Flavour & Fire
The Sourdough Journal
Baking the Loaf – Open Bake
Without a lid, the oven asks you to create the right conditions yourself.
There is something different about baking sourdough without a Dutch oven. The dough enters a much larger space, the steam from the loaf escapes more freely, and heat reaches the bread without the enclosed environment of a heavy pot.
That does not make an open bake better or worse. It simply changes the conditions.
Instead of relying on a vessel to hold heat and moisture close to the dough, you work with the oven itself. A baking stone or steel provides strong heat from below, while steam in the early minutes keeps the surface flexible as the loaf expands. Once you understand what each part is doing, open baking becomes less about imitating a Dutch oven and more about learning to use the space you have.
The Method at a Glance
These are starting points for a single loaf of roughly 750–900 g of dough.
Cool: at least one hour before slicing
Preheat: 240–250°C, with the stone or steel in the oven for at least 45–60 minutes
Steam: for the first 10–15 minutes, then allow the oven to dry out
Bake: 35–45 minutes in total, lowering the temperature to 220–230°C once the steam is gone if the crust colours too quickly
Done: a deep golden crust, a hollow sound when tapped on the base, and an internal temperature of around 96–98°C
What Is an Open Bake?
An open bake means the bread goes directly into the oven rather than into a covered Dutch oven or other enclosed vessel. The loaf sits on a stone, steel, heavy tray or another suitable baking surface, while the space around it remains open. Heat circulates freely and moisture escapes more readily.
The principles of baking remain the same. The dough needs sufficient heat, the surface needs to stay flexible long enough for oven spring, and eventually the loaf needs a drier environment to develop and set its crust.
The difference lies in how you create those conditions.
Heat From Below
A well-preheated stone or steel transfers strong, steady heat to the base of the loaf. When the cold dough lands on it, that heat begins working immediately, supporting the rapid expansion of oven spring.
The material matters because it affects how heat is transferred. Steel generally transfers heat more efficiently than stone, while a heavy baking tray behaves differently again. But the point is not to chase one particular piece of equipment. It is to understand that the baking surface is part of the thermal environment of the loaf.
Steam: What It Does and How to Make It
In an open oven, the steam produced by the dough escapes much more readily than it does inside a Dutch oven, so additional steam is usually introduced at the beginning of the bake.
Its purpose is not simply to make the oven humid. Steam keeps the surface moist and flexible while the loaf expands. If the outer layer dries and sets too early, it can restrict that expansion and change the way the loaf opens. Steam delays the setting of the crust just long enough for the dough to make the most of its early oven spring.
There are several ways to create steam, and every oven behaves differently. A common method is to place a metal tray on the oven floor or a lower shelf, preheat it with the oven, and pour in hot water as you load the bread. Others use lava rocks, chains, a spray bottle or a dedicated steam system. The method matters less than the result.
Treat steam with respect. Hot water, hot metal and escaping steam can cause serious burns, so choose a method that suits your oven and handle it carefully. Never pour water onto a glass oven door or directly onto a hot glass surface.
Preheating
Open baking depends heavily on proper preheating. The oven needs time to reach a stable temperature, and a stone or steel needs longer still to absorb heat. When the display says the oven is ready, the baking surface often is not.
A properly heated surface gives the dough a strong initial burst of heat, while a fully heated oven provides the surrounding temperature needed for expansion and crust development.
This is one of those moments where patience before the bake makes a visible difference during it.
Loading and Scoring
Getting a fully proofed loaf into an open oven takes a little more care than lowering it into a Dutch oven. The dough is delicate, particularly after a long fermentation or cold proof, and unnecessary handling can disturb the structure and surface tension you have built.
A baking peel, sheet of parchment or another suitable transfer method can help move the loaf from its proofing surface to the hot baking surface. The aim is simple: disturb the dough as little as possible, score it if you have not already done so, and get it into the heat quickly.
Scoring matters because it gives the expanding gases inside the dough a deliberate place to escape. In an open oven, where the dough is exposed from the moment it is loaded, a clean, purposeful score helps guide that expansion. It does not need to be elaborate. A single structural cut is often enough.
The more important question is whether the dough has the fermentation, strength and surface tension to respond to the score in the first place.
The First Minutes
The beginning of the bake is when the conditions matter most. The dough heats rapidly, gases expand and the loaf makes its main attempt to increase in volume. Steam keeps the surface flexible while the hot baking surface transfers heat from below.
In this short window, the loaf can change dramatically.
Once the dough has expanded and the outer structure begins to set, the character of the bake changes.
When the Steam Has Done Its Work
After the main oven spring, continued high humidity is no longer the goal. The oven needs to become drier so moisture can leave the surface and the crust can develop.
Depending on your oven and steaming method, that may mean venting the oven, removing the steam tray or simply allowing the moisture to dissipate. A crust cannot develop fully while the surface remains too moist.
Open baking therefore has a natural rhythm: strong heat and moisture at the beginning, followed by an increasingly dry environment.
Developing the Crust
As moisture continues to leave the outer layers, the surface firms up and begins to colour. Heat-driven reactions create the aromas, flavours and deep tones of a well-baked crust.
An open oven gives you considerable control over this stage because the loaf is directly exposed to dry heat. That can be particularly useful if you want a substantial, deeply coloured crust without relying on the enclosed environment of a Dutch oven.
Watching the Colour
Colour is useful, but it should never be the only sign that a loaf is finished. It depends on the flour, hydration, oven temperature, steam, baking surface and bake time, so two similar loaves can look quite different and both be properly baked.
Instead of waiting for one particular shade of brown, look at the whole loaf. Feel the firmness of the crust and the weight of the bread, listen for a hollow sound when you tap the base, and use the internal temperature when it helps.
In time, your own oven will give you a far more reliable reference than any photograph or recipe.
Learning Your Oven
Open baking gives you more direct control, but it also makes the quirks of your oven more visible. The position of the loaf, the distance from the heating element, the baking surface and the way your oven circulates air all influence the result. Some ovens have stronger heat from above, others from below.
If the crust darkens too quickly, the temperature or position may need adjusting. If the base darkens before the loaf is baked through, the baking surface may be transferring more heat than your dough needs.
These are not necessarily problems with the recipe. They are clues about how your oven behaves.
Keep notes, and change one thing at a time. A slightly longer preheat, a longer steaming period or a small shift in position can teach you more about your oven than any fixed instruction.
Open baking is most rewarding when you stop trying to make your oven behave like someone else’s.
Learning Your Oven
Open baking gives you more direct control, but it also makes the quirks of your oven more visible. The position of the loaf, the distance from the heating element, the baking surface and the way your oven circulates air all influence the result. Some ovens have stronger heat from above, others from below.
If the crust darkens too quickly, the temperature or position may need adjusting. If the base darkens before the loaf is baked through, the baking surface may be transferring more heat than your dough needs.
These are not necessarily problems with the recipe. They are clues about how your oven behaves.
Keep notes, and change one thing at a time. A slightly longer preheat, a longer steaming period or a small shift in position can teach you more about your oven than any fixed instruction.
Open baking is most rewarding when you stop trying to make your oven behave like someone else’s.
Open Bake vs Dutch Oven
The difference between the two methods is mainly environmental.
A Dutch oven traps moisture and provides a concentrated, enclosed source of heat around the loaf. An open bake gives you a larger space in which you manage heat and steam more deliberately.
Neither changes what sourdough fundamentally needs: proper fermentation, sufficient structure and a well-preheated oven. The equipment changes how you meet those needs.
For some bakers, the simplicity of a preheated Dutch oven is hard to beat. For others, an open bake offers more flexibility, particularly for larger shapes or multiple loaves.
Baking More Than One Loaf
An open oven can hold several loaves at once, which a single Dutch oven cannot. It also changes the dynamics, because several loaves release moisture at the same time while heat is distributed across a larger area.
Steam management becomes more important, and what works for one loaf may behave differently when baking three.
As your baking becomes more ambitious, the oven itself becomes part of the equipment you learn to understand.
From Oven to Cooling Rack
When the loaf leaves the oven, the most dramatic part of the transformation is over, but the bread is not yet ready to slice.
The crust continues to firm as it cools, the crumb settles and moisture redistributes through the interior. A loaf that feels very soft straight from the oven becomes noticeably more structured at room temperature.
Resist the urge to judge the crumb too soon. Give the loaf time, let the crust crackle and settle, and allow the interior to finish its journey from hot dough to bread.
An open bake gives the loaf more freedom, and asks you to pay closer attention.
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Baking the Loaf – Open Bake
No Dutch oven needed. Just a good way to make use of the heat.