September 11, 2020 - 2:30am
Why is this happening
Ok, so I relatively new to baking bread (thanks covid 19, brought me a new pleasure). My recipe is 350 grm bread flour, 150grm all purpose flour, 1.5 teaspn salt, 2 teaspn instant yeast, 11 fluid ounces water at 110degrees and 2 teaspns honey.
Hand mix and knead for 10 mins cover and rise for 20 mins until doubled in size. I live in Egypt so temp indoors is between 98 -107f.
Then knock back and shape, 2nd rise for 20 mins bake in oven at 180degrees for about 30/35mins.
The texture of the bread is gorgeous, soft and fluffy but the outside always looks like this.
The bread is much more golden than the photo makes it look
Help what am I doing wrong?
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If it is supposed to be a boule, then it appears that the bread was slashed much too deeply.
Or is the loaf's color different than you want?
Without knowing your objective, it is hard to know how this loaf is different than you want it to be.
Paul
I have never seen a loaf shaped like that but there are so many bread variations across the world!
Is it supposed to be rather star shaped?When I search for traditional egyption breads, I find flatbreads and spiral-shaped breads but none quite like your picture so, obviously, more info is needed.
If you want more browning, perhaps brushing the dough with milk, sugar water or honey would enhance the browning.
Do you have a picture of the ideal you are trying to achieve?
Beautiful job of recreating this ancient, Italian bread shape! Kudos!
(Not to be confused with a bishops hat shape)
As to the color, to achieve a richer darker hue, you may want to consider, finding a way to add steam/more steam, to the first third of your bake time. If you don't have an issue with adding a wash, that would also be an avenue to explore.
As for me, the temperature is insufficient. Try turning the temperature a little higher to create a delicious crust. The bread is baked inside...
Yes, the dough is open grained, its over proofed.
It started too warm for your ambient temperature.
just use cooler water at the start. Try cold tap water. The dough will proof slower at first but it won't run out of control, don't go by the clock, watch the dough volume. Wait for it to double in volume, it might take 45 minutes or 90 minutes, just cover it and leave it alone until its ready, it will speed up as you go along. The end result will be more what you expect..
It's not much of a difference but considering the flours could be 62%% or 65% hydration respectively. Interesting not listing the water in metric weight like the flour -- 312g UK fl oz. and 325g US fl oz. The top surfaces all look cut so I will agree to the score lines being perhaps too deep. Try just half a centimeter deep with knife blade slanted, like you want to remove a little "skin" off the loaf.
It can also happen in such heat, especially dry heat, that the surface of the dough dried too much and so the rapidly expanding loaf had nowhere to go, becomming the bottom of the loaf as the inside rose in the oven opening like a starburst or flower. Keeping the surface covered with a bowl during the final proof may help keep the dough skin soft as it expands. Experiment and see what happens.
Is that you are scoring at the beginning of the final proof (2nd rise), instead of at the end of the final proof.
"Then knock back and shape, 2nd rise for 20 mins bake in oven at 180degrees for about 30/35mins."
what shape are you giving it ? At what point do you score it?
Pmccool has a good point about depth of score.