Sourdough recipes cooked without Dutch oven never develop brown crust
Hello! I’m new to the fresh loaf, but I have been baking sourdough for a while now. I’ve had great success baking loaves in my Dutch oven. I get a nice blustery, deeply browned crust and light airy crumb. Recently though, I’ve tried my hand at focaccia and fougasse, (neither of which, based on their shape, can go in my Dutch oven). In both cases, I got a blistery crust, but no matter how long I cooked it, the crust remained pale and dull. Both recipes were baked at 450F (I have an oven thermometer, so I know this is accurate). Neither recipe contained any sugar which I’ve recently read can help with browning.
Could this be a different issue with my oven? I live in an apartment with probably the cheapest oven the landlord could find. Alternatively I wonder if I’m underprooving the bread? I used the poke test in the past, but I purchased a proofing container today so I can verify the actual volume of the bread next time. Sounds like a 50% rise is a good indicator using this method?
Curious to hear other thoughts on what could have gone wrong and tips to fix. Thanks in advance!
You may want to get an oven thermometer to check your oven temperature to see if it is getting hot enough.. Also, you can try preheating the Dutch oven. Be carful the pot will be very hot. Preheat the oven for 1/2 to 1 hour before baking.
Welcome!
"... but no matter how long I cooked it, the crust remained pale and dull."
Sounds like a gas oven. If that is the case, you need to steam the oven, or cover the bread with an inverted pan over the baking stone to trap in the steam.
Any chance you're doing the full bake with the lid on? It usually only "colors" after the lid is removed.
To clarify, when I bake with my Dutch oven, it comes out perfectly! It’s only for recipes that don’t use a Dutch oven, like fougasse or focaccia where I have this issue.
The fougasse recipe did call for steam in the oven, so I sprayed with some water. This helped a little bit, but still not great. The focaccia recipe did not call for steaming (and most of the other focaccia recipes I’ve seen don’t call for steam either). Already have an oven thermometer so pretty sure my temps are accurate! :)
I can try cover the breads next time with an inverted pan! Although, none be of the focaccia recipes I’ve looked at have called for this, so I still think it’s something wrong with my oven or maybe my proofing times?
"I can try cover the breads next time with an inverted pan! Although, none be of the focaccia recipes I’ve looked at have called for this, ..."
That is because most recipe authors are writing for electric ovens, not gas ovens.
"... so I still think it’s something wrong with my oven ..."
If it is a gas oven, that is what is wrong with it. ;-) You cannot successfully bake __uncovered__ bread in a gas oven without either covering it for the first part of the bake, or injecting a lot of steam for the first part of the bake.
Gas ovens need more steam than electric ovens because they vent more air than electric ovens.
Gas ovens vent too much (for uncovered bread), and they have to... that is how they are designed, due to burning gas, oxygen has to enter and CO2 and CO has to exit. And that movement of air takes all the steam/moisture with it. So the bread looks dried out.
Therefore, there are things you have to do to compensate when using a gas oven.
If indeed that is what you have. You haven't said yet. :-)