Crusts
Hi everyone, back again...hope you are all good and well...
I'm still having problems with overly tough crusts, I have tried the following so far...
Steam pan
Water spray at various points
Leaving the oven door open after baking
Putting the loaves outside to cool
Oil instead of floar coating
Flour instead of oil
Slightly higher hydration
Slightly lower hydration
Milk
Egg
Egg white only
Egg yolk only
water with salt in
water without salt
deliberate underbaking
deliberate overbaking
water spray before loaves go in
water spray during baking
water spray after baking
water spray to cool
anyone have any suggestions? I thought maybe its my oven routine rather than the dough. I have a fan assisted oven, usually this is my oven routine..
preheat with stone (middle bottom shelf) for an hour
load steam pan
loaves in at 250 celcius
water spray and close door
check after 10 minutes
if any browning then turn down to between 170 and 200
cook for round about 30 - 35 mins...
wire rack cool
cheers everyone
Dan
1) try lowering you initial temp to 218c (425F), then reduce to 204C (400F) after 10 minututes.
2) Over steaming can result in a tough crust. I recently made a sandwhich loaf style bread that would normally have a soft crust by design. I steamed heavily the first 12 minutes - much more so than usual as I was focusing on ensuring good oven spring - which I achieved. However I also got a tough crust on a recipe I made dozens of times before. The inside was perfect but alas not my best effort.
3) After the loaves cool two hours and are barely warm, place in a plastic bag. The redisual moisture from a loaf that is 98% cool will serve to soften the crust slightly.
I'm sure there are other ways to go too!
Thanks for that - will try your suggestions out
dan
Havent tried (1) yet, but looking at (2) I stopped spraying and just used pan, seems to reduce toughness a little. So should I not leave the pan in all the way through, so that the loaf might continue to absorb moisture? (if indeed it absorbs anything, i'm not sure). (3) works very well to soften/moisten the loaf generally (i usually store in greaseproof paper wrap, then small, light re-usable plastic bags lightl tied...
Thanks for the tips will try (1) soon, also just tried underbaking, with unstable results! will look further into the matter;-)
Cheers
V
I get thicker crusts when using a fan forced oven. Are you able to run with regular elements?
I think the bakers of the last few thousand years got along fine without them. I'm always trying to block mine by baking inside a closed shape.
I wish I could turn my fan off, its annoying and burns everything
v
Hi there, no the fan cant be turned off or any other adjustments as it happens, so I nearly always get some burning to the crust on the area of fan blowing ...
Have recently tried backing off the baking time, seems to be working but underbaked some loaves on occasion ;-)
Will do a batch soon using lower initial temp, my normal is 250 c , might try 225, see what happens...
v