How To Open Bake Sourdough Bread

One of the ultimate challenges of sourdough is learning How To Open Bake Sourdough Bread in an oven without steam injection. In this article I share important considerations, why steam is important for baking and what are all the different methods of getting steam in your oven.

Ready For A New Challenge?

So you have been baking for a while in your dutch oven/s, and maybe you want to start trying your hand at baguettes, or ciabatta, or you just feel the need to bake more bread at the same time.

For whatever reason, to successfully open bake sourdough bread does not come handed to you. It takes research, trail and error and a lot of practice.

Important Considerations

Gas oven or electric oven

When adding steam to your oven repeatedly over a long time, there might be consequences. Usually gas ovens are not optimal for baking with a lot of steam for a prolonged time, it can effect the ignitors and you might have to replace them quite often. Not to mention the disappointment when your oven dies on you in the middle of a baking session.

If you use a gas bread oven it might be able to work with steam, I believe they are better equipped to handle steam. This is what I use.

For this reason it might be a better idea to bake with an electric oven.

Contact your oven manufacturer to confirm if the oven can handle baking with steam.

Does your oven seal well enough

Some ovens have dampers, that trap steam inside the oven when closed and let steam escape when opened. Normal home use ovens does not usually have that, so you will have to experiment and see if steam escapes from the oven when you add it.

Also consider bread ovens that have very narrow doors. The reason for this is when you open the door, it does not let all the steam and heat get sucked out, because it has a small opening. That will be different for normal home use ovens with large doors.

Baking steel or ceramic baking stones

Something else that is very important to consider is using a baking steel or baking stone. It is necessary when you open bake sourdough bread because you get very well distributed, even heat that does not drop as drastically when cold dough is put onto it as a baking sheet would have. It also gives a blast of build-up heat just like with a pre-heated dutch oven, which help the dough to have a nice oven spring. Keep in mind that it will take your oven about 30min longer to get to the heat that you need for bread baking. Something very handy is an infra-red thermometer. You just point at a distance of 50cm and ‘shoot’ and it gives you a very accurate reading of the surface temperature. I use mine all the time.

As for which one is best, that will be up to your preference and budget. Baking steel comes in different thicknesses and sizes, and obviously the thicker the better. But also the heavier and more expensive.

Ceramic baking stone or pizza stone also has different thicknesses and sizes and again the thicker the better, and it is not as expensive as baking steel, but it is not as durable and you have to be very careful when handling it as it can crack or break very easily.

I use 2 inch baking stone and I am very happy with it. I bake pizza at my ovens maximum temperature of 400°C with no problems and a beautiful crispy crust in 3-4minutes.

Why steam is important for baking

• Steam is important to keep the crust of the bread soft so the bread is able to expand to maximum ability.
• When no steam is used, the crust will form too quickly and become very hard, the bread will not rise much, the crumb will be tight and will not as fluffy.

Methods of adding and keeping steam in your oven

Lava rocks

A common method to add steam is to heat lava rocks with the oven and when you add the bread you also pour a cup of boiling water over the lava rocks to create steam.

Wet towl

Another method is to wet a towl very well and put into a bread pan underneath or next to the bread, this does work for some people and is worth a try, but it does release steam very slowly, much might not be sufficient for what is needed at the heat that sourdough bread is baking at.

Hot pan and boiling water

Very common is a method of heating a pan with the oven and when adding the bread to add a cup of water and quickly close the oven door to trap the steam.

Spraying bread with a sprayer

This is what I have been using since it does not take up any extra space in the oven like a pan or lava rocks. According to your assessment on how quickly your oven looses steam you spray the bread before and a few times during the first 15min of the baking time.

Upside down pan on top of bread

This is also a good way to trap steam if you have a way to position a pan over the dough as it bakes, which you remove after the first 30 minutes of baking when you want the bread to start drying out and form an nice crunchy crust.

What has worked for me

The oven and equipment I use

I have a double decker gas bread oven, with no steam injection and not a brand name. Its dampers does not work well so it does loose steam slowly. We added 2inch thick ceramic stones for even heat distribution. As said previously, I always use an infra-red thermometer to accurately test the surface temperature of the stones before I put the dough in. Oven temperature displays are not accurate enough. I use wooden boards cut to the size of the ceramic stones that I prepare with rice flour and out the dough from the fridge to position and score. It does take same practice to ‘off load’ without the bread touching each other in the oven. To remove the bread from the oven I use a pizza peel.

Baking temperature

As for baking temperature. You will have to test through trail and error to see what works for your oven. What I do, for 1000g loaves I put my top burners to 200°C and my bottom burners to 265°C. For smaller baked goods like ciabatta rolls, 100g crusty buns or baguettes I do 230°C on top and 275°C on the bottom. This will also change according to your ingredients in your bread. For sweet bread, or bread with cheese in, you will have to adjust (especially the bottom temperature) a little lower.

Baking time

Baking time will also differ according to:

• the size of loaves you bake
• the ingredients (does it have sugar, honey or cheese in)
• and how crusty you like your loaves

I bake for 45min, check, sometimes remove the bread, sometimes I can go up to 60min for a desired appearance. For smaller bakes it can be done from 15min up to 30min depending on size/ingredients and desired appearance.

How and when I add steam

I use the spray method to add steam so I have maximum space in my oven. I spray the bread dough well just before putting it in the oven. Then for large 1000g loaves I spray it in the oven every 5min for the first 15min. Smaller bakes I only spray once.

Kitchen Gadgets I Use When I Open Bake Sourdough Bread

• Ceramic baking stones

• Infra-red thermometer

• Pizza peel

My Go-To Open Bake Sourdough Bread Recipes

• Easy Everyday Sourdough Bread – With A Secret
• Cheesy Cheddar Sourdough
• Sourdough Chocolate Bread With Pecans

Stay tuned for my: UPDATED NOW ON THE BLOG!!!

• Best Ever Sourdough Pizza Recipe
• Black Olive, Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Sourdough Bread
• Easy Peasy Ciabatta Rolls (seriously)

My favourite Sourdough gadgets

Cast iron dutch oven

Sourdough kit

Kitchen scale

Infra-red thermometer