This little cheat compliments another great hack – covering the dough in the oven with a cake tin or lid. Wetting the dough causes the surface to steam. Covering it traps the moisture.
This partnership stops the bread from drying out on the surface in the hot air of the oven and forming a premature crust. Your bread rises more and produces a richer colour, becoming glossy on the surface.
There are other way of achieving this at home, such as spraying the inside of the oven with water in a spray bottle or placing a baking tray in the bottom of the oven and filling it with boiling water. I’ve tried all of these methods and each of them work. However, wetting your loaf is by far the easiest and produces the same results, if not better.
How to do it
1. Cup your hands under a running tap and fill them with water. Open your hands over the dough and gently rub the water all of it. If you don’t want to fill your hands with water (it can drip across the bench!), measure 2 tablespoons of water and pour it over your dough. Give your sourdough a gentle rub to spread the water around.
2. Dust your loaf lightly with flour.
3. Using the sharpest knife you have or a razor blade, move deeply, quickly and confidently on an angle through the loaf. If you go slow, the knife will likely drag the dough.
4. Follow the instructions for your usual baking method:
Baking your bread using a dutch oven or casserole dish in the oven
Baking your bread using a pizza stone
Faking it – Baking your bread without a dutch oven or pizza stone
