even of a mixer that can knead and otherwise mix and manipulate dough. (Confession: I do not have a mixer that can deal with dough; the one I have is tiny and can barely deal with cake batters.) I am lost without the thermometer. I use it half for its temperature readings and half as a kind of cake tester, which merely shows if anything is clinging to the metal stick when I pull it out from the mostly-made bread. What is the temperature in the middle and is it still wet?
Yes, this item can be pricey, but there are sales. If you let the thermometer company that I purchased from contact you, they will be a faithful correspondent and write almost everyday, even about sales, but also about the many different type of thermometers you never knew existed. After this lovely education, I unsubscribed.
Limited experience
My thermometer is a Thermamite 5 from ThermoWorks. It's not as expensive or as fast as the top-of-the-line thermapen, but within 30 seconds the temperature is displayed. In about two years of use, I am still on the first set of batteries.
I have zero, as in completely no, experience with any other brand or type of internal food thermometer. I am sure that anyone baking bread in bulk would want something faster, but for one or two loaves at a time, mine works quite well.
The best part about the internal thermometer is that my breads are baked well and I am no longer seduced by the outward appearance in deciding when to take the loaf out of the oven.
Right now, there are two doughs fermenting in my house, one in the fridge and the other in the unheated basement, still very cool with early spring temperatures. Being away all day at work, I feel almost like I did with my children when I returned to full-time office work. Am I abandoning them? Will they thrive if my hours at home are limited?
The emotional connection to a dough or a starter is reminiscent, though not exactly like, the connection to a child or a pet. (Cheaper than a child as no after-school activities or college tuition payments are required.) But for one who has never kept a starter, with the relative ease of commercial jars and packets of yeast, the question really is ...
Why give up reliability and simplicity?
Nothing easier than using commercial yeast. So why stop? Multiple answers: Health, confidence and the sheer miracle of growing one's own yeast source. I still open the oven curious to see the amazing sight of oven spring, a raised bread, all due to the naturally-occurring bacteria in my home. This is not from factory yeast; this is bread made the way our great-great-great grandmothers made it, all the back to the ancient peoples we (well, a good many of us) descend from.
Health
I admit that I am extremely skeptical of blanket health claims, period, including those made in favor of sourdough-levained breads. Many of the claims I first read were declared without any discussion of the science behind them. Plus, as I am far from being a scientific expert myself, any detailed explanations would have to be taken somewhat on faith. I have not set up a laboratory in the basement to conduct my own independent study.
On the other hand, I am even more skeptical of the fast and convenience food industry, the idea of fortified foods, and the rampant use of antibiotics and other substances employed in food manufacturing (that's my word).
So, I rely on my instincts, Michael Pollan and other writers, albeit with my own preference for natural and ancient methods. Here are some sources that explain the health benefits of using a culture, particularly one that takes eight or more hours to raise a dough.
Sourdough Bread and Health - article on Daniel Reid's website
The rise and rise of sourdough bread - 2014 article in The Guardian by Barbara Griggs
Top 10 reasons to eat sourdough bread - post on Cookus Interruptus
And, of course, Michael Pollan, himself. I liked The Omnivore's Dilemma and Cooked, among others.
Basically, the bacteria and what they accomplish in eight hours or more results in healthy bread (think of artisnal cheeses) instead of unhealthy commercially-produced bread, with all manner of diseases and maladies laid at its door. Of course, in my mind, the same people eating sourdough bread are likely eating a more healthy diet than people eating Wonder Bread, McDonald's and a smorgasbord of processed foods, so this is a difficult issue to entirely divorce from other food-health chicken-and-egg questions.
Simplicity - without babysitting
Sourdough does not equal complex. It can be very easy. And this bread can be made slowly, over a day, three days or more. It can be made - again, easily - by someone who works full time. Refrigeration is your friend. Not at all expensive, either. Without any fancy gadgetry or special equipment, indeed with just flour and water, to make the starter, then some more, plus salt, for a dough, delicious breads await.
You can maneuver, not control, the taste - generally, the longer the rise, the more mature, the more sour, as in you can taste the complexity on the tongue. I know it sounds pretentious, but it's true. I'm not sure one would consider this an acquired taste because I liked it from the start. Think of it as craft brewing for bread. (Indeed, historians agree that leavening was "discovered" in Ancient Egypt, when particles from brewing made their way to the dough sitting right there.)
Confidence - leaving the safety and security of powdered yeast
When I moved beyond my bread machine, I had barely heard of growing one's own starter. My neighbor had brought some over years before and I threw it out within a few days. I had not an inkling about how to use it and I no clue that any maintenance was required. I then read 52 Loaves, which discusses sourdough starters, and even gives a recipe. The book is a journey of bread making, though one that encompasses only white flour. But like someone watching the ocean, its strong waves coming in, I wanted only to dip a toe in. I started with commercial yeast, but I quickly decreased the amounts and increased the time for a first rise - or fermentation.
Pretty soon after, I tried making a starter and I have never looked back - except with my challahs, which I continue to make with a bread machine and commercial yeast. I might need a 108 quest just for challah, but that's for a different post.
No lack of information
I have a sourdough starter page that addresses beginning and maintaining a starter, including how to get away for vacations. But there are thousands of resources on this little universe of a topic. Again, not difficult, and not really time consuming. For more than you need, consult the freshloaf forum on starters and the sourdough companion.
Never use a lackluster starter
This should be obvious, but ... a starter without mojo is not going to do the best job. For some reason, my white flour starter is perpetually happy, but when I go elsewhere I do not have the same consistently wonderful results. So the rye starter, which I wanted to finish before Passover, was not as puffy as it should have been. I put it in anyway. So there I was with bread #38, an all-white recipe, but I threw in the rye starter anyway, or less than the recipe called for as I did not have enough. It did okay, but the proof, as is said, is in the pudding, or, in this case, the bread. And maybe it wasn't the starter, perhaps it was underproofing, but near the bottom of the bread was a dense, gooey line.
The bread was beautiful and I did my best attempt ever at a design on top, a nice square, and the taste was fantastic, but there it was, the dense, wettish line. Oh well. Whether the bread is perfect or not, as long as it tastes good, it gets eaten. Though with bread #38, which always comes out absolutely perfect, I was a bit surprised. Perhaps I was complacent and off my game.
P.S. I am putting the postscript right at the top because I have received so many thoughtful comments to this post on the freshloaf. Basically, there is a world of long autolyse - or eP - in which I have been uninitiated. eP stands for enzymatic preferment, which can occur, conveniently, at the same time, as a preferment, and some recommend an eP autolyse for up to as many hours as an autolyse. I plan on doing an eP, probably with my next bread, and I will report back.
P.P.S. Tried the long autolyse. Worked nicely. Changes below.
Simple as can be
Add a phase to your dough making that takes an extra 30 seconds of effort, maximum, and assists with strengthening the dough. Well, 30 seconds of effort and up to many hours extra of waiting. I usually autolyse for only 20 to 30 minutes, but there is a universe of bakers who autolyse for many, many hours, up to entire 24.
I've now done the short autolyse and the long. Have to say that they both seem to work. I will have to do this a few more times to form any definite opinions.
So, there's no reason why not to autolyse, other than being in a rush, which I can respect as an excuse, being that you might have stuff happening in your life other than dough and bread.
All that autolyse means is to mix the water and flour - without anything else - and leave it for that 20 to 30 minutes or several hours - so that these two ingredients can do their forming-the-gluten dance. It is written in various books, websites, etc. that an autolyse also reduces kneading time, though I usually do not knead.
Purist - no salt
Let's get one thing straight, it is not an autolyse if salt is added. The whole point is to allow the flour and water to mature a bit before putting in the salt.
Why?
What the autolyse is nice for is to form and strengthen those gluten strands in doughs that you might not want to knead, such as those with a mixture of rye and wheat, or to reduce kneading time for any dough. I find that autolyse also works well with no-knead dough and with dough that will be manipulated with a stretch and fold, or a few. Really, there's nothing bad that can come of it.
Never regret it.
One tiny drawback
One small, really, tiny, drawback, which is that the autolyse will cause those gluten strands to get a bit tight - in a silly putty sort of way. This will mean good exercise for those who use their hands to mix in the dough ingredients after the autolyse, though likely irrelevant, save for an extra minute or two of mixing, for those who use a mixer. If you are hand mixing, get ready to put down the whisk or spoon or whatever it is you employ; wet your hands and plunge them right in that dough. Your evolutionary tool, those being your hands, will do a better job and be faster at mixing the full dough following an autolyse than any tool, save for that mixer, if you hesitate to be at one with a nice dough.
What if a mistake is made?
I sometimes start a bread in the wee hours of five or six in the morning, before the brain turns on. I have meant to put together an autolyse and mistakenly added the sourdough starter. I let this go on the theory that the starter is itself only flour and water, just more advanced, and that nothing terrible will happen if the natural yeast gets to work a little early. So this becomes a bit of a preferment instead of an autolyse. More on preferments on the bread lingo page.
However, adding the salt by mistake means you should cut your losses and just mix up the whole dough. The salt inhibits gluten development just a bit - the whole point of excluding it from the autolyse or a preferment. Don't cry or stomp feet. A slightly different bread will result and try the autolyse the next time.
So how is this different than a soaker?
A good question (if I say so myself). A soaker is a mixture of something and water. A soaker is meant to soften some substance - seeds, grains, even flours - that is better off not going as is into a dough. Soaking periods are generally a few hours to overnight and sometimes salt is recommended so that gluten (or whatever) does not develop prematurely. So, yes, perhaps an autolyse could be considered a type of soaker, I suppose, though I have never seen it described as such.
As with every other field of human endeavor in the Western world, every specialty has its own terminology so that we can feel special and informed for understanding the lingo, or excluded until we do. No need to be intimidated, bread making is pretty easy and the taste of a good bread is all that matters when you sit down to enjoy it.
Nice to see a beautiful crust as well.
Not a yoga position
On the advice of my writer pals, I am going to be taking an in-depth look at a few important aspects of dough development. The stretch and fold is a prime example. Though it sounds like a yoga position somewhere between downward facing dog and child's pose, it is not. Like its sister method of kneading, the stretch and fold is a type of dough manipulation that aerates and strengthens the dough. In other words, the end result should be a better bread for taking the time, actually very little time, to do this.
Actually, I had no idea I would have this much to say about a simple, easy procedure.
What is a stretch and fold exactly?
There are two ways to do a stretch and fold; both, big surprise, involve stretching and folding. One method is to hold up the dough in one's hands and the other is to lay it out on a board or on the counter. For simplicity's sake, I will explain the board method first.
Before doing anything with the dough, depending on whether the dough is very wet or not, put water, for wet dough, or sprinkle flour, otherwise, on a large cutting board or kitchen counter. Then put water or flour all over your hands. The last thing you want is to get dough all over the work surface or your hands, so be generous with the water or flour.
How do you know if the dough is wet? Does it stick all over your hands in a gloopy mess or promise to do so when you touch it with one finger? That is wet dough.
Gentle, very gentle
Remind yourself to be gentle with the dough so that you do not rip it or, at least, greatly minimize ripping. The point is to stretch, but not break, the gluten strands. Lay out the dough and gently flatten it into a rectangle or somewhat rectangular shape. Stretch out each long end as far as it will go, again, without breakage.
After this initial stretch, fold those elongated ends as if making an envelope. First, fold one end to the midpoint and then the other end over the first. Now, turn the dough 90 degrees and stretch out the other two sides of dough. Fold in again the same way.
In the air, using hands
The air method is much the same, except without putting the dough down. This is easier than it sounds. Stretch and fold the same way described above.
What kind of doughs?
I do stretch and folds for most wheat-based breads and spelt. Do not stretch and fold after initial mixing for rye breads, even those that are only 30 percent rye. Rye is fragile.
When?
Stretch and folds can be done after the initial mixing of the dough and, at a later phase of dough development, before shaping the dough. I do not do a stretch and fold at this point for spelt doughs or ones with any rye flour.
For most doughs that are majority wheat flours, whether white bread flour, all purpose, or whole wheat, I stretch and fold in the hour and a half after mixing the dough, between two to four stretch and folds, usually three or four.
I also often do a pre-shape stretch and fold with all doughs. For any dough with up to 30 percent rye or for a 100 percent spelt bread, I only do the pre-shaping stretch and fold. My rye advice is to be taken lightly because I have not gone beyond 30 percent rye at this point.
Post-mixing stretch and fold
I mix the dough, cover, and let rest for at least 15 minutes. All stretching and folding should be done within the first two hours after mixing, but definitely the first one by 45 minutes in. I always wait at least 15 minutes between each stretch and fold, or almost 15 minutes if some craziness or rushing is necessary for non-bread-related reasons.
Notice when doing a few stretch and folds that the dough strengthens and will not stretch as far as it had at first. After these stretch and folds is the bulk fermentation period, otherwise known as the first rise.
Pre-shaping stretch and fold
I generally also do a stretch and fold prior to shaping the dough, in which case, I let the dough sit, covered, for 15 minutes after the stretch and fold to allow the dough to relax prior to shaping. I generally do this stretch and fold on a board.
Relationship to kneading
I am not a kneading expert, but I have read quite a bit and watched what seems like hundreds of kneading videos. In terms of numbers, after porn, I think there are cat videos and then kneading videos. The kneading ones are mesmerizing, especially if you can find the one of the French guy who kneads as part of a demonstration. He's up to elbows in a huge basin of dough. Wonderful. (If you are looking for a cute pet video, there's a wonderful one of a guy on a cargo bike with his two little dogs enjoying the ride to the dog park, all accompanied by lovely and lively French music.)
From the little I have gathered, stretching and folding is as effective as kneading and a whole lot less work. I find, as well, that there is much less anxiety. Somehow, as I'm leaning into the dough, pressing hard, pulling it, and doing this over and over for 10 to 15 minutes, I am consumed by the doubt that I am kneading correctly, whereas the stretch and fold is so simple an act that my confidence is let unharmed, or, at least, in its usual, below average state.
Other perspectives
If you would like to see a stretch and fold in action, here's a video from NW Sourdough that's short, sweet, and gives slightly different instructions for this technique than I have. I also have learned quite a bit from Breadtopia. His bread making videos are wonderful, and he does demonstrate a stretch and fold when he uses the technique in some of his start-to-finish films. You just have to find the stretch and fold a midst the eight-or-more minute videos.
