Some of my family members prefer a soft crust.  To accomidate this need as well as the longevity of my oven's electronic system, can I just omit the steam treatment from a bread recipe? or will my final rise change drastically.

Hello! I just baked the Pane Siciliano from BBA, and I'm not sure if the bread is supposed to be so soft! I followed the instructions closely, cutting back on a bit of water as it was extremely wet (and I mean extremely. I tried Bertinet's slap-and-fold, but gave up and did repeated stretch-and-folds at 10 mins intervals until the dough passed the windowpane test.. about 4 reptitions of stretch-and-fold in total)

The dough was very floppy and refused to be formed into a batard so I couldn't create enough surface tension for it to proof properly :( Heated oven to as high as it could go (about 482F) and had a steam pan in. I took it out of the oven when the inside registered around 200 F (90 C for me) and the crust was nice and crackly. However, as it cooled on the rack the crust softened. This happened with my previous loaf (a malted flour loaf) as well and I am wondering if it might have to do with the humidity as this did not happen to me when I was in London. Currently I am in Singapore where the humidity levels go over 80% easily... 

Also, the inside of the bread was very soft and quite pillowy, though not in the underbaked way. I would like to ask the advice of other people in the forum who have baked this bread as well.. Here is the crumb shot.. Definitely not as open as mentioned and pictured in the book. 

My mom and sis really liked the bread, and I was okay with it.. Just really curious to know why my crust and crumb are turning out the way they are. Thanks for any suggestions/comments/advice! :) 

I made a version of Susan's Norwich Sourdough

http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/07/08/my-new-favorite-sourdough/

with a variation of a higher percentage of starter:

400g white (very strong) rather than 450g
60g light rye
250g warm water rather than 300g
280g starter (mix white & rye) rather than 180g
10g salt
(i.e. same percentages flour and water if you take starter at 100% into account)

1 hour autolyse without salt, 3 S&F at 30min intervals, added salt, S&F to medium windowpane.  Left for an hour, S&F then left for 30m.  Did a rough shape then left for 30m.  Shaped thoroughly then proved (on flat tray) for 2.5 hours (around 21C) - it rose a lot!

Oven was at at least 260C (with tray of boiling water) + sprayed - 5mins at this, turned down to 250C (NB fan oven) for 5m.  It was getting very brown so took out tray of water and turned down to 200C for 10mins, then 180C for 20mins, finally 160C for 5mins. (45m total)

It is a good looking loaf, however - the crumb tasted very light and fluffy, whereas I prefer a more chewy crumb.  In addition, although the crust is dark, it is quite soft (day 2 as well).

Recommendations please - what should I do to get somewhat chewier crumb?  What should I do to get a crispier crust?

Many thanks!
Sali

I use the pizza recipe from BBA. The dough itself is excellent, easy to work with and pretty solid flavor. The other day however, I ran into some problems.

I made a buffalo chicken pizza. Obviously, this is a topping with a good deal of weight and moisture. I tried to spread the crust as thin as possible in hopes of getting a crunch out of it. It backfired and all I got was a crust that couldn't hold the weight of the toppings. So, I remade the dough recipe and tried it again, leaving the dough a little thicker and allowing it to cook slightly longer and I replace the heavy toppings with a simple tomato sauce and mozzarella. When the pizza came out of the oven it looked great. Nice dark bubbles on the crust, crisp and sturdy. I put it down on my wooden cutting board to cut it and before I knew it the center of the pie was already soggy. I cut it and ate it and I noticed that the flavor of the crust was pretty good but the texture wasn't. It was too chewy although it did have a nice crunch. 

So, to recap...My problems are, the center of the pie won't keep the crunch, or is too soggy, and the crust is slightly over chewy. 

My next try, I'm going to up my dough weight from 6 ounces to 9 ounces and stretch it to the same size. Hoping the extra dough will sit in the center and give it some structure. 

I've tried this dough with and without any fat in the recipe. I tend to leave it out for more crunch but haven't seen a difference in the way it changes the structure. Hoping someone might be able to shed some light on what I'm doing wrong. 

Soft crust

I want to thank every one the made suggestions or gave advice. I settled for starting the baking at a higher heat than I have done, then leaving the bread an extra 10 min with the door open and the oven turned off. This method gives me a nicer crust than I had before

Thanks again

Knud

I am trying to duplicate a commercial loaf that is virtually crustless. It is a malt fruit loaf. I have tried baking it at a lower temperature for longer and with a pan of boiling water in the bottom of the oven. This is better, but it still comes out with a light, crisp crust. Any ideas how I could keep / make the crust softer? The recipe I'm using can be found in the discussion on this site here.

So my sourdough starter isn't ready yet. I've decided I'm going to baby it a little longer with three stirrings a day and lots of love. That being the case, I still needed to bake. This came about because I had oatmeal for lunch today. Strange lunch, I know, but sometimes you just have those cravings that must be heeded. I envisioned this as a soft-crusted bread with a dense but moist crumb and a decently caramelized crust. I wanted a little maple flavor, as well as the flavor of the brown sugar. I almost got it, but I think that this is still a work in progress. Not using instant oatmeal may be a start. It also needs a tad more salt than the teaspoon I put in. The only thing I'm lacking to make it completely from scratch is the maple syrup, which I'll get on friday, and I'll bake it again this weekend from old fashioned oats, brown sugar, and maple syrup. For anyone who still wants the recipe, it is below. I think I'm starting to get the scoring thing. These didn't blow out on the bottom. They were also better proofed than my last loaf. I let them sit for about an hour before baking. The real test of any bread making, for me anyway, is the appearance of the crumb. This is, by far, my best for a more dense loaf. I'm really loving what I'm learning here. I'm having a lot of fun baking (sometimes more than my boyfriend, our daughter, and I can eat, but it's proving to be very educational. Recipe: Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal Bread - Take One Prepare the oatmeal: 1 packet instant maple & brown sugar oatmeal 1/2 cup water Mix and heat for 1 minute. It will be almost done, but not quite. Allow to cool to just warm. Assemble the rest of your ingredients: 3 1/3 cups flour 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast 2 tablespoons of butter 1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar (very lightly) 1 egg, lightly beaten 2/3 cup milk (lukewarm) 1 1/2 tsp salt Disolve the yeast in the milk. In your large bowl you use for mixing the final dough, mix together the oatmeal, sugar, and egg. Once incorporated, mix in the milk. Once all this is well mixed, add 2 cups of flour and the salt and mix until you get a thick paste. Add the rest of the flour in 1/3 cup increments until it's almost all in. If your cups are the same as my cups, it should take all but the littlest bit of the flour. If not, you want the dough to feel very sticky and barely hand-kneadable. Once mixed together so that there's barely any flour left in the bowl, rest for 10 minutes. After the resting period, turn the dough out onto your kneading surface and "knead", as well as you can, for a few minutes. 5 or so. Bulk ferment should be about 60-80 minutes. Mine was on the longer side because of the temperature of my kitchen. I stretched and folded the dough three times during this time. Got very good gluten development. Preshape and allow to sit for 5 or so minutes. Shape loaves, then proof for about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the warmth of your kitchen. Score and bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes, then turn down to 350 and bake until a thermometer reads 200 degrees or so.