November 20, 2010 - 10:25am
buttermilk cluster question
Hi, I just baked the buttermilk cluster on the front page as a practice run for thanksgiving. It came out very nicely but the bottom was a little too hard. This is baked for 30 minutes at 425 deg F and it seemed like just enough to cook it all the way through. The cluster is baked in a metal springform pan. What would be the right correction to make to keep the bottom from getting too tough while the rest cooks all the way through? Thanks so much! -Varda
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Sounds like this is probably being caused by the bottom heating element causing the bottom of the bread to overcook. Any and/or all of the possibilities include:
1. Make sure the oven is well preheated. This may prevent the bottom element/burner from turning on too much. Try to limit the time the oven door is open also(loosing heat, causing the burner to turn on).
2. If practical, move the pan to a higher level, away from the more intense, direct heat of the bottom burner.
3. Shield from the intense bottom heat by placing the pan on top of another baking tray, sheet pan, etc.(maybe a sheet of aluminum foil would even do the trick). Sort of the same principle as the "air bake" insulated cookie sheet.
4. Maybe the best solution of all would be to bake on properly preheated baking/pizza stone (pan of rolls on top of stone). This is certainly not to imply that one cannot do perfectly baked goods without a stone, as pretty surely, most do not use one. I am just so pleased at the way a stone helps bake many items so evenly, especially breads, even when they are even already in pans or trays. Must be thoroughly preheated though, or the opposite will be a problem(underbaked bottoms).
Good luck.
I do have a stone and it just didn't occur to me to use it in this setting. So that's a simple correction. So now I'm all set for thanksgiving. Thanks a lot! -Varda