Loaf with Pear and Cashews/ My tips about steaming oven

Soft bread full of my favorite flavors.

Submitting toYeastspotting.

340 g  rye sourdough starter (150 g whole rye flour+190 g water+ 1 tablespoon mother starter)

688 g water

662 g whole wheat flour

300 g stone ground rye flour

Combine the ingredients and autolyse for 45 minutes. Then add:

20 g salt

116 g cashews.

Knead the dough and set aside for 1 hour.

Then add :

300 g fresh pears, diced combined with 

200 g spelt flour

and work them through the dough. Let ferment for 1 hour in room temperature. The refrigerate the dough *overnight. In the morning preheat your oven and shape the boule.

Bake :

for 20 minutes at 490 F 

for 20 minutes at 450 F

and for 20 minutes at 400 F.

* I decided to refrigerate the dough because I wanted to bake without a baking pan. The dough at room temperature was too wet and weak to shape a loaf. When cold it was easier to shape it. I always put my bread to the  previously steamed oven to achieve a  good oven spring  of my loaves.

How I stem my oven:

I tried many ways of producing heavy stem in my oven. But all of them was not safe. Spraying the water resulted with  two explosions of  the bulb. I have burnt my hands a few time pouring hot water into a pan inside the  preheated oven.

At the bottom of the oven I put the pan and pour 4 cups of tap water. Then I turn the oven on and let it heat to 500F. During the preheating the water slowly evaporates  and turns into  steam. Then I put a loaf into the oven and I let the stem work. I usually don't reduce the temperature of the oven for the first 20 minutes of baking . I believe it is a key factor to get good oven spring and a  beautifully shaped loaf.