Hi All -
Thought I'd share with you my recent results baking sourdough baguettes, specifically my technique for getting artisan crust at home. First, here's the end result:
Sorry I don't have pics of the crumb; I haven't cut into it yet - too warm.
Here's what I did to achieve this crust result at home:
- Baked directly on the stone/hearth, not with baguette pans. I use a Fibrament stone placed on the very bottom rack.
- Proofed loaves in couche.
- Put a 200 Hotel Pan at top rack while preheating oven to 100 F more than recommended baking temp, and, after putting formed loaves on stone, filled pan with hot, simmering water. Be Careful! Then quickly closed oven for 30 seconds.
- Next, I opened the oven 3 separate times in 30-second intervals and sprayed the walls of my oven with a high pressure sprayer (see pic below). Be careful, again!
- After spraying, I lowered the oven to baking temp, and bake for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, I rotated loves 180 degrees and then lowered hotel pan 1 notch (can do directly above bread, too) and bake for 10-15 min., until done.
I have had great consistency with this method, in which I just made what turned out to be a few very useful tweaks to Reinhart's method. First time I've tried this with sourdough and I was surprised with the results. Just thought I'd pass along my technique for artisan crust. P.S. - My own starter/sourdough.
