The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

loaves too dark

sallam's picture
sallam

loaves too dark

Greetings

I make sourdough sandwich loaves every other day. They're fine and my family loves to eat them. However, the loaves come out dark, so they don't eat the edges. I tried reducing the baking time. I now bake them at 180c (350F) for only 45 minutes, yet the sides and top are still dark brown. If I tent the top with a foil the top comes out nice and golden, but what should I do with the sides? Should I reduce oven temperature, or reduce baking time, or something else? I bake in Prestige metal loaf pans. (Before those, I used to bake in foil tins, and the color was ok all around)

jaxler12's picture
jaxler12

My first suggestion, not knowing what type of oven you're using, would be to rearrange the racks. I usually bake my sourdough loaves on the bottom rack of my oven, which gives me a beautifully colored crust. 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Darker one make for a darker crust.  I use shiny aluminum ones and no dark crust problems result.  Also make sure you are baking to 96 C or 205 F on the inside and no more.  You can even go less with an enriched dough - maybe 196 F

sallam's picture
sallam

My pans are gray, and my dough has oil. milk and molasses. Do those ingredients make it enriched?

My oven is a gas oven. Heating comes from the bottom. I use the middle rack. I cannot put the pans on the top rack, as they would touch the broiler.

I was thinking of baking them at 160c (320f) or even 140c (284f) and compansate by prolonging the baking time. Can I do that?

"You can even go less with an enriched dough - maybe 196 F"

 Unfortunately, I don't have a probe thermometer. What oven temperature would make the inside reach 196f, and for how long?

AlanG's picture
AlanG

will brown up very fast and you need to pay attention.  I modified the Hamelman whole wheat bread with a soaker by putting molasses in rather than honey.  I have to turn the heat down more than usual to prevent to dark of a crust.  i bake these loaves in pans.  It's hard to give you a general rule here.  For the whole wheat bread I bake it at 450dF with steam for 15 minutes and then turn the oven down to 405dF for 10 minutes.  It's done and has a deep dark brown crust which we don't mind.

drogon's picture
drogon

I typically bake mine for 12 minutes at 250C then for a further 21 minutes at 220C. Under 35 minutes...

My honey/spelt loaves are always darker though - but that's more due to the honey caramelising than anything else...

But there's a lot to it - higher hydration loaves will take longer to bake. Investing in a probe thermometer might be a good thing if you can get one. I have a Thermopen - at the top of the price range, but there are many much cheaper.

-Gordon

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

place a shiny sheet pan or several folded layers of aluminium foil on the rack below the baking loaves and tent the loaves early on.  Don't completely block heat but leave at least a 5cm gap around all sides, blocking just the middle.  Plan to rotate the pans half way thru the bake like normal.  You will want at least 180°C to bake the bread.  It is possible that the oven is set too high and actually hotter than then setting so lower the temp and see what happens.

Another option besides going back to the shiny pans would be to double the pans, making it more insulated from the heat  or drop the metal pan inside a foil pan and remove it or both pans when the loaves are almost done to brown up the sides.