Jason,

at one point, I had a disgustingly thin crust for some time because I
sprayed water on top of the loafs during baking a couple of times, mostly
in the beginning. My reasoning at this point was to allow better rise by
keeping the crust soft. (Don't know if this was right, the thin crust sure
was not worth it.)

Then I figured that the effect of cooling the loafs by spraying was the
cause - I stopped it and went better - thicker crust.

Nowadays, I close the vent holes of the oven with duct tape and keep a
metal bowl with boiling water between the heat coils on the bottom
(electrical oven) during baking.

When the water gets low in the bowl, I replenish with boiling water and let
the oven heat up again; this happens between batches - one comes out, water
in, reheat the oven until max and when it's reached, next batch goes in.

The oven is so full of hot steam that I get almost burnt in the face by
opening the door and the steam comes out. There is a lot of better heat
transfer to the loafs from the steam.

I have been thinking about the external steam generation but currently,
there is no need for it. I get pretty thick crusts especially by increasing
the heat for the last 5 - 10 minutes to max temperature again to get ready
for the next batch.

Your case may be somewhat different because you have a gas oven and can't
close the vent but I think that the burning gas produces some steam as well.

I think you could benefit from using baking stones (if you don't) - 1" clay
tiles - two layers heated up with a small bowl of boiling water in a bottom
corner of your oven and no spraying could do the trick.

For what it's worth.

Samartha


At 08:48 PM 8/15/2004, you wrote:
>I made some sourdough ciabattas last week using Silverton's recipe. (I
>have previously made them regular, instead of sourdough, and i have
>the same problem). The flavor was excellent, but i can't seem to get
>my crust thick. I had a pan of water in the bottom of the oven, as
>well as spritzing ever couple minutes for the first 8-10 mins. The
>crust is very thin. What can i do to increase it?
>
>jason
>_______________________________________________
>Rec.food.sourdough mailing list

>http://www.mountainbitwarrior.com/ma...food.sourdough


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