September 21, 2009 - 9:18pm
Soft Crust on my recent batch of pane pugliese (recipe from the Bread Bible). Why?
Hi All,
I recently made my usual pane pugliese using 100% pasta dura (durum wheat) flour rather than the usual standard unbleached bread flour. To try improve the crust I not only added hot water in the bottom of the oven but I also sprayed the bread every few minutes for 10 mins. After 10 mins I removed the water and stopped spraying. Even though I have baking stones I noticed the temperature reduced significantly (30 oC) in the oven over this time. The resulting bread had a very 'springy' crust rather than a hard crust as I usually get. What are the reasons for this? The flour? Teh temperature variation? Too much steam?
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When you mist or spritz the loaf the water evaporating from the surface of the loaf cools it (relative to the rest of the baking bread) and interrupts the browning (milliard reaction). Try brushing to loaf with olive oil or other oil to increase the browning.