Swapped my oven racks for baking steel for sourdough...

I've been making sourdough at home for about two years now, always using a regular sheet pan with a pizza stone underneath. Last month I finally bought a 3/8 inch baking steel for $65 at a restaurant supply place in Portland. The bottom crust went from pale and sometimes soggy to deeply browned and crispy on the very first loaf. My oven spring is way better too, I think because the steel holds heat so much longer when I open the door to load the bread. Has anyone else switched to steel and noticed a difference in their crust, or is it just me feeling like a kid on Christmas morning?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivan_perez2d ago

Yo wait, have you tried blasting it under the broiler for like 2-3 minutes right at the end? My buddy swears by that trick for getting that real deep mahogany color on the ears. I actually grabbed a secondhand steel off Craigslist that had this weird rusty spot, spent like an hour scrubbing it with vinegar and steel wool before I even used it. Still works awesome though, best 40 bucks I ever spent on bread gear.

johnson.lee2d ago

80 bucks for my used Challenger off FB Marketplace and it came with a whole bag of leftover dough scrapers and a weird dent in the side. Still makes killer loaves though. And yeah the broiler trick is legit, I do it on my baguettes too, just gotta watch it like a hawk or it goes from perfect to charcoal in like 30 seconds flat. Learned that the hard way last week haha.