April 6, 2020 - 3:36pm
What did I do wrong?
Hello everyone!
Wishing you the best from Texas as I just found this forum and am eager to join. I am new to breadmaking, started back in January, and have only made basic rustic bread. Normally, my loaves come out fairly well, but the past two times I've baked, I don't think my dough is cooked all the way through (see attachment). While one loaf today came out perfect, it's smaller runt sibling produced these doughy bits. Was this a mistake on my part with mixing ingredients? or a cool spot in my oven?
Thanks for the help!
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Welcome to the forum! If one loaf was good and another identical loaf was not, then your oven is probably to blame. Try rotating your loaves in the oven periodically during your bake or use a infrared thermometer to see if you have a cold spot somewhere. But that assumption about the loaves being identical is key. Otherwise, there are other possible causes for what I see in the picture.
Hey there!
Thanks for responding, the dough from both were from the same batch but the undercooked one was about a third smaller, given what you said, my oven may be the issue.
Are you using a convection oven?
Baking stone, or dutch oven, or what? Were the dutch ovens identical or different?
Just to confirm, both were baked at the same time?
Convection oven, and both baked at the same time!
Should I invest in a baking stone? I've seen some talk about it on other forum posts
If not using dutch oven or a stone, what kind of surface or pan did you bake them on?
There's likely something going on, that should probably be identified before purchasing anything new. You said/implied they _were_ coming out okay before. So let's discover what changed, or made a cool spot.
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Were these two recent loaves on the same rack or on different racks/levels? Same pan, or different pans?
my hunch so far: air currents from the fan. one loaf could have blocked the other.
Or if the pans were much bigger than the loaf, and there was not enough clearance between pan and oven walls, the pans themselves could have blocked circulation of the hot air.
so I think I agree with wheatbeat, one spot was cooler than the other.
If you have "bottom heat" then I bet the smaller underdone loaf was on the upper rack.
If you have "top heat" then I bet the underdone loaf was on the lower rack.
If you have hidden "back heat", it still could have been a cold spot where the underdone loaf was, maybe with the pans interfering,
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update: did you steam the oven, and if so, how? Built in steam? Or a roaster pan? Sometimes, improper steaming cools whatever is directly above the steam pan. Was the underdone loaf directly over the steam pan?
update#2: Did anything change about the oven or baking arrangement, racks, pans, oven settings, etc., between the last good bake and this one?
If it had not cooled entirely, that could produce a lot of the traits that are visible in the photo. All else being equal, the smaller loaf should have been over-baked if it was in the oven for the same length of time as the larger loaf.
Paul