October 14, 2008 - 2:32pm
New here with a question about bumpy bread!
I've been making all our own bread at home for quite a while, but my bread usually comes out of the oven with a bumpy type look to the top crust. It tastes wonderful, but I want it to look wonderful too! Is it a loaf shaping problem? I grind my own flour and still add a little gluten. It rises fine but just looks bumpy. I usually do 6 or 7 pounds of dough for 4 loaves, which I put into the 8.5-inch pans. Am I using the wrong size?
Any insights anyone can give me would be great! I'm glad I found this website. I can't wait to look around some more!
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Could you post photos? Are they blister looking bumps or hard grain looking bumps?
Eli
They're not bubbles, more like just misshapen bread on the top.
Without a photo I can only think it may be one of two things. One, your flour isn't ground fine enough;two, your kneading isn't passing a window pane test.
Eli
Is the bread bumpy looking before baking? It could be that you are not creating proper surface tension when shaping your loaves. You need to stretch that dough snugly and then seal the seam when shaping loaves. It does take some practice to get it perfect. I think that there are a couple of videos posted on shaping that you can look at if you can find them.
As SourdoLady suggested, here's a video, this one from Mark Sinclair a TFL'er who owns Back Home Bakery and posts on TFL. Take a look, this might help.
http://www.thebackhomebakery.com/Tutorials/Shaping.html
Howard
it's hard to tell without pictures, but i would guess it is a shaping problem. if you don't shape them tight enough (or perhaps also if you shape them so tight that you break the surface "skin"), they could end up funny lookin'. some pics would be welcome, though :) i always enjoy looking at bread pics, even the disaster ones!
Thanks everyone!
I think it's most likely a shaping issue. I think my flour is great and I have a Blend-tec Mix-n-Blend which kneads the dough automatically until gluten is developed. I'll check out the dough shaping videos and see what I'm doing wrong. I may just need more practice. The bread tastes fantastic anyway. :)
Thanks for the suggestions!
As you say, it's probably a shaping issue. Before you shaped the loaves, did you gently pat out large gas pockets inside it? If not, those pockets of gas will expand when you put the loaves in the oven, and if they don't burst, they'll certainly make your bread appear bumpy :)