I have subscribed to the bread bakers index for two or three
years and I have not come across this suggestion so I will offer it
here, now. In the "Jesuit Bread Book" I discovered that adding a
pan of water to the oven to affect the crust on bread doesn't work.
What the author has done for years, and now so have I, is to spray
well the pre-baked bread with vinegar (and sprinkle on the sesame
seeds or poppy seeds or coarse salt et cetera) and bake it for five
minutes, spray well again, bake for five minutes, spray a final time
and bake for the remainder of the time suggested. The vinegar is
supposed to evaporate and leave no taste but I find this isn't so. A
taste remains which I feel, and lots of people who have tasted my
bread also feel, adds beautifully to the flavour of the French or
Italian or herb or rosemary-buttermilk or bread sticks; any kind of
plain or savory bread seems to be enhanced by this. I wouldn't try
it with a sweet bread. And it makes the sesame seeds stick, too!
I hope this helps.
Lorraine