How to Steam Your Home Oven For Perfect Bread

In case you didn't know, in order to bake beautiful sourdough breads properly you absolutely must have steam. There is no question about it. Steam is what moisturizes the outside of the loaf and allows it to form a malleable skin that expands during baking, otherwise you would just have a brick rather than a light airy loaf. Now the means in which you go about obtaining that steam can be done a few different ways. The more common way for home bakers is to use the dutch oven or cast iron pot method which basically just traps the steam the loaf itself puts out. The oven steaming method is superior and in this video I'll show you why.

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Here's the process in steps:
1.Preheat your stones with the lava rocks to 505F or 262C for 1 hour
2. 15 minutes before loading your oven pour boiling water over 4 rolled up towels placed in a metal baking dish (don't use glass) and place on the floor of your oven next to the lava rocks.
3. 5 minutes before loading your oven(which would be 10 minutes into placing your towels in), turn your broiler on high to superheat the stone.
4. After that time is up, turn your broiler off and set the oven back to 505F or 262C.
5. Place your loaves on individual sheets of parchment paper, score them as you like, spray them lightly with water.
6. Load your oven with your loaves making sure there is room for expansion
7. Lay a kitchen towel on the glass part of your oven door to prevent shattering (DO NOT SKIP), then using oven mitts slightly pull out your lava rock skillet, pour in 2 cups or 473ml of water (room temperature or cold water is fine) and very quickly but safely close the oven door to trap the steam.
8. Steam for 20 minutes, then remove both steamers, reduce the oven temperature down to 465F or 240C and bake for an additional 20-30 minutes or until rich dark brown.

[gonzalocisternas]

Those towels and lava rocks look delicious.

[Karch.Dah-Veed]

After watching your sourdough starter video, I was like, "Hell Yeah! I'm baking my own bread." After watching this video, I'm like, "Hell Yeah! I'm buying bread at the store."

[ShadowVipers]

Normally when I sub to small creators, I generally tend to forget about them a few weeks later, but I have consistently tuned in to this channel for every video since I subbed to you when you were around 6k subs. So I can very confidently confirm your observations in saying that you are indeed on the right track and I can't wait to see what you have in store across this upcoming year! Happy Holidays Joshua!

[aquaruis]

I was all excited until I heard "shattered glass door".

[chefboirdee]

You should ABSOLUTELY make a video about cast iron seasoning. They are criminally underrated and more people should know how.

[aedanhepner]

WE WANT CROSS SECTION B ROLL. Show me that crumb structure

[jsal]

i like how the community on this channel is mostly people who enjoy cooking/learning how to cook and are willing to discuss things and not a bunch of ppl who are like "who watches these videos but never makes them lmaoooo"

[LindaMable]

I tried your oven steaming method today for a loaf of spelt. I cannot believe the oven spring. Thank you so much. I will do this from now on for sure

[afischer]

for this new year I wish you a million followers. extremely cool content

[sitnslide]

Here on the Big Island lava rocks are my front yard. I use a large stainless frying pan with towels wadded into balls. I also have a large (!) stainless bowl big enough to cover my stone and 1-2 loaves or baguettes (acts like the dutch oven technique). Whatever works.

[chazz]

"So now you have your lava rock filled skillet" ok... so I'm never doing that.

[HowardBaileyMusic]

I like the rolled up towels in a pan. That's awesome!!!

[padriacmurray]

Thanks Josh, liked the lave stone idea. I think I will just stick with that as dont want steam for more than 10min. thinking of buying a 900mm wide oven for baking more bread, but the steam version is 1500 buckeroos more, So lave stones in a stainless baking dish for me. I bake 16 sourdough loaves for a local cafe in 3000 pop regional town in the middle of Tasmania

[biancaredfearn]

You made me get into bread making ❤😌🍞🥖

[Momzie]

OMG! I always had problems with steaming my bread, it would never hold and my bread would only be slightly crusty which I wish it would be more crustier. Thank you this sounds way better than just a spray bottle!! 👍🏼👍🏼 You the man!!

[Future-zxts]

Could you please do a video about some of your favorite kitchen tools/gadgets? Scale, rolling pin, pans, whisks, etc? I’ve been watching some of your videos, and I’m always noticing things I’d like to my kitchen. Maybe one for beginners (basic items), one intermediate, etc? Or certain ones for baking, one for cooking or roasting, etc? Thanks for the awesome videos!!!

[arianaperea]

I’ve been cooking and baking a lot more since I found this channel

[Cltronix]

And to greatly simplify it in the future: Make sure your next oven has a steam function and can do steam at full temperature (some are only good enough for fish or dim sum, not suitable for baking breads).

[ritasenergyherbs]

Thank you so much for sharing this method. We made our first sourdough loaves using your hydration video tips and they turned out perfectly. We don't care for the dark, hard crust and brushed the loaves with olive oil first. We are venturing towards making Einkorn sourdough which I heard is more challenging - so if you have tips on this it would be most welcomed!

[NeoAkira]

Been looking for a reliable home steaming method for making less traditional breads. This looks like Good Eats-level of ingenuity. Keep up the awesome content!