How I bake 4 loaves in my home oven without a Dutch oven #openbaking

When I first started open baking in May of 2024 in my home electric oven, I watched countless tutorials on how others did it and not shockingly, none of their exact processes worked for me. Why? Because every oven behaves very differently and the true temperature of the oven can differ. It’s important to understand WHY this method works, not just how! What is needed: 🍕A baking steel - I have a 16x20in steel from @bakingsteel and you can get 10% off with code “CrustyCravings” 🍳A cast iron skillet or oven safe pan that can be heated to 450-500F 🌋Lava rocks, parchment paper, a bread lame @wiremonkeyshop, a kettle, a spray bottle, @lanongloves. I have all of these tools linked on my open baking essentials list on my Amazon storefront. Affiliate links are on my linktree! My old oven was 6.4 cu. ft. and could hold 2 baking steels plus my lava rocks, so I could bake 6-8, 875g loaves at a time or 12, 450g loaves! Now I can do half of my old production because my oven is only 5.3 cu. Ft. My old oven didn’t heat as well and I would have to heat to 490F for 1 hour! This oven heats faster and only needs to be preheated to 450F for about 45 min! My new process with a hotter oven: 1. Heat to 450F for 45 min with lava rocks and baking steel inside 2. Put my loaves on individual parchment paper sheets and do decorative scoring 3. Pop in the oven and add boiling water to the lava rocks - bake for 5 min on 450F 4. Wait for the crust to slightly harden - do my deep expansion score 5. Check in another 5 min to see if the score needs to be gone over again - mist again 6. Keep lava rocks in for another 10-11 min on 450F 7. Next turn down oven to 435F 8. Take lava rocks out, rotate loaves from front to back so they bake evenly - bake for another 20-22 minutes until desired brown is reached and the internal temp reached 200-210F! You will have to adjust temp for your oven! The idea is that you want your loaves to expand during the first half of the bake with steam and not seal prematurely. If the oven is running hot or there’s not enough steam, you’ll have issues! #openbaking #microbaker #sourdough #sourdoughbread #homemadebread #cottagebaker