The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

crust tooooo crunchy

shi's picture
shi

crust tooooo crunchy

today i made my first whole wheat flour bread(with little all purpose flour) using the preferment method. The loaf rose beautifully and before final bake I glased it with water and also sprayed water for the initial 10 minutes of baking. The inside was good soft and nice the crumb good for a first bake. But the problem is that i got a very thin n crunchy crust. How can I get a soft crust. Should I do away with water spraying ?

JMonkey's picture
JMonkey

There are a couple of other things you can do:

1) Add oil, butter or some other fat to your bread. I find that 1 Tbs of olive oil per loaf (unless you're making big, honking loaves) usually does the trick. But other fats, such as butter or vegetable shortening will also work.

2) You can also brush the crust with melted butter or olive oil as soon as it comes out of the oven. This will soften the crust considerably.