I finally looked up why my rye bread kept collapsing, it was the steam the whole time

Mila Torres · 2026-09-09T04:45:04.783176+00:00

I was reading an old issue of Cook's Illustrated from 2014 at my library in Portland and found a side note about steam in home ovens. Apparently most of us don't get enough moisture early on, so the crust sets before the loaf rises. I tried their trick of tossing ice cubes into a hot pan on the bottom rack, and my last two loaves actually domed instead of sinking. Has anyone else found a random stat in an old magazine that fixed a problem you'd had for years?

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I finally looked up why my rye bread kept collapsing, it was the steam the whole time | Baking Fails And Wins - Chatter Central