The Fresh Loaf

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Oops, a blowout!

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

Oops, a blowout!

This morning I was baking the SD bread I had made yesterday and retarded overnight, as I often do.  I had to be out and was running out of time so decided to bake two at the same time, 1 in the DO (righthand loaf), the other on a small sheet pan (lefthand loaf).  They had identical treatment otherwise. 

here is the underside.

what would cause the blowout?  it looks as if it is the seam? I had proofed seam side up the slashed the top just before baking, (as I did the other loaf).  

Crumb shot.

 

Must admit it made me laugh, think I need to work on my shaping some more, it tasted good though - we had unexpected visitors for lunch and it vanished in no time.  

 

Comments

pmccool's picture
pmccool

If not, the crust may have set up sooner on the blowout loaf.  Then, as oven spring drove expansion, the weakest part of the loaf tore.  Since the tear is along the bottom edge of the loaf, it is probable that the crust was softer there because the pan shielded that part of the loaf from drying quite as fast as the upper surface. 

Lovely breads, in spite of the one blowout. 

Paul

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

as these were the last of of batch of 4 and time was short. I had sprayed the loaf with water and done one quick squirt with a spray bottle about a minute after I loaded the oven.  I hadn't thought of the bottom edge as being the weak spot, so I have learnt something more - always more to learn.  thanks Paul.

Leslie

pmccool's picture
pmccool

as the more-exposed surfaces.  One option is to add steam to the oven for the first 10-15 minutes, which will keep the exposed surface from drying so soon.  Another option would be to let the loaf proof further so that there is less oven spring, but that gets to be really tricky.

If you look at the loaf that baked in the container, it has much more expansion.  That's because the steam from the dough's own moisture was trapped early in the bake and kept the crust from setting up right away.

Paul

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

next time I bake without the DO.  I love how much better the bread bakes in a DO, but it is not always an option and this bake showed how important the steam is.  thanks Paul

Leslie

RoundhayBaker's picture
RoundhayBaker

They dry out (and set) crusts on loaves closer to the fan. Like Paul says, bread tends to blowout along the canyon between loaves because they are shielded from the air flow and the oven temp is lower.

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

I have just recently started to use the fan once I take the top off the DO, and have had some lovely crackly crust as a result. So in this instance, I believe the fan was off inthe first part of the bake when the blowout occurred, then the fan was on for the last half.  Interesting about the canyon between loaves, as I hadn't thought of that.  It was overall an interesting experiment, comparing the two methods as lately I have only been using the DO. The downside is that I bake only one loaf at a time. 

thanks Roundhaybaker

RoundhayBaker's picture
RoundhayBaker

...further apart? The wider the gap between them, the less likely you are to get a blowout. And are you using a baking stone? If so, get it ten degrees hotter than your baking temperature before you bake (obviously you have to remember to then turn down the oven). The higher temp sets the crust on the base and lower portion of the loaves and helps avoid blowouts.

Finally, when you score, do it so that the slashes on the two loaves will open on the sides facing each other. This takes advantage of the lower skin temps in the 'canyon walls'. The loaves can get great spring and grigne this way. 

These tips are not infallible-there are many other reasons for blowouts-but they do help.

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

it is yet another thing to remember! I do use unglazed tiles as a baking stone and turn temperature down when I bake.  This time I probably forgot to bump the temperature up while reheating between batches :(  My oven was only just big enough to fit DO plus small sheet pan so I really can't play around much with position.  

The feedback is awesome, thanks a lot - I will try again next bake day.