I started baking bread over Christmas. I don't know what I'm doing. I am following a recipe wherein you put the dough, as a ball, into a Dutch oven then bake. The oven is hot (to me) at 450 degrees. I am warming the Dutch oven up to that temperature, then putting the dough in for 17 minutes. After that, 4 minutes more without a lid.
The bread is tasty, all good. Except the bottom 1/8" of the loaf - it isn't burned, but it is overdone and doesn't taste good. I trim it off and feed it to the dogs. They don't seem to mind.
This annoys me. I have been tweaking the baking times etc. This recipe calls for putting the dough onto parchment paper and lowering it into (and out of) the blistering Dutch oven by the paper. That's fine. The paper where it touches the bread is very brown. The other side of the paper where it touches the dutch oven is not. I don't know if it matters, picture attached.
I have lots of variables here, from altering the recipe to cooking cooler but longer. What should I try?
Move it away from the heat. Enjoy!
I get a brown color like that without the bottom being overcooked, so that's probably not it. Also, some parchment papers scorch at lower temperatures than others. King Arthur paper seems to have the highest scorch temperature. Many dutch ovens do overcook the bottoms, especially if they are black or dark. One thing that helps is to put crumpled aluminum foil in the bottom, then cover that with a disk of parchment paper so the dough doesn't get caught in the folds of foil.
TomP
First, start with your Dutch oven on a higher shelf --- the highest that still gives you enough room so the bottom is farther from the heating element. What works for me in my oval Dutch oven is this roasting rack. I wait until oven spring is complete and give it a few more minutes until the loaf is set enough to lift, then slip this underneath before the bottom gets too dark. You could use a small round cooling rack for a round Dutch oven, or move the loaf to a rack set on a sheet pan.
Oval Oven Roasting Rack with Integrated Feet
You can't see the rack, but it's under there making the loaf look like it's floating.
When I take the lid off the dutch oven, I find it helps to place it on the lower rack between the burner and the dutch oven to reduce the direct heat on the bottom.
I dust what will be the bottom of the loaf with semolina or cornmeal before dumping it into the DO. This seems to help.
That said, you havent' shown us the bottom of your loaves. What you find too dark others may prefer.
David