Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Bread Secrets

This past weekend was fantastic for cooking in the sun. Temperatures weren't too hot to keep people inside, but the sun was unabated from cloud cover. LaRue, a Utah dealer of the Sun Oven, was out in West Jordan at a Mother's Day Garden Fair for the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District, and in addition to showing people just how the Sun Oven works from the booth space she had, she taught two classes that proved very useful.

The photo included with this post shows one of her many secrets to baking bread. She baked this bread the previous day to use as an example of how well the Sun Oven can cook breads. Because of how the Sun Oven cooks, the bread will not turn brown as it cooks. In order to get this affect, you have to grab a little squirt bottle and spray a little water on top. This concept is similar to when you go swimming and the water on your skin gets a little more tan because the water magnifies the rays of the sun, thus turning your skin (or the bread crust) brown.

If anyone else has some secret methods for baking bread, or anything else, please share them at sunovensusa@gmail.com.

3 comments:

  1. You don't even need to spray the water if it is a nice, sunny day, it browns without it.

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  2. My bread has always browned so I am confused why she would need to spray it.

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  3. I, too, have had great success with baked goods browning on a clear day. If partially cloudy, the bread rises, and bakes adequately, but doesn't brown. The oven tempurature needs to be at about 300 or higher to really bake without the dough running over the side of the pan before it is done.

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