Dark spots on my freshly baked bread?
Hi,
Lately I have been baking a great bread that started as the sunflower rye bread from the Bread Baker's Apprentice by Mr. Reinhart.
I have altered the recipe a little and it now consists of rye flour, whole wheat flour, high gluten flour, sun flower seeds, walnuts, and flax seeds.
I use barm based starter and dry yeast according to the recipe.
I bake this bread on a baking stone in a blue steel baking tin according to the hearth baking instructions and get great results each and every time. This has become my weekly default bread.
For some reason when I take the bread out of the tin, I see dark spots on the sides of the loaf that were in the tin. Since I wash the tin thoroughly before baking and dust with flour (usually rye, but I tried semolina as well), I am absolutely sure these are not mold left overs of any kind, although they could resemble black mold.
I have no idea what these are, and I am very curious to know if someone has ever seen it or can explain it.
Thanks,
Shai
to do with steel. Let's investigate! Check your pans very carefully for any rust spots or corrosion. Where were they manufactured? Are they new or antique? Are the spots random or do they seem to be specifically around walnuts, flax, bubbles, or whole grains? or on seems and corners?
You could try seasoning your pans, rub them with a thin coat of margarine and bake them empty until they smoke, let them cool. Then use normally. Let me suggest opening a window and running a fan to suck out the smoke. Mini O
I think MiniO is right in suggesting the spots are coming from the tin (or another surface). In my previous oven I found that a lot of steam in the oven would cause the oil that was baked onto the upper rack/oven would flake off onto my loaves. I assume that you're steaming your oven, you might try spraying somewhere else in the oven or not at all and see if that makes a difference. Good luck, R
Thanks for the answer.
This is a new good quality thick blue steel tin manufactured in Holland. It's the kind of tin that you should never wash, but on the first or second use I already saw these spots, even though the tin was oiled. The spots are on flat surfaces, but I will run a check to see what was there.
After I noticed the spots for the first time, I thought that something developed on the left over flour while stored not clean in the cupboard, so I started washing it right before the baking, but still I get the same spots. I can't say I see any corrosion on the tin, and wiping it with a piece of paper yields nothing. I will investigate some more.
Shai
Does the same thing happen with other breads baked in these tins?
Well,
I need to try other bread types, because this tin is rather new, and I have only baked this type of bread over and over again because it is so good.
I did, however, run a couple of tests:
I used baking paper, but the spots appeared again on the bread and on the paper as well, and I could not tell on which side of the paper it happened first.
Then I tried to cover the tin with Aluminum foil and use baking paper to isolate the bread from the aluminum foil. This time, no spots.
I think the blame is the tin, but what are these spots?
Thanks,
Shai
I wonder if these spots could be burn/ hypercarmelization spots caused by a weak or thin spot in the metal allowing more heat to penetrate? This would explain the fact that the paper was burned but the aluminium foil kept it from happening. You said the paper had the spots on them, did they look like traditional burns as seen on exposed parchment paper?
Maybe another metal in the form of flakes or dust, was rolled/bonded into the sheet metal as it was formed. When the pan is heated conducts more heat to those "spots" resulting in burning/hypercarmelization.
There are different grades and qualities of steel and knowing the price of steel has been climbing for the past few years (which tends to flood the market with lower quality steel) I would be inclined to take the bread pans back to where you got them and exchange them for another brand.
Mini O
The paper usually burns out brown in the oven, but the spots were kind of black. I would also expect that the area around them on the paper would be at least brown, but that did not happen.
I have a couple of photos of these spots, and I will post them.
Thanks.