So what’s the big deal about steam? You’ve heard about how bakers use steam when they make bread. You may have even tried to do it yourself.
The big deal about steam is that it helps the bread rise higher, it makes the crust thin and crispy, it forms a nice golden color, it adds aroma and flavor.
Without steam? Bread looks grey in color, it has a less open crumb, the crust is thick and there is less aroma. Steam really matters!
The reason steam works so well is because the moist air surrounding the bread prevents the crust from forming too quickly. This gives the bread more time to swell up and rise in the oven (sometimes called “oven spring”). Thus, your bread rises higher. By default, since your bread is rising more, the crumb structure is also more open and airy. What about the color? There’s this special process called the Maillard reaction which, in the presence of steam, converts the sugars in the bread to a nice golden brown color.
So now that you know how important it is, how do you go about getting it in your humble home oven? Professional bakers use special ovens that generate the steam for them at the push of a button. Most home bakers have a gas or electric oven which isn’t sealed like a deck oven and almost never has steam injection as a feature. I am listing 6 ways to get some steam despite our residential limitations.
Option #1 – Spray bottle
No need to give you a picture here. The idea is to take a spray bottle filled with water. Load your bread into the oven and then spray a mist into the partially opened door. Close the door after the misting and you should, theoretically, raise the humidity level in your oven.
I’ve tried this. It did not work for me and, frankly, I never expected it to. The amount of water going into a 500F oven with a partially opened door is minuscule. I would imagine that the little that does get in evaporates within seconds and the overall effect on your bread is negligible. That has been my experience, although some people swear by this technique. I will not argue with success, but I am afraid that of all the options, this one has the least potential to work.
Option #2 – Steam tray
OK, so this one needs a picture. With this method, you fill a 9″ pie pan with a bunch of solid iron balls. You place that in the oven when pre-heating so they get super hot. You then drill some holes in a tapered pie pan which you fill with ice. When your bread goes in the oven, you place the ice-pan on top of the super-hot iron balls. The ice begins to melt, it drips down and contacts the iron balls and, voilà! You have tons of steam for an extended period of time.
There are a few commercially available products on the market like this one, but they all work on a similar principle: water drips onto a super-hot mass and creates steam.
My experience with the home-made version was so-so. I have a big oven and it is gas, so is well-vented. The oven I use is poorly suited for bread-baking and especially for baking with steam. I did experiment with this in a smaller electric oven but also had mediocre results. It did not work that well for me personally, but under the right conditions, this is a great technique.
Option #3 – Dutch oven
I first got this idea from the Tartine bread book and then saw it talked about in a few other places. You place your bread in the shallow lid of a dutch oven, use the big part as a top and place the whole thing in the oven. The bread starts evaporating water which gets trapped inside the closed dutch oven, thereby creating a steamy environment for the bread.
Not only does this technique work spectacularly well for giving you the benefits of steam, but it also simulates the way bread is baked in a deck oven with strong radiant heat from all directions. This is really a winning solution all around. The downside: you are limited to a boule (round) dough shape and they take up a lot of real estate in your oven. The other downside is you have to take very hot, heavy pieces of iron in and out of the oven and you need to move fairly quickly. Unfortunately, if you slip up, you could get burned or drop a 500F weight straight on your nice wood floors. This technique requires you to be practiced and very, very careful.
Option #4 – DIY Dutch oven
OK, I admit this should probably have been called option #3a, because it’s similar to the dutch oven above. With this option, you cover loaf pans with foil that traps moisture during your bake. Let’s face it, the round boules you are limited to using a dutch oven isn’t always the most practical shape for sandwich bread and other needs. Dutch ovens are bulky and take a lot valuable space in your oven. They are also a bit unwieldy to handle, especially when they are 500F.
In the picture above, we have a bread that is fully proofed ready to go in the oven. The bread is scored and then the whole tray is covered with aluminum foil. The trick here is to wrap the foil tight on the edges, but to keep it loose on the top to allow for expansion. Yes, that does take a tiny bit of practice, but its easy to figure out.
I started doing this when everyone in my family complained about all the breads being round – this was my solution. It works great and the bread comes out just as it would from a professional deck oven.
Option #5 – Tray with towels
This method uses an aluminum tray filled with some towels. When you are ready to bake, you pour boiling water to completely soak (but not submerge) the towels, and then place the tray alongside the bread. The position doesn’t make much difference, it can be above, below or wherever inside the oven. What makes the biggest difference is whether or not you pour regular water or boiling water on the towels. For this to work right, the water must be boiling. Since you are juggling bread, the oven, the tray and boiling water, some practice and coordination are needed. Be careful so you don’t get any burns!
The tray with towels trick actually works extremely well. It is most useful when I need steam and cannot make a boule shape for use with the dutch oven option (eg baguettes). My oven is large so I actually place two of these towel-filled trays at the bottom of my oven. It creates A LOT of steam inside and overcomes even my terrible vented oven. Someone with a well-sealed electric oven could probably get close to 100% humidity inside with just one tray. The other perk to this technique: it’s super-cheap and super-easy to do. No special equipment needed.
Option #6 – A steam generator
OK, I’ll admit it, this one is a bit out there. In my desperate attempt to create steam, I went and got a carpet cleaning steam generator.
This machine is filled with water, warms up and stores a bunch of steam in the tank. You then direct the hose into a partially open oven door and blast it with steam. If you want to get really fancy, you could make a home-made metal-straw that gets around the door and puts the steam in with the door closed. I tried this a few times and it worked surprisingly well, but I never experimented with it much. It was not super-practical to have this device in or near my kitchen every time I baked.
I have also seen people generate steam with a modified pressure pot. The pot builds up pressure, they tap into it and inject steam directly to the oven. I have never tried this because I am too chicken to go modifying a pressure pot. I would not recommend doing this at all! But I simply mention it for completeness.
So there you have it! Six awesome ways to generate steam in your oven. If you have other tips or tricks that have worked for you, please share. If you’ve tried one of these ideas and have some feedback, I’d love to hear from you too. Please share your comments below.
I have used a steam generator similar to the one in your article. I found the water is vaporized but no where near 212F. It was a disappointment. What is your favorite method for steam?
Also where did you source the cast iron balls? Great idea. I think they would be better than lava rocks.
Thanks for sharing such great information. I appreciate your site.
Dan Ayo
Hi Dan, thanks for the feedback on the site. It is much appreciated. 🙂
My favorite method remains the dutch oven and loaf pans covered with aluminum foil. Both give me consistent and excellent results. I agree that the vaporized water is really hit-and-miss and I am not using that anymore.
The cast iron balls hold A LOT of heat and work very well. They can be purchased here: https://www.kingmetals.com.
The product is “3/4″ Diameter cast iron balls”. I bought 200 balls at $039/ea, so yes, it’s a bit pricey!
Zuri, what do you think about using chain instead of iron balls. It is certainly cheaper and easier to obtain. Have you see my steam generator? http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/61210/external-steam-generator I am back to testing this system again. It pushes huge amounts of high pressure steam, but the question remains, is high pressure steam efficient? I am working to flow low pressure steam in hopes of improving a great setup. OH! Pulled the trigger today and ordered a Famag IM-5. Sent Darren at Pleasant Hill Grain both of your excellent Famag reviews. I appreciate the time and effort it takes to post very… Read more »
As always, thank you for your valuable insight and contributions as well. You are really helping a lot of folks over at thefreshloaf do things right! I am familiar with the pressure-cooker-steam-generator idea and I think it’s fantastic. The only reason I have not done it myself is because I didn’t want to make modifications to my pressure cooker and my oven to make it happen. Ultimately, the result is all I care about and it looks like yours are stellar! Congratulations on the Famag, you won’t be sorry. The guys over at forapizza.com may be loaning me a SunMix… Read more »
Oops, forgot about your question regarding the chain. Yes, it would probably be a lot easier to obtain and it would probably work. The reason I would prefer the balls, is that you can pack them in much tighter than you could a chain. I am guessing that I could get a lot more sphere-mass than chain-mass into the same space. That will, of course, also affect how much steam you could generate. One solution I would consider is to cut the chain into smaller pieces using a cheap bolt cutter and then you can pack much more into your… Read more »
Pieces or re-bar might work well. I was thinking a cast iron pan, but with so much metal, a stainless steel steam pan should be fine.
What do you think?
Sounds logical, but I think the results dictate. Start with what you have easily available and see what comes out the other end. Surprisingly though, a pan alone doesn’t retain enough heat to really generate good steam for an extended period of time. You really need that mass added in – rebar, chain, balls…something.
On #4 , instead of foil, invert the identical pan on top of the loaf pan. You will have plenty of space for the oven spring and the edges will match well to seal the space.