Hello there
Since you already have the baking stone, which I presume you are using
as the hot surface for the bread, finishing it off to give a brick
oven bake job is really quite simple. If you are not using the baking
stone as the direct baking surface for your bread, a heavy baking
sheet will do just as well. (though you should be using the stone)
According to Julia Child, Simone Beck and Alfred A. Knopf, it is only
a matter of plopping a heated brick or stone into a pan of water in
the bottom of the oven. It is the steam that gives the crust rather
than any additional heat or quality of heat provided by the brick.
To quote: "Steam allows the yeast to work a little longer in the dough
and this, combined with a hot baking surface, produces an extra push
of volume. In addition, steam coagulating the starch on the surface of
the dough gives the crust it characteristic brown color. Although you
can produce a good loaf of French bread without steam or a hot baking
surface, you will get a larger and handsomer loaf when you simulate
professional conditions. . . Merely providing yourself with the proper
amount of steam, if you do nothing else, will vastly improve the
crust, the color, the slash patterns, and the volume of your bread;
steam is only a matter of plopping a heated brick or stone into a pan
of water in the bottom of the oven. The second provision is a hot
surface upon which the naked dough can bake; this gives that added
push of volume that improves both the appearance and the slash
patterns."
You will find several more good ideas about simulating a professional
baker's brick oven here which will give the desired results, including
such things as throwing ice cubes into the oven broiler pan.
http://home.earthlink.net/~ggda/oven_humidity.htm
You will also notice in the articles that since you have an electric
oven rather than gas, you are already ahead of the game. Electric
ovens hold more moisture to begin with since they do not have to be
vented.
You can buy the brick from your builder's supply. Just make sure you
are purchasing a straight clay brick, one of the standard old
fashioned red ones. Heat it once before use to drive out any
accumulated noxious gasses which may be present in it and it should be
perfectly safe to use.
As a retired archaeologist, I can also tell you that a brick in a pan
of water is an old, old camp trick for baking in the field. We used a
portable vented field oven, canned heat (sterno, which is why it was
vented) and the trusty hot brick in shallow water. Some of the best
bread I have ever eaten was baked in the middle of the Egyptian
desert.
All we needed was somebody who could brew and serve a proper cup of
tea.
Search - Google
terms - simulating a brick oven
If I may clarify anything before you rate the answer, please ask.
Cheers and happy baking
digsalot |
