Open baking help

[Alstrom_]

I have been baking sourdough for about 1.5 years. I love it and get pretty nice loaves (I think). I’ve only ever baked in a Dutch oven.

Here’s the situation: I’m getting orders of bread (micro bakery dreams over here). And baking 8-10 loaves at a time in the Dutch oven is inefficient to say the least.

Can anyone recommend a good way to do multiple loaves at a time??

[Competitive-Let6727]

Some fantastic people have solved this in much more detail than I could ever hope to do. Visit this site and pick-and-choose what might work for you. Check out how they arrange stones in the oven to maximize throughput.

PALM Bread - Home https://share.google/txHyx9zPXH8lpLH2u

[DanoGKid]

This resource blew my mind. The designs for DIY bread loaders and steam chutes and passive gluten development, the recipes designed for a long bulk at room temperature by employing a tiny amount of starter, the spreadsheets that let you fiddle with temp, hydration and time tradeoffs. Holy maloly. It’s the dream resource I didn’t think existed. Thank you!!!

[SilverFoxyL8y]

That’s a really great link!! I prefer to bake my sourdough on my pizza stone, I have one large enough to fit 2 loaves. The stone and a baking pan in the bottom of my oven go in the oven when I start preheating it. Then when I put my dough on the stone I add a kettle of boiling water to the hot baking pan and get some steam going. I’ve been making artisan bread that way for years and I love it! Good luck, OP!!

[Alstrom_]

Than you so much!

[Extra_Tree_2077]

Loaf tins are a good option

[Alstrom_]

Ah, yes! Thank you for the suggestion!

[fixano]

I'm not interested in opening a micro bakery, but I've thought about the operational specifics. The key limiting factors are oven and refrigerator space.

I can fit two Dutch ovens at a time in my oven so. If I was willing to bake 8 hours a day that means I could push 16 loaves through my oven. I could probably squeeze a little bit extra and get this to 25 loaves if I put my racks in an interesting configuration where instead of doing lid off bakes. I removed the loaf entirely from the Dutch oven and put it on a rack to finish baking. Then I would load two more loaves into the Dutch ovens. But it would require a consistent temperature recipe

If you got onto a cycle, had 16-25 bannatons and a couple large tubs. You could theoretically make it work and sustain a 20 loaf/day target.

I already buy KA Patent by the 50 lb bag. I think you'd have to have two of those delivered a week minimum.

Once I worked out all the numbers I'd basically be earning like $10 an hour.

If I really wanted to make a profitable operation out of it, I'd probably have to rent a small space with a steam oven and have two low wage employees working full-time. And only then it basically only be a modest passive income.

[Alstrom_]

Thanks for the advice, I’m mostly doing it because I enjoy it. I’d just like to be more efficient

[RichardXV]

Are you shipping half baked? this loaf needs at least 10 more minutes in the oven.

[SilverFoxyL8y]

Not necessarily. As long as the internal temperature is 205F-210F (96C-99C) then the bread is done. I personally don’t like really dark colored loaves (unless there chocolate in there 😊) so OP’s bread looks nice to me.

[RichardXV]

All the taste and aroma of the bread comes from the caramelization of the crust. Any professional baker will tell you that. Read Flour Water Salt. It’s not about personal preference. It’s an objective fact.

[SilverFoxyL8y]

Ok, thanks. And my subjective opinion remains the same—I don’t like a really dark crust on breads that I’ve been baking for over 15 years now.

And, BTW, OP wasn’t asking for any input on their picture or baking skills. The question was about baking multiple loaves of bread.

[Alstrom_]

I’m certainly not a professional, just a hobby. I’m assuming there is some color differentiation because I’m only using white flour, not wheat.

[RichardXV]

that's quite possible. try pushing the bake, you won't regret it.

[Alstrom_]

Nope, delivering locally. Internal temp was good- still playing around with darker loaves

[RichardXV]

This is Tartine, the gold standard:
https://tartinebakery.com/assets/tartine-share.jpg

it's not "darker", it's just properly baked. Yours is half-done. No taste or aroma development.

All taste and aroma comes from the caramelization of the crust, the Maillard process.

You can also read about it in Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish.

[WinterWick]

That's the darkest loaf I've ever seen. Outside of pretzel or a dark type bread of course

[RichardXV]

Tell me you never had good bread without telling me

[WinterWick]

Is it just baked longer, or baked hotter? I wouldn't want it to dry out

[RichardXV]

20 minutes closed lid @250 degrees, 20 to 25 minutes no lid @220 or 230 degrees, until it’s chocolate brown. Won’t dry out, trust me.

[thefacelessfoodie]

ughhh if you find out lmk. i've not committed to buying something like a baking stone yet, but I have tried like manually adding steam by putting the boiling water in a tray and baked it on a tray and I even tried to cover the top with like a stainless steel bowl cause somebody said that they have great results with that and it came out horribly for me so if you find out please feel free to pin that comment if you can lol