Scoring and Steaming
Aug 10th, 2008 by SteveB
When properly performed, the techniques of scoring and steaming both serve to improve the quality and esthetics of the finished bread. Scoring provides a place for the controlled expansion of the loaf during the oven spring phase of baking, thus contributing to the lightness of crumb and visual attractiveness of the loaf. Steaming during the first few minutes of baking serves a dual purpose; it delays the setting of the crust so that maximum oven spring can be achieved and it helps gelatinize the starch at the surface, giving the loaf a beautiful, shiny crust.
Scoring
As I see it, the condition of the dough immediately prior to scoring has as much, if not more, of an impact on the ability to perform a proper scoring as the baker’s scoring technique itself. If the dough is too strong, the gluten strands at the site of scoring will not give during the oven spring and the cuts will not open properly. Interestingly, poorly opened cuts can also result from an insufficient or overabundant use of steam during the bake. If the dough is too weak, the blade will snag on the dough and the baker runs the risk of deflating the dough as he or she is performing the scoring.
The manner in which the scoring is performed is dependent upon such factors as the dough composition, the loaf shape and the effect the baker wishes to achieve. To score a typical boule, the blade should be held perpendicular to the surface of the loaf and drawn quickly, in one motion, across the surface of the dough. I find a lame fitted with a double-edge razor blade to be ideally suited to the task. For a baguette or batard, the blade should be held at a slight angle to the dough surface so that the blade lifts up a small flap of dough when the score is made. During baking, this dough flap produces the well-known and much sought after ”grigne” of a properly scored baguette or batard.
Steaming
Steaming has always been problematic for the home baker. Without the steam injection systems available in commercial deck ovens, the home baker has had to resort to any one of a number of different techniques to generate steam. These techniques have included spraying the walls of the oven with a water mist just prior to and after loading, as well as throwing ice cubes into the oven at the time of loading, either directly onto the oven floor or into a pre-heated pan.
For ovens which don’t have a tight seal (such as mine), I find both of the above techniques to be deficient. The clouds of steam released by my oven whenever either of these techniques was employed led me to look for other, more efficient means of steam generation and usage.
The recent resurgence of “no-knead” bread helped provide me with a clue. This bread is baked in a covered dutch oven, thereby confining the steam released by the dough during baking. In essence, the dough acts as its own steam generator. A cover placed over a free-form bread while baking should serve the same purpose.
At about this time, I was made aware of the Steam Bread Maker, a product offered for sale which consists of a metal cover with a small inlet hole and a hand-held steamer. The idea here is to not only cover the dough but also to inject steam into the cover through the cover’s inlet hole. It was easy enough to put together my own steaming system, especially since I already owned a hand-steamer. An inverted buffet serving tray, inexpensively obtained at my local restaurant supply store, proved to be ideal for use as the cover.
The entire scoring, loading and steaming sequence can be seen below: My scoring of this loaf could have been better; I needed two passes to give the desired cut where it should (and normally does) take only one. The final loaf resulting from this procedure can be seen here.
I am in awe of your site, techniques and gorgeous breads! I am just now learning to bake breads and hope to someday be at your level.
I have a question about your peel. Is that a homemade peel …is that a couche on the peel?? I have never seen anything like it and have to have one! Transferer of the dough seems much,much easier.
Please keep posting the videos they are so~ helpful. I would like to request that you show how you scored your dough to make that gorgeous baguette and a picture of the cross section would be wonderful too. I am in Japan and its almost 1am. I stumbled onto your site 3 hours ago! I might just have to call in sick to work tomorrow if I don’t get to sleep soon.
Keep up the great work !
Welcome Jules and thank you for the very kind words.
Your request for further detail on my baguette scoring technique will not go unheeded! In retrospect, I should have described the technique more fully and included a video on how it is done. Sometime soon, I hope to get back to alternative methods of making baguettes and will detail baguette scoring at that time.
The peel that I am using is an extra-wide SuperPeel(TM) that was custom-made for me a few years ago by the kind folks at Exo Products. I like to think of the SuperPeel as a commercial oven loader for the home baker. Their website can be found at http://www.superpeel.com/. Tell Gary at Exo Products that SteveB says “Hi”.
Wow! You should market that peel on the KA website. I know it will sell like crazy! I stayed up another hour looking for an inexpensive buffet tray to rig a steaming unit like you did. We don’t have restaurant supply stores where I am, but I will be in California next month and will be sure to pick one up. I know my breads do not rise or get that beautiful crust because I haven’t gotten the steam technique right. I love your McGyver like spirit and approach to artisan bread making LOL
Hi Steve, you make spectacularly beautiful bread!
I have big problems with steam since my oven only does convection. How big is the hole in the pan you cover the bread with?
Is that a regular clothes steamer, or what?
How many times do you steam during baking?
What temperature did you bake this bread at?
Patsy
I appreciate the compliment, Patsy. The steaming technique should work particularly well with convection ovens since the steam cover will keep the bread in a moist environment by blocking the convection currents. The steamer is a regular hand-held clothes steamer. The hole in the cover was drilled so that its diameter is just slightly larger than the tip of the steamer. The bread is steamed only once at the beginning of the bake, then the steam cover is removed after 10-15 minutes of bake time. The bread shown in this post is the 40% Rye Bread with Caraway Seed and is baked at 425-450°F.
That is an ingenious way to introduce steam! I have been trying to introduce steam by spraying the risen bread liberally with water just before putting it into the oven. (I’m nervous of spraying the oven itself) The disadvantage to my method is that any pattern created by flour is destroyed.
Hi Steve,
I noticed you built a steam bread maker type envirnoment. I’m thinking of doing the same thin and wondered how you can offer the best way of drilling through stainless steel?
Thanks,
Chris
Chris, I found that a simple hand drill was sufficient for drilling through the stainless steel buffet serving tray.
When using an well sealed electric convection oven, fully loading the oven will generate sufficient steam to crisp-up the crust. I noticed this when a double batch of french bread came out very crispy with no added steam. Previous single batches had softer crusts. The oven should have good, even convection action and be well sealed.
That’s a good point, Sausalito. If the loaves are being baked within a tightly sealed space, often the moisture given off from the dough itself is sufficient to perform the same functions as added steam.
[...] 1. edit 24 February 2009: Beranbaum also advocates using a cast iron pan to fill with ice in order to create steam. Here again, I’d disagree. Cast iron will rust. I used to use a broiling pan (largely because it is specifically designed to be placed in a hot oven virtually empty and not warp or rust). But I now use a plastic pump spray bottle and liberally spray the loaves just before putting them in the oven. Sure, it ruins any design made with the flour but the resulting crust on the bread is worth the loss of the flour pattern. Another ingenious way to inject steam that I keep meaning to try is Steve’s (Breadcetera) brilliant idea to use a hand-held steam cleaner to inject steam into the oven: [T]he Steam Bread Maker [is] a product offered for sale which consists of a metal cover with a small inlet hole and a hand-held steamer. The idea here is to not only cover the dough but also to inject steam into the cover through the cover’s inlet hole. It was easy enough to put together my own steaming system, especially since I already owned a hand-steamer. An inverted buffet serving tray, inexpensively obtained at my local restaurant supply store, proved to be ideal for use as the cover. - SteveB, breadcetera.com: Scoring and Steaming [...]
I just discovered your site and am starting back from the beginning.
Can you explain what equipment you have in the oven, and what is on the peel? Is that linen on the peel, and the linen and the bread go onto a baker’s stone?
Sorry to ask such rudimentary questions.
fredrik, I use the base of a HearthKit as my baking stone and a roasting pan filled with cleaned landscaping stones on the floor of my oven to increase the oven’s thermal mass. See Comment 2 above to read more about the peel I am using.
[...] Scoring and Steaming (Bread Cetera) make sure to watch the video on this link! The peel and the steaming method are ingenious! [...]
[...] BREAD CETERA (scroll down on linked pages to see the video) :: New York Style Pizza :: Scoring and Steaming [...]
I find that the breads have a rather chewy (partner refers to it as “tough”) crust. When it comes out of the oven, it appears quite crisp, but as it cools, it becomes soft.
Perhaps I’m leaving water in the oven too long? Have been using a pyrex bowl filled with boiling water, inserted during oven preheat. Additionally, when the bread is added, I spray the walls.
MSgtdoug, for a crispy crust, bread should be baked under steam just until it begins to take on some color. Once this occurs, you should remove your bowl of boiling water, open any oven vents that might have been closed and bake the bread for the remaining time under dry conditions. You may also want to keep the bread in the oven, with the heating source turned off and with the door propped open, for about 5 minutes after the bake is completed. If you are baking a boule and your pyrex bowl is large enough, you can cover the boule with the bowl for the first 10 minutes of the bake without any steam source whatsoever. The bowl will entrap moisture being baked out of the dough and this moisture will serve the same purpose as added steam. Once again, after the bread begins to take on some color, the inverted bowl should be removed and the bake continued.
Thanks…. will give that a try.
Do you take the lid off after 20 -30 minutes and continue the bake without it to brown? And, what is the height of your serving tray? I love this idea!
Patti, the cover is removed as soon as the oven spring is complete and the loaf begins to color, usually 10-15 minutes. Baking is then continued for the remaining time with the cover removed. The height of my cover is approximately 6 inches.
Hi Steve
I have been looking at your website and decided to make the pain au levain. It is sitting in the oven turned off and looks the most perfect bread I have made. The only othe thing that would make it look better, is if I invested in bennetons and get the lines, which I think I will one of these days. I use an old baking pan and pour hot water into it and also spray with plastic bottle. This one got the best oven rise and ear. Wish I could post pictures, which I have not been able to do even with all the tutorials on TFL. Thanks for a great recipe and how-to. Salma
Hi Salma,
It’s always gratifying to hear when someone is happy with the bread he or she bakes. I hope your bread had a satisfying flavor as well.
Hi Steve,
What are the dimensions of your stone and the size of your stainless steel pan? It looks like you cut your stone to the specific dimensions of the pan? Please enlighten.
Thanks,
Misheil
Hi Misheil,
My baking stone is actually the base from a HearthKit and measures approximately 20½” wide x 14½” deep. I was able to purchase a stainless steel buffet serving tray of dimensions very close to that of the stone.
hi hav tried watching ur video not working
nads, the video appears to be working on this end. Please make sure that you have the QuickTime plug-in properly installed and functioning on your web browser.
[...] he uses a hand held steamer to inject moisture in to an inverted chafing dish. See his post to learn more. This seems amazing to me and I think it’s brilliant, but being the cheapskate schemer that [...]
This was a great idea. Picked up a steamer for about $25 and the whole process works extremely well. Instead of a metal pan, I use a disposable aluminum baking pan. Simple to poke a hole in and it lasts forever. Put it upside down over the baguettes and give it about 15 seconds of steam. I do it before I put the cookie sheet with the baguettes into the oven so that the oven doesn’t have a chance to cool down while steaming. I don’t use a baking stone.
Hi Steve, may i know the brand of your steamer?
Hi Candice,
The steamer I use is the SteamFast SF-227 hand-held steamer, although any similar hand-held steamer with a pointed nozzle should work just fine.
Steve,
What are the dimensions of your buffet server? I spent some time at my local restaurant supply, but couldn’t find anything really big enough to cover my stone – I’d like to get a couple of loaves in. The things I was looking at were ‘steam table inserts’ – did you buy something different?
Thanks
b
Bob,
I believe the proper name for the buffet serving tray that I use for steaming is a “steam table pan”. I purchased mine some time ago from a local restaurant supply store. If that is not an option for you, then I would try any number of restaurant suppliers that sell through the web. The dimensions of my pan are approximately 21″ long x 13″ wide x 6″ deep.