hey guys – hoping to get some feedback/assistance on some baking with steam in a home oven. like most people learning to bake artisan loaves, I used a dutch oven and got great results. now, I’m looking to slightly scale up my baking efficiency and also accommodate larger loaves and other non-dutch oven loaves like baguettes and ciabatta and the like.
[this](https://i.imgur.com/3a1l6IG.jpg) is my current baking set up. baking stone in the middle, underneath it is a pan with steaming towels on the left, 14inch cast iron with lava rocks on right.
I preheat the oven with the baking stone and lava rocks to 500°F for one hour. 15mins prior to loading the bread, I pour boiling water over room temp dry towels and then set them in the oven. I let that create a steamy environment for 15mins, then load the bread onto the baking stone, then pour exactly 2 cups of water into the cast iron pan, then quickly close the oven door and reduce the temp to 475°F.
i’ve followed the process by [The Perfect Loaf](https://www.theperfectloaf.com/baking-with-steam-in-your-home-oven/) and [Joshua Weissman](https://youtu.be/PabONWAcGSs) perfectly yet I’m not getting nearly the rise and oven spring that I’m accustomed to in my dutch oven.
[country loaves](https://i.imgur.com/4tegBBF.jpg) for example as well as [baguettes](https://i.imgur.com/DNiexV0.jpg). I understand they’re not terrible by any means, but I would like to see more pop and expansion that I usually get when I bake in my dutch oven, [as you can see here](https://i.imgur.com/rNRwo0L.jpg)
one thing i’ve noticed in particular is that after I close the oven door, steam comes billowing out of the vents below the oven, but in Joshua Weissman’s video you can see the same thing happening yet he’s still getting great spring compared to mine.
ideas on what I might be doing wrong? any help or tips would be appreciated from bakers who also steam their dough like this. thanks in advance guys!
Dining and Cooking