September 30, 2018 - 10:48am
Slashes becoming too smooth
Hi!
Something I have been trying to solve lately and its really only an aesthetic issue...
My slashes are opening up but the resultant bloomed area becomes completely smooth and "at one" with the rest of the crust.
I was wondering I am doing that fails to achieve that more textured bloomed section that looks much more...Artisan!
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Krish, I hope you find a solution to your problem. And I hope that solution solves that same problem for me :-)
My breads often do the same exact thing. I think it boils down to a well shaped bread with gluten that is well developed and strong. In my case I think the dough is too slack and weak. I tend to ferment dough for a very long time, in order to develop flavor. If you miss the ferment or proof err on the side of slightly under-fermented and/or under-proofed.
Good Luck
Dan
Dan, somewhere in my cranial recesses it occurs to me that Mini Oven posted something recently about baking temperatures and the early setting of a crust. It made me wonder about those high temps (475-500 F) that many recipes include. If my dough is going into a really hot oven, there ought to be some nice oven spring, but if the really high temps are causing the crust to set too early and limit the expansion, then the entire surface will be more uniform than if the ears are allowed to develop more slowly. Seems perhaps a matter of balancing the need for heat with the need for not too much heat. And I suspect that the hydration of the dough makes a big difference too.
Does this make sense?
I am a big fan of initial high heat. Most (maybe all) bakes start at 500-550F. I made a mental note to try lower heat.
Have you see the fantastic video the Doc.Dough put on YouTube showing the evolution of scored dough opening up andblooming in the oven? It is a time lapse and you can watch the ears grow open and up. Don’t have that link right now.
I found the video. https://youtu.be/8kVab9PNhYM
Dan
The Master of Slash is none other than our very own dmsnydner, fortunately for us he created a tutorial that has helped many of us become master slashers.
Give his tutorial a try and let us know how well you make out. Good Luck!.
dmsnyder: scoring-bread-updated-tutorial (on The Fresh Loaf)
sounds like a heat issue to me. What temperatures are you baking at and what kind of oven? Where is the bread placed in the oven?
I have been baking at 210C both in an out of a preheated dutch over.
I was wondering if maybe I might next time try a Stone heated to say 220 but then bring the temperature immediately down to 200 or so.
I'm sure it has something to do with the crusting speed but I'm actually not sure if I am trying to speed it up or slow it down.
I think also I will try more angled slashes next time to try and get a better "ear"