First successful full load - thoughts & questions Hearth Bread and Flatbread Discuss First successful full load - thoughts & questions in the Brick Oven Cooking forums; Originally Posted by Tim F some weren't deep enough. I think the wholemeal would have expanded better if I slashed ...

[Dutchoven]

Originally Posted by Tim F

some weren't deep enough. I think the wholemeal would have expanded better if I slashed them a bit deeper.

Does anyone have tips for the best way to top with seeds, by the way? I ended up shaping, then applying a water wash and the seeds, then coating in flour before I put the loaves in baskets to rise. Then I washed them with water to remove the flour before baking. Happy to hear if there's a better way

After baking those 9 loaves for 35 minutes, the oven was still at about 180C so I could have probably got away with another load - or fired again briefly to bring it back up.

Deeper cuts will allow your bread to expand more fully in the oven...invest is a good lame' or use a double edged razor blade in the least as they will be the charpest and will not drag on the dough...unless otherwise noted you should shoot for the depth to be about 1/2 inch and hold the blade almost parallel to the table...as for getting seed on I would recommend misting them lightly with water before baking and sprinkle on the seeds...try not to get the dough too wet becuse you will end up with flatter loaves...steam in the oven is good but wet loaves are not...as far as refiring...as you get more experienced it will become a mute point unless you are going to be doing pizza...you will be able to plan out long bakes by aligning your bread type with oven temperature
Best
Dutch

[Frances]

One thought that might help... remember that you can start baking at far higher temps than in a conventional oven without the bread burning.

That last big bake I did started at just under 300C, and that means there's ample time to bake three or even four loads of bread.

Fantastic looking bread you've got there!