Hello all!

Having just pulled yet another crusty loaf out of the oven, I'm wondering what I might be doing wrong. You see, it seems that whatever I bake, be it cake, bread, muffins... and whichever recipe I follow, I always get a crust that is a little thicker than I would care for. This is not only the exposed part of the bread (or muffin etc), but also the part that is inside any pan I might use.

The other possibly related symptoms are that the things I bake are never as light as I would like, and drier than I would like too. They are not complete disasters, quite edible (according to others too) but I'm not proud of them at all.

I'm using a fan assisted electric oven, I do everything by hand, I live in Northern Ireland where it is not especially humid or dry, hot or cold. I use instant yeast (though in other news I have had a starter growing in my kitchen for 10 days now and I can't wait to try it!) or brand new bicarb if I'm making soda bread, strong organic flours... I don't have a thermometer for my oven (apart from the built in dial), though I suspect I should probably invest in one as soon as possible. I don't use steam, though I'm also thinking I should probably try this next time.

Mainly I was suspicious that it really is EVERYTHING I make that has the same thick crust issue, which either points the finger at the common factor of the oven, or me! What do you think?

Thank you so much in advance...

• 110ml warm water
• 200g strong white flour
• 3/4 teaspoon quick yeast
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• pinch of sugar

Hi,

I've been following a recipe as above but having problems with the crust. The behaviour's pretty consistent. The crust is ok in the oven but once it's out of the oven the crust on top softens. Underneath the bread tends to be cruncy.

Recently I've tried just starting with the water first,yeast, pinch of sugar and salt then adding flour gradually using a pastry scraper to need and stretch. It works fine but again I get a bread with a decent moist crumb but a soft crust on top.

The old recipe I used to use resulted in soft tops less often (used orange juice instead of the sugar and water)  but I was in a different house so could have been the oven.

Any ideas?

Kind regards,

Ashley.

I'm really excited about this crusty loaf that I had formed into a ring. The bread turned out fabulously. I used a relatively new way of shaping that I learned from watching this YouTube video and then left the shaped bread in the fridge overnight and baked it the next morning. The crust is even more caramelized and crispy and the crumb has a wonderful nutty flavour.

We served this bread for a recent festive dinner with an appetizer of Moules Marinière (mussels poached in white wine, butter, onions, garlic and parsley)

• bread recipe based on the baguette recipe in The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum
• blog from OUR kitchen: Moules Marinière (WHB#214: parsley)

We loved the Mussels so much that we think we'll serve them (with more of this bread) for Christmas Eve dinner. And maybe again on New Year's Even dinner too....

-Elizabeth

Please take a look at my annual Advent calendar (but don’t even THINK about peeking ahead).

Advent calendar

(edit: ooops, I forgot to sign my name)

Today I made my first sourdough bread! The starter had been bubbling for almost 11 days now, so I decided to give it a try. At first it didn't rise much. I guess I simply didn't knead it properly in the beginning, but by the time it came out of the oven there was a queue waiting to take a bite out of it. I got the recipe from here.

Here's the loaf when it came out:

And this is the crumb:

My starter is slightly thicker than pancake-batter. Does anyone know any other good recipes that will work with a starter such as mine?

Thanks

Fence

Hello everyone!

I'm rather a novice at baking and I love experimenting, but I would like other people's opinions before I try out the following recipe. Truth be told, I made it up myself. I'm going for a white bread loaf with a relatively moist inside and a crispy outside. So please give me some advice and any critique is welcome!

500 grams white bread flour
80 ml milk
180 ml water (about)
1 egg
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon instant yeast (please tell me whether this should be heaped or not)

So, we mix everything together, knead it and leave it to rise, until it has doubled in size. Then we take it out of the bowl,  form it and leave it to rise a second time (Do you think I should do this? I know that if I let the the bread over-ferment it will acquire a beery taste, but I want it to have the best flavour possible. Should I maybe put less sugar in?). We glaze the loaf/loaves/rolls and bake them for 45 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.

Does this sound sane?

I'm trying to bake a loaf that is mostly whole wheat, artisan, and the kind of bread you want to sop up the juice left in your bowl of steamed mussels, or the last of your cioppino - crusty and chewy, with an open crumb, and crusty.  Did I mention crusty?

Hi all,

Can anyone recommend a French-style dinner roll recipe?  Something that is crusty (but also relatively easy to tear), has an airy crumb and preferably uses some percentage of whole wheat/rye flour.  I've tried making rolls from my two standard sourdoughs (pain au levain complet et pain au levain from Leader's books) but, while the bread is great, the crust is simply too strong to tear when formed into a 3 oz roll and baked at 400F.  I've not tried substituting pate fermentee for stiff levain but I have thought about it.  At this point, my next attempt will be pain du campain from BBA or one of the liquid levain recipes from Leader's Bread Alone.  Any other thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

Hello All,

I have been enlisted to make the bread/rolls for our Thanksgiving feast this year. No problem there. I look forward to it. But my In-laws are asking for a recipe I once made, (handed down by my aunt) and quite honestly it is a pain.  It goes like this:

3 C hot water
2 Sticks butter
1 1/2 C sugar
6 eggs beaten
1 1/2 t salt
2/3 C powdered milk

**********
Yeast combo
3 T yeast 1/4 C sugar 3/4 C lukewarm water

**********
10 C flour
--------------------------------------------------------
Now for the kicker.  After all this you roll it out, smother it with another stick of melted butter and roll it up. They are like cinnamon rolls without the fun cinnamon or sugar.
The recipe says to bake at 350 for 15 min. This part always drove me crazy because if you don't place the rolls just right, they run into each other and you end up with a doughy mass in the middle of the pan.  Even if you succeed, the roll is huge, heavy, slippery with butter (i like butter. I even love butter. but come on!)

Personally I would like  a nice simple crusty roll. Tasty and soft on the inside. good for splitting in half and stacking with turkey or the antipast.  But finding a recipe that really crackles has been hard in and of its self. Reinhart's white bread rolls are OK as far as they go....
but they are white bread. Any ideas for my ideal roll (or even how to make the above gut bombs palatable to anyone who likes a little bread with their butter) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! and have a happy Thanksgiving!