I ended up buying a Miele Moisture Plus oven and all I can say is that the steam injection feature is absoutely hopless for baking bread. I think who ever designed the moisture plus feature on the miele oven knew absoluteyt nothing about baking bread.. The problem is that the miele only lets you inject steam when cooking in the fan forced mode. This is no good. If I want a good crisp crust on my bread I introduce steam when the oven is cooking on bake mode (no fan) and only go into the fan forced mode AFTER you stop steaming. But the miele wont let you do this. Instead you have to have the fan on all the time (why its this way God knows) and the result is an insipid limp soft crust. If your a serious bread make and want good crispy glassy brittle crusts on your bread the miele moisture plus feature is not for you and I strongly recommend against it. I'm very disappointed. This oven cost me twice as much as a normal oven and I really regret it. Hope this helps someone else.
Good to know, thanks. We are upgrading our kitchen and I agonised for a long time over whether to pay (a lot) more for the Miele. I ended up not getting it, it was really just too expensive for us.
After not actually having an oven for over 18 months, and relying on a little microwave sized Breville Smart Oven (which is surprisingly very good), I'll just be happy when the kitchen goes in and I have a full sized oven again anyway!
I know this original post was years ago but it is still valid - I have a question/possible workaround:
I was playing with a Miele in a showroom yesterday and thinking about doing exactly what you hoped you could do.
Can't you do it using a user program? YOu can save up to three stages I believe, so you could have it on the standard oven setting for a certain time and then on moisture plus while you do your steam (yes ith the fan) and then back on normal no-fan oven? Or however you want to do it. Wouldn't that work for doing this sort of thing?
Does anyone have an update on the moisture plus setting? I am reading Miele's operating instructions and it looks like you can inject steam in 4 different settings. It appears that 2 of the 4 settings use the fan, but 2 do not. Convection Bake is the default with the fan but it looks like Surround is approproate for baking and does not use the fan. I am only basing this on what I am reading. I have no experience with this oven but am considering it. If anyone can shed light on their experience using moisture plus with a Miele oven or range that would be very helpful for me. Thank you.
I have a Miele Moisture Plus oven installed in 2016. I have just begun the sourdough bread learning process and am finding it challenging! The easist part seems to be my oven. I find the Moisture Plus provides a lovely crisp crust; wouldn't want it to be more crisp than it is. Using the Automatic burst of steam, I programme it for two injections. I spray the dough as I place it in the oven and then inject the two lots of steam over the next 10 minutes. Works well.
We have two moisture plus ovens at present, and we had two in our previous house for about 4 years. My partner bakes sourdough about every second day, usually around 4 loaves.
On the plus side, the oven has good room in it, and you can bake 3 loaves side by side, or 4 loaves in two trays of two. The moisture plus makes for a good crust, but to run it you have to be in moisture plus mode, which does run the fan. I don't believe you can inject steam outside moisture plus mode. The pyrolytic is also very good in the oven.
On the downside, the steam injection on the oven is really an afterthought. It works, but it's not brilliant. Both of our ovens (model 6267BP) are currently broken (1 year old). The service guy reckons that a normal steam oven is well sealed to avoid moisture intrusion into the electronics. The Miele appears to be a standard oven with moisture injection bolted on....they didn't seal the electronics, and the vents from the oven cavity are right below the display. Ours fogs up sometimes, and both control units seem to have fried. Our previous Miele ovens didn't seem to have that issue (so we may have struck a bad batch), but the service guy said it is a common problem with the moisture plus models.
Also, of our previous two, one locked up once when we used pyrolytic (ironically the day before we moved out - doing final house clean). The door lock wouldn't release, and the service guy had to come and replace something. Again, made me wonder whether the unit is really built to run at the temperature that pyrolytic needs.
We've always been really happy with our various Miele appliances, this particular issue is really surprising. But if we were doing it again, I think I'd do what we had as our other option - one oven in the kitchen, and a small commercial steam oven in the end room (which is also where the spiral mixer lives). A small second hand commercial oven isn't that expensive, and is in a different league for control and volume. And if we're only cooking bread in it then cleaning it won't be too onerous - one option we considered was a commercial oven as our main oven, but they are a pain to clean (they're designed on the assumption you have a minimum wage kitchen hand who cleans it for you every day. At the moment I'm the minimum wage kitchen hand, so I'm not super keen on that as an approach).
Paul Okere! Your comments are very helpful! Would you share a little more info on your 2nd hand commercial steam oven? Brands? Sources? Many thanks in advance.
I have the Miele DGC6865 XXL. It's about 2 years old. Never had a problem with it. Second Miele steam oven. Last one I had no problems either. We built a new house and I did Miele all over again. I use it to make Tartine sourdough bread with a 75% hydration. I have been doing surround at 435F and manually bursting steam for 20 minutes. Then leave it at 435 no steam until done. Usually another 25 minutes because I like a light colored crust. I turn off the oven and leave bread in oven for another 20 minutes. Works great. Nice oven spring. Good crust.
Replies
Also would love to hear any comments on this steam oven as I have several bread recipes asking for steam during baking and making steam dumplings.
I ended up buying a Miele Moisture Plus oven and all I can say is that the steam injection feature is absoutely hopless for baking bread. I think who ever designed the moisture plus feature on the miele oven knew absoluteyt nothing about baking bread.. The problem is that the miele only lets you inject steam when cooking in the fan forced mode. This is no good. If I want a good crisp crust on my bread I introduce steam when the oven is cooking on bake mode (no fan) and only go into the fan forced mode AFTER you stop steaming. But the miele wont let you do this. Instead you have to have the fan on all the time (why its this way God knows) and the result is an insipid limp soft crust. If your a serious bread make and want good crispy glassy brittle crusts on your bread the miele moisture plus feature is not for you and I strongly recommend against it. I'm very disappointed. This oven cost me twice as much as a normal oven and I really regret it. Hope this helps someone else.
Good to know, thanks. We are upgrading our kitchen and I agonised for a long time over whether to pay (a lot) more for the Miele. I ended up not getting it, it was really just too expensive for us.
After not actually having an oven for over 18 months, and relying on a little microwave sized Breville Smart Oven (which is surprisingly very good), I'll just be happy when the kitchen goes in and I have a full sized oven again anyway!
Maree
Hi
I know this original post was years ago but it is still valid - I have a question/possible workaround:
I was playing with a Miele in a showroom yesterday and thinking about doing exactly what you hoped you could do.
Can't you do it using a user program? YOu can save up to three stages I believe, so you could have it on the standard oven setting for a certain time and then on moisture plus while you do your steam (yes ith the fan) and then back on normal no-fan oven? Or however you want to do it. Wouldn't that work for doing this sort of thing?
Jon
Does anyone have an update on the moisture plus setting? I am reading Miele's operating instructions and it looks like you can inject steam in 4 different settings. It appears that 2 of the 4 settings use the fan, but 2 do not. Convection Bake is the default with the fan but it looks like Surround is approproate for baking and does not use the fan. I am only basing this on what I am reading. I have no experience with this oven but am considering it. If anyone can shed light on their experience using moisture plus with a Miele oven or range that would be very helpful for me. Thank you.
https://www.mieleusa.com/pmedia/ZGA/TX2070/9898041-000-02_9898041-02.pdf
I have a Miele Moisture Plus oven installed in 2016. I have just begun the sourdough bread learning process and am finding it challenging! The easist part seems to be my oven. I find the Moisture Plus provides a lovely crisp crust; wouldn't want it to be more crisp than it is. Using the Automatic burst of steam, I programme it for two injections. I spray the dough as I place it in the oven and then inject the two lots of steam over the next 10 minutes. Works well.
Hope this helps.
We have two moisture plus ovens at present, and we had two in our previous house for about 4 years. My partner bakes sourdough about every second day, usually around 4 loaves.
On the plus side, the oven has good room in it, and you can bake 3 loaves side by side, or 4 loaves in two trays of two. The moisture plus makes for a good crust, but to run it you have to be in moisture plus mode, which does run the fan. I don't believe you can inject steam outside moisture plus mode. The pyrolytic is also very good in the oven.
On the downside, the steam injection on the oven is really an afterthought. It works, but it's not brilliant. Both of our ovens (model 6267BP) are currently broken (1 year old). The service guy reckons that a normal steam oven is well sealed to avoid moisture intrusion into the electronics. The Miele appears to be a standard oven with moisture injection bolted on....they didn't seal the electronics, and the vents from the oven cavity are right below the display. Ours fogs up sometimes, and both control units seem to have fried. Our previous Miele ovens didn't seem to have that issue (so we may have struck a bad batch), but the service guy said it is a common problem with the moisture plus models.
Also, of our previous two, one locked up once when we used pyrolytic (ironically the day before we moved out - doing final house clean). The door lock wouldn't release, and the service guy had to come and replace something. Again, made me wonder whether the unit is really built to run at the temperature that pyrolytic needs.
We've always been really happy with our various Miele appliances, this particular issue is really surprising. But if we were doing it again, I think I'd do what we had as our other option - one oven in the kitchen, and a small commercial steam oven in the end room (which is also where the spiral mixer lives). A small second hand commercial oven isn't that expensive, and is in a different league for control and volume. And if we're only cooking bread in it then cleaning it won't be too onerous - one option we considered was a commercial oven as our main oven, but they are a pain to clean (they're designed on the assumption you have a minimum wage kitchen hand who cleans it for you every day. At the moment I'm the minimum wage kitchen hand, so I'm not super keen on that as an approach).
Paul Okere! Your comments are very helpful! Would you share a little more info on your 2nd hand commercial steam oven? Brands? Sources? Many thanks in advance.
I have the Miele DGC6865 XXL. It's about 2 years old. Never had a problem with it. Second Miele steam oven. Last one I had no problems either. We built a new house and I did Miele all over again. I use it to make Tartine sourdough bread with a 75% hydration. I have been doing surround at 435F and manually bursting steam for 20 minutes. Then leave it at 435 no steam until done. Usually another 25 minutes because I like a light colored crust. I turn off the oven and leave bread in oven for another 20 minutes. Works great. Nice oven spring. Good crust.