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Lesson: GlazingWhat you put in your loaf has much more to do with the way your loaf turns out than what you put on your loaf, but glazing the exterior of your loaf can definitely help you achieve the effect you were after (i.e., soft, sweet, crusty, etc). It is, literally, the icing on the cake. I made a batch of rolls and glazed each one with something different before scoring them. Compare:
Let us look at them one-by-one.
First is the control, with no glaze. The color was fairly light, the crust dry but not particularly crusty or crackly. There was not any particular shine to the rolls.
The one glazed in egg yolk came out the darkest. It stayed relatively soft, had a nice shine to it, and a slightly sweet, rich flavor.
Egg whites also created a nice shiny coat and kept the crust soft. Adding a touch of salt to the egg whites helps break it down so it can be brushed on easier (something I failed to do above and may help account for the bare patches where I failed to glaze it properly).
Water (above) and milk (below) both kept the crust on the soft side and gave the roll a soft, satiny coat. Milk is supposed to also darken the crust a bit more than water, though I didn't notice a significant difference here. The difference is, I suspect, more pronounced for a loaf that has to bake for 45 minutes than it is for a roll that bakes for 20 to 25 minutes.
Cream can also be used to glaze a loaf of bread. It is supposed to give the loaf an even richer, darker glaze.
The buttered bun is above. I actually did not apply the melted butter until after the roll was removed from the oven: it was brushed on to the still hot bun. It created a very nice shine, darkened the color noticeably, and gave the roll a moist, rich glaze. If crispy crust is what you are after, the secret is not to glaze. Instead what you need to do is fill the oven with steam in the first few minutes. Below is a previous batch of rolls I made:
As you can see, the exterior of them was crusty and crackly. I achieved this by pouring a cup of hot water into a hot baking pan on the shelf below where my rolls were. The water evaporated, filled the oven with steam, and resulted in a wonderful crusty rolls. There are many other things you can try glazing with: a whole beaten egg, a mixture of egg and milk, juice, and so on. Glazes also make a good base with which to glue on seeds or grains to the exterior of your loaf. Continue on to Lesson Five: Ten Tips for Better French Bread.
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About my buns
I got a question via email about the recipe used to make these rolls.
The ones at the top of the article were just a basic french bread dough: flour, salt, yeast, and water. The ones at the bottom, the prettier darker ones, were the Vienna Rolls from the new Joy of Cooking (new meaning the 90s edition). They are a little more complex. As printed in the book:
1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water to activate the yeast in
1 cup warm water
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
Mix all of the above together, then fold in:
2 large egg whites, beaten until stiff
Stir in an additional 1 3/4 - 2 cups flour. Knead for 7 minutes. Place in bowl and cover.
Let rise an hour and a half, punch down, let rise again.
Shape into rolls, cover, and give an hour to rise. Bake at 425 in a steamy oven for about 20-25 minutes.
I made a couple of changes to this recipe: instant yeast instead of active dry yeast and butter instead of shortening.
I intend to post a full article after I have a couple more times to practice them, but hopefully this is enough for folks to get close.
I will try them
I will try them
They really do look great :-)
Petras Brotkasten
Chili und Ciabatta
I made them, they look good
I made them, they look good but I think they taste a little bit bland... I prefer my rolls with sourdough. At the moment I'm testing the "Crusty Hard Rolls" from the King Arthur Baking Cookbook. They are made with poolish and have to rest overnight in the fridge before you bake them in the morning (which will be tomorrow). Let's see what happens...
How did they turn out?
How did they turn out?
Whoa!
How would you go about glazing with a scrambled egg!? I'm fascinated.
I didn't mean a *cooked*
I didn't mean a *cooked* scrambled egg, just an egg that has been all mixed up, whites and yolk together. What would you call that if not a "scrambled egg"?
...
A "beaten egg" is perhaps more accurate?
Gotcha. A beaten egg is
Gotcha. A beaten egg is indeed more accurate.
your eggs????
hay u guys,,, egg wash water wash applecake is done apple jelly. the bakerys have a wash after the BREAD is done ,,Its brushed w , a coating so it shines,& one that has flour on top no shine. ok hotbred
package of yeast?
I have bought 7gm packages of yeast, also 9gm, 10 gm, 11gm, 15 gm 17gm and 23gm. What is a package of yeast? A teaspoon is about 5gm. A tablespoon or soupspoon 15gm. :) Mini Oven
Re : Package of yeast
1 Package = 1/4 oz= 7 gr = 2 1/4 tsp = 1 cake of fresh yeast (0.6oz)
Chewy Crust
So whats the secret to having a strong chewy crust like Italian Bread?
Strong, Chewy Crust
You get a thicker crust by baking in a higher temperature oven. For example, if you bake at around 250°F (120°C) you'll get virtually no crust, which is handy for making sandwich breads, or for baking rye (as in those strange little thin slices you get at parties). But if you bake at 500°F (260°C) you'll get a nice, thick crust.
I believe that you get the thickness due to the outside "setting" faster in the higher temperature, and the inside still trying to expand. You cook more evenly with the lower temperature; you're really only cooking bread to an internal temperature of between 190°F to 195°F (87°C to 90°C), and you do so more slowly with the lower temperature, so the bread doesn't undergo the rapid change of the higher temperature.
If you cook on a "pizza" stone, or on unglazed tiles, or in a brick oven, then you're going to get a nice, thick, bottom crust to your loaves (assuming you're cooking directly on a surface, that is, and not in a pan). If you are cooking on a stone of some sort, be sure to preheat the stone for long enough, so that it provides that additional heat to the bottom of the loaf.
As to the chewyness of the loaf, that's all about gluten, and not so much about the crust, really.
Good luck!
Glazing
Have you tried dusting with flour before scoring? Or spraying with olive oil before baking?
I usually do one or the other, simply because I like to let them raise covered in plastic wrap, and need something to help them not stick. The flour gives a really nice presentation, and a dramatic showing to the interior, especially because I usually do whole wheat of some sort, so the contrast is quite nice.
The olive oil gives a nice sheen to the loaves, but it does tend to inhibit flakiness in the crust.
Crackly Crust
I was under the impression that the introduction of steam only serves to maximize oven spring as the steam condenses onto the dough in the beginning of baking to prevent crust formation before the oven spring is complete. If this is so, is it not possible to create a fully crispy, crackly crust, without using steam, and simply high heat?
steam
Steam prevents crust formation until later, which lets it spring longer and results in a thinner crust. The thinner crust is more likely to be crackly.
I'm not sure how your crust would turn out if you did high heat but no steam. My fear would be that it would be too thick and leathery, but it certainly worth trying, eh?
Not for me!
Tough and leathery would take a long time to produce. In my experience 500F for 5 minutes or so is enough. Back it down to 450F for the rest of the bake. I usually only bake for 20 to 30 minutes total per loaf.
Occasionally when I bake larger loaves for longer then that a thicker crust is produced, and so it doesn't turn out so well. But I've never had a problem with shorter bake times. But if the steaming method can increase the crackliness of the crust I'll be all for it.
I think it tends to soften easily, maybe even the day of the bake.
hard rolls
Jonquil Hi, I made that joy of cooking recipe with the 2 stiffly beaten eggwhites. Did yours come out with hard crusts (the plain ones?) Mine were a little soft. I baked at 400F for about 25 minutes. They were pretty, they tasted ok (a little bland, but my sister likes it that way), just softer than I wanted.
To get sandwich rolls with big holes would you just use your regular french bread dough? Thanks, Jonquil