Took me 2 years to learn that oven rack position matters for bread

I kept getting burnt bottoms and pale tops on my loaves. Finally moved the rack up one slot and it fixed everything in one bake. Anyone else have a baking problem that took way too long to figure out?

2 comments

2 Comments

ray_williams1d ago

Oh man, the rack position thing is such a game changer (and yeah, it took me way too long too). I had the exact same issue with my sourdough - burnt bottoms, sad pale tops. Turns out moving it up just one notch also helped with getting that nice oven spring I was chasing. Have you played around with adding a baking stone or steel on that higher rack? I stuck a cheap pizza steel up there and it evened out the heat way better than the rack alone ever did.

the_sam1d ago

Steel up there changed my whole sourdough game too.