As mentioned in another recent thread, usually clay based cookers will absorb moisture away from the doughs. A big commercial oven uses steam or even just water sprayed inside during about half the baking cycle. The more moisture used, the harder the crust will be, as thats what my grandfather said. Small pizza stones and clay based cookers act similarly in that they take away moisture from the bottom of the baked product. Thats why pizza baked on a stone will have a crisp bottom compared to a meta pizza pan. My mom had a clay roaster and used it only a couple of times in hopes it would give here the same texture has her father the baker, but they didn't even come close. The stones are also preheated in most cases and a peel is used to place the risen dough on the stone surface. I also add extra gluten to my doughs as todays bread flour has less gluten from flour that was milled 50 years ago. All purpose flour is a OK for soft breads, but if you want crusty and chewy, it needs a higher amount of gluten. For a home oven, you can use a spray bottle of water every few minutes while its baking.

Thanks for posting back ksrogers, i;m now wondering if i spray too much as my crust although looks nice tends to be hard , what i do is put pan on bottom and right before i put bread in put about a cup or so of hot water in pan which creats steam , i then spray loaf with fine mist and put in oven at 450 preheated, every 2 minutes up till about 8 minutes cooking i spray fine mist on bread and quickly spray oven sides, but to no avail hard crust reults. So maybe i just cannot achieve that crackly crust that i recently tasted from San Fran i tasted for the first time, you know i thought i made decent bread until i tasted theirs.
It was a let down for me but i still try anyways as the bread does taste good just cannot get that outside crust.
Thanks again

We love our clay bakers - have several different shapes - and don't find that they dry things out. Just the reverse. If you soak the dome in hot water for at least 30 minutes prior to use and place the bread in a cold oven to start the cover mists the bread throughout the baking process.

But if you want a crackly crust then don't flour the loaf before the final raising, flour only the bottom and sides of the base. And then lightly score the top of the raised loaf and lightly brush the top with an egg glaze (1 whole egg whipped) before baking.

Dave

PS: they are also great for cooking moist and tender beef roasts, roast chicken, and our personal favorite - cornish hens. You can also make great baked potatoes in them.

I love my clay baker.

One thing I might mention is every time you open your oven door the temperature is dropping significantly. Opening and closing that many times during the crucial beginning stages is probably more detrimental to your bread than the spritzing is helpful. I doubt the temperature has even recovered before the door is opened again so that each time it goes lower and lower.

Carol

There may be too much water inside if your misting and have a pan of water in there. When my grandfathers breads would come out of the oven, he would use a clean rag and melted butter to wipe the tops. Either that, or just plain water. It reduced the hard crust slighty while they cooled.

I remember when my grandfather made hermits, that once they were right out of the oven, they were very crisp. Customers would say they were stale. My granfather would then bake them, leave them out back for a few days and then sell them as fresh as they would then be softer after several days. I hate chewy cookies, but a brownie is something else.

I just bought a 35 pound bag of Angel Food cake mix. Its sugar free and you just add water. Its the type of mix a bakery would use. Its a LOT, so most will be placed in big Food Saver canisters and a vacuum pulled on it. It should last quite a long time. Probably one of the least fatty deserts with no fat or sugar added.

Thanks a bunch for the comments, next time im going to try like ksrogers said less waster and preheat the oven at near 500 maybe a higher temp might get a better temp when i open the door to mist but i think with pan of water i will try just one mist and see what happens. Also a stone is a great idea i once had one but cracked it very quick (my fault). I never tried any kind of wash on the bread so i might try this as well as im thinking i like that butter idea. So thanks to all for the idea's and maybe if still not satisfied i might break down and buy a clay baker .

Butter gives you a softer crust, very different from what a egg brush gives you - crackly on top but soft underneath. Try both and see which you prefer.

Dave

If you can add some additional clay pieces like oven tiles or a big baking stone, it can help reduce teh heat loss when the door is opened a few seconds. 500 degrees is OK for just a few minutes, so you don't want to leave it there. Preheat the oven an hour or more before you bake the bread. If I wanted a lot of stone/clay inside, I would put in both my rectangular stone and the thck round pizza stone, then the baking pan above that. The rack would be lowered on notch to make up for tyhe difference height. King Arthur has that spray for giving shine to breads and also to get seeds and grains to stick to the crust.