Richard writes: I am wondering if anyone has tried tossing 1 or 2 ice
cubes into the oven instead of placing a pan of water in the oven or trying
to open the door wide enough to spray. Seems like you would only have to
crack the oven door a bit (for a very short time) to get an ice cube or two
in there. I read about somebody trying this, but have not tried it myself.
The Tarheel Baker sez: I did this a couple of times until I thought the
process through. Look at it this way: You've got a real hot oven. You
toss in some ice cubes. This will lower the oven temperature a bit as the
oven has to melt the ice cubes so they become water and then become
steam. It's an exercise in futility, Richard. I don't even subscribe to
the theory that you should spritz water into the oven every few minutes
during the first ten minutes of baking. You lose a lot of heat every time
you open the oven door and the amount of steam hardly compensates. I
spritz my loaves, open the oven door, put in the loaves, spray as quickly
as I can, and close the door. I do not open it again until it is time to
take the bread's temperature, i.e. near the end of the baking time. I
NEVER open the door during the first ten minutes of baking because I
believe this is the most important time of all in the baking process. This
is when I get the oven spring that I like in my breads. Let's face it: we
do not have those big steam-injected ovens that the pros have.
My way gives me bread that crackles (sings) when I take it out to cool. I
have baking friends who swear by the pan in the bottom of the oven where
they toss in a cup or two of boiling water when they put their loaves
in. This makes more sense to me because the oven doesn't have to work so
hard as it does with the ice cube method, but, I have tried it and find the
results negligible.