When you learn how to make your own bread at home, you might wonder if you could get a good crispy crust from your regular kitchen oven.
Bake Bread On Cast Iron Skillet is a good way to get a crispy crust bread on a regular oven, as bread made in a professional oven.
When you’re just learning to make your own bread at home, you might want to get the same results to bake an artisant bread as the traditional bakers can make in the stone built oven.
But at home most new bakers, we all have the regular oven that comes with the stove, and we all learn that to bake an artisant bread where hot temperatures and some steam is needed.
Baking your artisant bread in a Dutch Oven will be the easiest way, but you might not have one, or you might want to bake more than one loaf at a time, this is why the cast iron skillet will be the solution.
Why Steam Is Important For Crusty Bread
When you place your bread in the oven, the dry hot temperature will make your bread to get a dry crust and it will not allow your bread to raise, steam in the oven will keep the outside of your loaf smooth and fresh, allowing the loaf to raise before the outside dries out.
Steam in the oven will help your bread to raise well as it slows down the crust formation, this baking step is known as Oven Spring, it helps to keep your bread crust thin and crispy, and it also helps the bread to develop a golden crust at the same time it gives time to the center of your loaf to get well cooked.
Why To Use Duch Oven?
As steam is important when baking your bread at home, placing a loaf in a ducth oven with a lid will create the right temperature and the steam from the dough will help you to get the same results as if you have a proffesional oven with the steam feature.
When baking a loaf in a duch oven, it is important to remove the lid for the last 20 minutes to create the crispy crust.
Why To Use A Cast Iron Skillet
The easy way to bake an artisant bread at home will be with a duch oven, but as they are not cheap, there is a better solution: the cast iron skillet.
Note: Do not use any glass bakingware for baking your bread, as the difference of temperatures when creating steam in the oven will cause the glass to break.
Cast Iron Skillet can be heated to high temperatures similar to the temperatures in a bakery, and it will help your bread to get the oven spring to raise well, and a second skillet can be used to creat the steam.
How To Use A Cast Iron Skillet To Bake A Bread Loaf
Preheat two cast iron skillets in the oven, before baking your bread (8″ and 12″ or 6″ and 8″), the big skillet wil be used to bake the loaf and the small one will be used to create the steam in the oven.
Place the bigger skillet in the middle rack in your oven, and place the smaller one in the rack bellow.
When the loaf of bread is ready to be baked after proofing, remove the large skillet from the oven, use a pair of oven mitts as the skillet can get real hot, place the loaf in the skillet carefully, you can use some parchment paper under the loaf, it will make it easier to handle the loaf.
Put your oven mitts back on, and place the hot skillet back in the oven, be carefull all the time so you don’t get burnt.
When the loaf is in the oven, you can put 6 or 8 ice cubes on the smaller skillet, always be carefull, I use a kitchen spoon for this purpose, as it’s big enough, it helps me to do this step, but use your oven mitts always.
The ice will start melting right away as it gets in contact with the hot skillet, it will create enough steam for the first part of the baking time when the steam is needed, ice will evaporate after 20 minutes and the baking temperature will be good to make your bread crispy enough.
Note: Do not use this method to create steam in the oven using any glass bakingware, the difference of temperatures when you place the ice on any glass baking ware will break the glass.
When your bread is ready, put your oven mitts on, and carefully remove the bigger skillet from the oven, set the skillet on a place where it can cool off safetly, far from the reach from children and pets.
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