Loadingā¦
10
Update: tried baking bread in my Dutch oven for the 5th time and finally figured out what I was doing wrong
I was in my kitchen last Sunday trying to make a simple no-knead loaf and it came out flat and gummy again, like a sad pancake. I realized I was preheating the oven with the Dutch oven inside but then letting all the heat escape while I messed around trying to lower the dough in with parchment paper. So this time I just dropped the dough in on the parchment, put the lid on fast, and didn't peek once for 30 minutes. Came out with a real crust and actual air holes, first time ever. Has anyone else had their bread fail just from losing oven heat at the start?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
anderson.spencer13d ago
Man, this is the number one thing that kills home bread. That Dutch oven is basically a little oven inside your oven. The whole point is that it stays screaming hot and traps steam. Every second the lid is off, you're dumping heat and steam out into the kitchen instead of keeping it on the loaf. And it's not just the first few minutes either. That early steam is what lets the dough spring up before the crust sets. Lose it and you get a flat, gummy brick every time, exactly like you said. What helped me was getting the dough onto the parchment before it goes anywhere near the oven, then just sliding the whole thing in quick. No fiddling, no trimming paper, no second guessing. The less time that lid is off, the better your bread turns out.
9