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Professional Bread Baking Oven Capabilities
- Steam Injection and Controlled Venting.
Professional bread baking ovens incorporate a steam generator that
allows steam to be injected into the oven at the start of the baking
process. Injecting steam retards gelatinization of the loaf surface
providing a good spring in the oven. You will notice that loaves baked
with the Home Bread Baker - Steam Generator & Oven Insert are larger and
airier. Steam injection at the beginning of baking also insures that the
bread will have a thin crispy crust when the bread is baked through.
The second feature that differentiates professional bread baking ovens
from your home oven is that the steam can be vented from the oven at the
baker’s discretion. Your home oven is vented by design and you cannot open
and close these vents.
Why improvised techniques
for the home baker do not work...
Many techniques have been suggested to home bakers to attempt to mimic
these features of the professional baking oven. These generally involve
pouring boiling water into a pan in the bottom of the oven, or pouring
water over the top of preheated bricks in a pan in the bottom of the oven,
or misting the sides of the oven.
There are two problems with all of these techniques. First is the
amount of steam you can generate by these techniques is inadequate, given
the volume of the typical home oven. Second, you have no control over the
venting of the steam from the oven. When you add water with the oven door
open, most of the steam generated vents before you can close the door. The
typical home oven design is vented which insures any steam that is
generated after you close the door doesn’t stay around long enough or in
high enough concentration to have the desired effect on the bread crust.
How the Home Bread Baker Steam Generator
and Oven Insert imitates
the Professional
bread baking oven and solves these problems.
The Home Bread Baker Steam Generator and Oven Insert solves both these
problems for the home baker. First the steam generator employs the same
technology as the steam generators employed in professional baking ovens.
When you pull the trigger on the steam generator, a stream of superheated
steam is released into the steam chamber. You control the volume of steam
injected into the steam chamber.
Second, the steam chamber allows you to control the venting of this
steam from the oven during the baking process. The professional baker will
leave the steam in the oven for one quarter to one third of the total
baking time. You can do the same. Please note that the oven insert is not
a sealed vessel so there is no hazard from over pressure condition in your
oven. The oven insert lid rests on the baking stone and is not clamped or
locked in place. In addition the steam injection port is always open.
It is important that the steam only be injected at the beginning of the
baking process and that the steam chamber lid be removed one quarter to
one-third of the way through the baking process. You want a dry atmosphere
in the oven for the final stages of baking to give a thin crispy crust and
to carmelize the sugars on the surface.
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