1
I finally had a baker tell me why my bread crust was too hard
At a farmers market in Portland last Saturday, this older guy watched me pick up a loaf and said "stop spraying water in the oven, use a steam pan instead." He even drew a diagram on a napkin showing where to put it. Has anyone else had a random stranger fix their biggest baking problem?
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
patricianguyen1mo agoMost Upvoted
Oh man, that's the thing about baking isn't it? You spend months following the same recipe and just accept the hard crust because nobody tells you the trick. It's like how everyone learns to crack eggs one-handed or fold in flour slowly. We all have these little workarounds that nobody writes down, they just pass them on at markets or in kitchens. That's the real secret to anything, not fancy equipment but just one person showing another person a better way.
4
the_angela1mo ago
That napkin diagram is gold though, right? I did the same thing for years with the spray bottle and always wondered why my crust came out like leather. Once I switched to a cast iron pan on the bottom rack with boiling water poured in right when the loaf goes in, it was night and day. The steam hangs in there longer and gives that nice crackly crunch without the hard shell.
2