Baking beautiful loafs without preheating the oven is something I never really considered. Though after some testing it showed it is actually possible with some minor adjustments.

Inspired by a video from Foodgeek I wanted to check if baking beautiful bread without preheating the oven is indeed possible.

First Try

On my first try I tried a dough based on the Kornspitz recipe though I used only 30% full rye flour. Using my default timetable (4h bulk fermentation, shaping, 2h proofing) and then starting to bake the loaf (starting in a cold Dutch oven) at 250 degrees for 50 minutes followed by 5 minutes uncovered (still at 250 degrees).

The result was not that great. It did not hold the shape at all as one can see in the picture. The crumb was fine and the crust was pretty good, though it was not the result I expected after seeing that video.

Watching the video again I noticed a crucial difference however. He used a long proofing period in the fridge instead of a short one at room temperature.

Second Try

For the second try I used my default recipe with 67.5% hydration (675g water for 1000g flour). I made two loafs (each 500g flour), one for the cold start and one as comparison baked in the preheated Dutch oven.

Shaping did not went that smooth, so there is still room for improvement. Though a decent skin did form so I just moved on and placed both loafs covered in the fridge for proofing:

Timetable:

• 4h bulk fermentation at 30 degrees
• shaping
• 6h proofing in the fridge

Starting to bake the bread in a cold Dutch oven. I let it bake at 250 degrees for 55 minutes covered and 3 minutes uncovered. Though 5-10 minutes with lower heat might be the better option to get a better crust this way the Dutch oven is already preheated for the next loaf.

The first loaf did hold the shape quite good. Not perfect, but good enough I would say:

The second loaf I baked in the preheated Dutch oven 20 minutes covered and 20 minutes uncovered. As I don’t have two equal proofing baskets I made one round and one oval loaf, not the best comparison but close enough for now:

The results were way better than in the first try. Not perfect, but honestly better than expected. Though the oven spring was quite similar. The difference between the loafs was noticeable mostly in the crust which was thicker and crunchier on the preheated loaf. I found that the non preheated loaf felt a bit more hydrated than the other one, but not by much.

I still think there is a difference between a preheated bake and a cold start bake. Though cold baking is a better option than Id expected. I would not use the very same recipes or timetables as normally, though with some adjustments the difference can be minimized by:

• reducing the hydration of the dough
• reducing the scoring (full diagonal cuts will allow the dough to rip apart faster)
• cooling down the doughling during proofing as low as possible
• developing a good skin during shaping is even more important and must be done with a lot of care
• using flour types and ingredients that allow a good skin forming are preferred