The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Cracks in Rye Crumb

JerryLG's picture
JerryLG

Cracks in Rye Crumb

I regularly bake an 85% pullman rye with decent results; good rise, even crumb, nice flavor. I store at room temp and slice by hand as needed.

However....I find that when I reach the last 1/4 of the loaf the crumb begins to show cracks as per the photo. Something seems to happen internally during storage to an otherwise excellent loaf. Any thoughts?

suave's picture
suave

You typically see this sort of thing if the bread is baked too long or the dough is too dry.

pmccool's picture
pmccool

it is usually due to a couple of factors.  One is that I inadvertently created seams between different sections of the paste as it went into the pan.  That could be caused by loose flour that keeps the two portions from bonding (not so common in my case) or that I didn't adequately pack the paste in the pan, which allowed air gaps (more likely for me). 

Since you are seeing the cracking at the tail end of the loaf, it could just be that it has lost moisture and, therefore, elasticity.  Less elasticity = more brittle, leads to more cracking.  I've seen this in some of my loaves, too.

Paul

JerryLG's picture
JerryLG

Loss of moisture over time would make sense. I just cut into two pieces a newly baked loaf, double-wrapped and refrigerated one half for storage. Will see how that looks in a week's time.

Thanks for the feedback

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

hubby got ahold of the rye loaf, manhandling and cut it before it had cooled and set up.  The force of cutting a warm loaf without care can look like that.  How soon after the bake was it cut?  I tend to cut the next day after being cooled and wrapped to let moisture spread evenly through the loaf.

I will slice and freeze after about two days.

JerryLG's picture
JerryLG

The loaf wasn't mishandled. I always wait a full 24 hours before cutting. As described above, there is no problem with the first 3/4 of the loaf. The faults only appear after a week or so of storage.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

in the refrigerator?  

Refrigerator low temps can crystallize the crumb and it can become brittle, feel and act dry.  

semolina_man's picture
semolina_man

It's dried out.  A week is pushing the boundary if not frozen. 

semolina_man's picture
semolina_man

Please describe the precise steps in your procedure once the loaf was out of the oven. 

harum's picture
harum

Probably something in the recipe might give away a clue.  What is the hydration of the dough? And how hard/old is the loaf on the photo, can it still be cut with a knife?  

The entire bottom seems to be completely covered with mold, which is where the moisture can be trapped if not wicked away by storage bag material.   Might also have something to do with storage conditions in the fridge: wrapping, temperature, humidity.