Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Was baking bread yesterday and threw some water into the oven to steam the loaf and shattered the inside glass of my Jenn-Air oven. I've heard of hard water, but this is ridiculous! I could have flown the bread in from Paris for what it's going to cost me. That and the Patriots losing -- it was not a good Sunday.

Ouch...how much is it going to replace?

Oh, and sorry about the Pats...

Did that sound sincere?

Amy

Lindsay, First off -
Secondly- Crystal posted a site on the CI board a long long time ago that sold replacement parts. If you or someone you know is handy then that may be an option. Maybe she'll pop in with the site. I no longer have it.

(gum snapping) Hey Guys,
Lindsay,
That is the total, total, worst thing I've heard today! I am not sure if they carry Jenn Air, but, it's repairclinic.com. In my(cough) limited experience, if it can be broken in this house, they have it, cheaper than anyone. If you have questions, I can vouch for Mr. Roper, that guy can fix anything, just call.

Seriously, toooo funny, I was just thinking about, and, missing you guys terribly, today. Life is crazy, work is crazy, and the kids, are a blessing. I really miss y'all, ppl look at me funny when I get excited about cooking, here, it's normal:)

What? You weren't using the patented CI ice-cube method?

Thanks everyone for the sympathy. Will cost me slightly north of $100 -- ouch. Anyway, the repairman suggested that rather than use water to create steam to get a crisp crust, that I start the bread on the really high heat, regular heat and then for the second half of the baking turn on the convection heat to achieve a crisp crust (he says he does that for his turkey). I don't like using convection for baking since it sets the outside of the product too fast, but I never thought of combining regular and convection. Anyone ever tried that?

Considering most oven glass I have priced runs over $50, getting it installed at a bit over $100 sounds like a very fair price. Getting an oven door apart to access what is usually three separate glass panels can be a bit complicated.

I suspect that the results from convection or combination baking will vary significantly based on the loaf, the oven, and where the baking stone is placed.

I don’t have a convection oven so I can’t comment beyond that, but I have tried every “steam” technique ever encountered in an effort to improve the bread that comes out of my gas oven.

I have come to the conclusion that steam from a small amount of water or few ice cubes, while dramatic and potentially dangerous, does not accomplish the goal of raising the humidity of the oven at the beginning of the bake any better than using a shallow pan of water boiling away for several minutes before the bread goes ion the oven. Since I have no way of measuring the humidity inside a 425º oven, I base my conclusion on how foggy my glasses get when I open the hot oven door.

Misting the loaf and covering it with some kind of dome also help. I would love to have an electric convection oven to play with a bit.

For some of my breads I do toss in a 1/2 cup of water on a cooky sheet below the bread. I did have to replace one bulb so far, that isn't terribly expensive, did something actually break on yours.