Steam In A Brick Oven

Preparing Your Brick Oven

When creating steam in your ovens, fire your pizza oven for at least one hour, bringing the dome and floor temperature to roughly 800ºF, so that the entire dome has gone white or clear. Then, after the ash has been raked out, leave your wood fired oven alone to moderate for an hour or so. While you wait, take your slow-rise dough out of the refrigerator to bring it to room temperature. Depending on the type of bread you are baking, let the brick oven temperature fall to between 450ºF – 550ºF. Then, brush and mop the hearth with a damp, not wet, towel to clean off any residual ash.

Creating Steam

At this point, you can either put an old sheet pan loaded with damp rags into the oven, or give it a long spray with a basic garden sprayer on a fine setting. If your oven is hot, and you want a lot of steam, try doing both. When the bread goes in, there should be visible steam in the chamber. Once the bread is loaded, give the oven another long spray, pointing the nozzle upwards, not at the bread. Again, there should be visible steam in the chamber.

Remember, without proper oven steam cooking, the crust will not develop properly (allowing the gasses to expand for “oven spring”) and caramelization of sugars in the grain will be underdeveloped resulting in a tougher crust.

Retaining Steam

To retain the steam in a brick oven, it’s important that the door seals against the pizza oven opening. If your door has trouble maintaining a tight seal, try using a brick to keep it pushed tightly against the opening. (A simple, but effective solution.)