Pale crust of sourdough focaccia
Hello everyone:)
It's my first post here, so I'd like to say hello! Greetings from Poland!
(I'm a long time reader, though).
Recently I've decided to bake my first sourdough focaccia. First try was not a success - probably dough overfermented. The focaccia was sour, rather flat and have that pale crust.
But I tried once again. Second focaccia had great oven spring (almost double), was fluffy and has mild sour flavor. It was excellent.
The problem is, that even with that dough I have problem with crust. I cannot get proper golden color. Last time I used a oven fan to get more dark crust, but it burnt the additions.
Do you have any ideas, how to achieve that golden crust on my sourdough focaccia?
The method:
Autolyse 1000g of bread flour (~13% protein) and 763g water for 1h.
Add salt (21g), 150g rye levain (100%H, whole rye) plus 10g water, mix few minutes using stretch and folds.
rest 30 min, series of 4S&F every 30 min., then 2S&Fevery 60 min.
Rest about 1,5h (my dough rise slightly by that time), then put some olive oil to the pan, put the dough and stretch to the sides, get some olive oil on the top and put into the fridge for 12h.
Next day get out the fridge for 1,5h, put some additions, more olive oil, and bake the focaccia in 230 C (446F) degrees for 30 min., then turn on the fan for next 10 min (220 C degrees, 428F).
Welcome to TFL.
Do you mean the bottom crust, the top crust, or the cornicione (like the rim of pizza) ?
What kind of pan are you cooking it in, black metal, grey metal, stainless steel? Do you put the pan on a baking stone?
What parts/things are preheated and what parts/things are not?
Are you steaming the oven? If so, how?
Is the lower heating element exposed or covered/hidden?
Are you placing any objects on the oven floor, or on a rack between the focaccia and the lower heating element/floor ?
I mean the TOP crust.
The sides of the focaccia were carmelised enough, and I didn't inspect the bottom, but it seemed ok.
I baked it in the black-coloured metal pan, on the preheated stone laying on the rack (I had baked bread on it before and it was well preheated, so I assumed that it should help the focaccia to grow).
My oven has 5 "levels" on which you can put the rack, I baked on the second "level" from the bottom. I didn't use steam. (if needed, I can steam oven by pouring the water into the niche on the bottom of the oven or into the metal pan)
Any additional objects were not in the oven during baking. I am not sure what do you mean by covered/hidden elements, but I think the main heating elements on the top and bottom of the oven are hidden (I've got also the additional element for the "grill" function, but you should activate it first to preheat by choosing the right function; it's on the top of the oven).
Thank you for your help!
Have you considered moving it higher in the oven?
Also if you make steam by pouring water into the oven, you are cooling the oven down. You might still have a hot pan for the bottom but the ofen will be cooler. Better to spray top of bread with water than pouring water in the oven
I'll try to bake it on higher level and see what happen. Maybe the solution is so simple🙂