2y ago

Steam oven vs Dutch oven experiment

Had a little experiment last night with two portions of the same dough.

The one of the left is baked with the steam-oven. I just used the standard bread recipe in the oven's settings. The one on the right is baked with a Dutch oven.

Tried to get the variables (like scoring etc.) as consistent as possible. What a different.

Any thoughts? The only thing I can think of is that the Dutch oven wasn't the same temp as the oven, so that stopped the rise of the loaf on the right.

29 comments

Holy hell, that is one sharp dutch oven. Cut your loaf in half just like that!
- It has a teleporter inside, and the loaf got pulled out too early.
  
  It had the same baking time as the steam oven version. Around 45 - 50 minutes. Maybe it was the temp of the cast iron pot..
- The force is strong in you today! 😂
Honestly, experimenting with Dutch anything and bread, is setting yourself up for failure. The Dutch bread is basically a sponge. With the occasional bakery being the exception, they do not bake sour dough bread, and the average Dutch does not appreciate a proper loaf of bread. They love the white bread spongy thing. Source: Am German, love sour dough bread, and lived in the NL for 4+ years. Also debated Dutch friends / colleagues over their bread :D
- You know a dutch oven is just a cast iron pot, right?
  
  Dutch cast iron is basically a sponge.
  
  nope, I was just using the opportunity to make some good-natured fun of our neighbors :)
- Haha. What's wrong with Dutch bread? It's cheap, sweet, and you can store it for multiple days. Lol. (I'm Dutch, I get your disapproval for our bread baking skills).
  In this case, I'm referring to a cast Iron pot aka a Dutch oven.
  
  lekker
  
  Exactly - net zoals ik had geschreven - jullie houden van dit "brood" ;P ik had er ook af en toe een "zuurdesembrood" gekoopt, maar ook deze waren nog steeds binnen een dag of twee droog zoals en stukje brandhout.
- Well that is a bit hyperbole, although I agree on some parts. Supermarket bread yes. We also have good traditional bakers with fine bread and pastry's, also the biologic-dynamic bakeries wich I grew up with bake proper sour dough bread. I only eat bread from the supermarket if I have to, I don't buy it. I do like the breads from Turkish bakeries here in the Netherlands as well.
  Luckely I live near Aachen in the south of the Netherlands, and I like the bread from German bakeries very much too, but a lot of the Lidl, Kaufland, Aldi et cetera factory packed bread is not very good either.
  
  Ik heb er ook bij bakkers gezoekt, maar de zuurdesembrood die ik had kunnen vinden was bijna zo zacht als een gewoon witte brood, en was ook binnen twee dagen zo droog dat het inscheurde (tension tears in the bread from drying out). Ik zou het geloven dat er ook en bakker of drie zijn, die er goede zuurdesembrood maken, maar het is gewoon zwaar zo'n bakker te vinden - tenminste in N/Z-Holland.
was the one cooked in the steam oven softer or less crusty?
- No, that one had way more crunchiness.
- Well it would be too fussy for multiple loaves, the en cloche baking doesn't scale up well. If I had to make more than 2 at a time no way would I be wrangling a bunch of heavy searing hot pans.

29 comments