Bread Bottoms   What do they tell us?  Lots of information there yet we tend not to show them.  Yet we flip over a loaf as soon as we have it in our hands, many times before it lands on the cooling rack.   Some bottoms we don't see, others we do.  Dark, they speak of a hot oven; pale, a cooler one.   The hallmark of an English muffin > two bottoms.  They also leave clues as to what surface the loaf was baked.

In a discussion on evidence of the use of baking parchment, the subject of wrinkles came up.

Parchment Wrinkles.  I'm guessing the wrinkles come from moisture from the bread going into the parchment and deforming it where the dough lies, the outside edges being dry.  In the oven, the paper dries out shrinking & releasing steam which escapes in channels forming wrinkles where the still impressional  dough is touching it.  It marks the bottom like a fingerprint.  No two bottoms are alike.  :)  It's great when the bread doesn't stick and clean up is made easy.

Paper wrinkles like paper does.  With wall paper, one wets the paper with watery glue and lets it "size" until the paper has stabilized before hanging it or risk wrinkles as it dries.  I have not yet bothered to wet the parchment first, let it "size", and stretch it flat to park my dough on it to rise.  There might be a difference, less wrinkles or more.   Hasn't  bothered me enough to test it... yet.  Someone who is about to bake two loaves with parchment, might want to try it and report back.

Playing with those thoughts, it also might be interesting to create a pattern in the parchment that would show up in the baked dough, the bottom of the loaf becomming the top or loaves with signature bottoms.  We've lightly touched the subject before on TFL.  Orgami cranes pops into my head set under the wet dough... or folded rows for a rilled effect.  Cut paper?  Pizza with patterned bottoms?  What could I do with a cool iron and parchment?  So, I started this new thread...  "Bread Bottoms"  What do they tell us?

Dreaming of baking on the surface of relief tiles?  Does your wfo oven leave brick marks on the bottoms of loaves?    What does the bottom of a grilled loaf look like?  What does a bottom look like baked on Iron?  Bamboo?  Perforated pans?  Or baked on seeds?

Show us your bottoms!