One of the dumbest things I've ever heard of is throwing cold water
or ice cubes into a preheated oven. Think about it: You've got the
oven up to the desired temperature. You open the door and lose a lot
of the heat. You throw cold water or ice cubes into a pan and this
reduces the oven temperature even more and now the oven has to regain
that heat to either warm the cold water or melt the ice cubes and
then convert it to steam. FUGGHEDABOUTIT! I agree with Gloria (to
an extent) about using a pan of water on the shelf below and making
sure the water is ALREADY HOT when you turn on the oven. Most of the
time, I have a spritzer handy when I am ready to put the dough into
the oven. As fast as I can, I put the bread in, give the interior of
the oven a quick spray, and then leave it alone. And yes, I know
that some people advocate spraying the bread again after two minutes
or three minutes or whatever. In my not-so-humble opinion, I think
this is nonsense. You get the best oven spring by leaving the door
shut for the first 10 minutes so why keep opening the door and losing
the heat for an infintesimal amount of steam. Face it, we home
bakers do not have steam-injected ovens as the big boys do.
Bob the Tarheel Baker