The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Italian Bread Problems

jafwiz's picture
jafwiz

Italian Bread Problems

I have been making italian bread using the Peter Reinhart  recipie and i am always having problems with the crust. It comes out of the oven cracking and the crust is firm but after sitting it sofens up? I don't know what else to try i tryed not putting the olive oil did not help tryed baking longer at a lower temp same result? Any one have a tryed and true resipie and method that i could try?

tgrayson's picture
tgrayson

This happens to all bread. After all, the interior moisture migrates towards the crust. You can recrisp the crust by popping it into a hot oven for a few m inutes.

 

 

albacore's picture
albacore

I experience this problem too - as tgrayson says, maybe we all do.

If I bake to a correct internal temperature of, say 95C, I can have a loaf with nice moist crumb but with a crust that soon goes soft.

I'm thinking if I bake longer at the same oven temp, maybe the crust will stay crisp longer (it will be "bolder" too, but I can cope with that), but at the expense of a drier crumb that will stale quicker too.

So maybe there is a balancing act to weigh up.

I haven't tried the second option yet, as I think I prefer the first.

Lance