"Pre-heat the oven!" "Crank-it-up a gazillion-degrees!" "Pre-heat for an hour!"
It's an admonishment heard time and again. Oft-repeated, almost absolute
"truth."
Hog-wash, I say.
A cold-start oven not only works - it works very well... and is far
simpler, plus safer. A perfect example of the KISS formula: Keep It Simple,
Stupid!
To wit: I virtually always use a cold-start oven when baking bread, even
the persnickety French baguette. And heaven-forbid, I don't even use a
baking stone, nor a peel.
Two prime motivators: I live in warm sunny Florida and minimizing heat
buildup in the kitchen and home is desired (beyond wasted energy cost).
Secondly, I value my life and skin - tossing boiling water into a hot oven
with resulting steam... isn't fun-&-games!
Here's my cold-start method:
1. Prior to bread insertion the oven's floor (sidewalls somewhat) is
thoroughly misted with cold water. Speed is not required, it's a leisurely act.
2. Loaves are casually loaded into the oven: no daring-do is involved, nor
fogged glasses, nor tossed scalding water. Quickly slamming the door shut
isn't an issue.
3. After loaves are inserted the oven is turned on, the door thereafter
never opened.
The resulting steam-humidification effect created from the oven's floor
being heated is remarkable - a cloud quickly envelopes the oven box,
literally covers the viewing window, then disappears after a few minutes.
My electric convection oven (KitchenAid Superba, moderately expensive but
nothing to rave about) reaches the setpoint (say 450F) in 12-13 minutes
from a cold start. If the bread formula (recipe) is from an outside source
I apply an approximate +20% to the advised time, the baking temperature
remains as specified.
Example: if a recipe lists 450F for 19 minutes (for a pre-heated oven),
450F is keyed in but the time extended to roughly 23 minutes (trial and
error provides a conversion factor, +20% seems about right with my
equipment. Items that normally bake longer, popovers an example (380F for
40 minutes), require less time-percentage extension, about 15% or +6 minutes).
One caveat: don't even think of using a cold start with a baking stone. The
stone's mass will act in opposite fashion (absorb, instead of emit heat)
and delay enormously the oven's heat rise. (And stones cause another
problem - blocking air circulation by somewhat defeating the
design-function of a convection-fan oven.)
Yes, I've gone the stone route (the alleged gospel-secret of baking), of
dealing with peel sliding-&-slipping frustrations, a pan at the bottom with
boiling water tossed in, ice cubes, hot door-opening and repeated misting,
etc. Each act is impressive, guaranteed to impress bystanders. But so what?
For all the pushups involved (plus steam-burn potential), I find the
cold-start/mist-the-floor is far, far simpler... the resulting bread little
different.
Apply a KISS.
- Ed Okie