Bread Making Top Tips- Getting the best out of your oven

Having success with bread making is all about confidence. That comes with practice and knowledge. Knowing a few top tips can really help.

You can take my online masterclass for a deep dive into bread making. The course is designed to banish any fear about bread making you may have and show you how to make a variety of breads in a really easy way from one master recipe. Learn More.

You can also hop over to our Facebook group Bread Made Easy for lots of top tips on bread making. You can also get advice from fellow bread heads or show us your successful bakes (and your disasters if you like). It’s a celebration of all things about making bread at home, so please do join the conversation.

I regularly post my top tips on the FB page to help you, but for those of you that don’t use Facebook I will post them here for you too so you don’t miss out. Also, if you haven’t already signed up to our newsletter and got your free copy of my eBook that gives you my top tips for making better bread then you can do that now too.

Top Tips for successful bread making

Getting the best out of your oven:

• Place a solid shelf or baking stone into your oven to heat up. This helps boost the temperature of the oven, maintain the temperature when you open the door and helps your loaf achieve oven spring.
• Preheat your oven to 240C, gas mark 9, 475F and then turn down to 220C, gas mark 7, 425F when you put your loaf in. This helps the oven be as hot as it can be and retain the heat when you open the oven door.
• Buy an oven thermometer. Every oven is different and it really helps you to understand your oven if you can accurately judge the temperature.
• Steam your oven when you put your loaf in to help the loaf achieve oven spring. You can use a plant mister to mist the sides and the floor of the oven (avoid the light and glass door) or you can pour a cup of hot water into a roasting tray on the floor of the oven. You can fill that roasting tray with old nuts and bolts or gas BBQ lava rocks for maximum impact.
• Use a dutch oven instead of steaming your oven. A dutch oven is usually a cast iron casserole dish that you place your loaf inside, pop the lid on and bake the loaf covered for 15-20 minutes and remove the lid and bake for a further 20 minutes. This encloses the steam that the loaf releases as it bakes, allows an even oven spring of the bread and bakes a beautifully caramel coloured loaf.

For more bread making tips join our Facebook group Bread Made Easy.