September 8, 2011 - 2:16pm
How dark is too dark?
I love my bread crusts on the dark side. I find you squeeze more flavour out of the flour with a dark caramel colour loaf. On a number of occasions, people have said "oh, you burned your loaf" because it wasn't the pale commercial gold colour they are used to. Is anyone else in these here parts a dark crust fiend? Should be noted that I don't care for dark 100% white loaves. Anything like a pain au levain or 25%+ whole wheat content, and I feel like the darker it is, the better it is.
The blasted thing stuck to my peel on the way off and pulled my slashes and made a large jellybean shape :@ Hasn't happened to me in ages!!!
Timbit
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This is largely a matter of taste. I agree with your thinking and your loaf looks to be baked to perfection. There are those who would call your loaf burnt but while it may not be to their liking, it is not burnt.
This is a good topic and I hope to see many more comments here.
Jeff
... depends on who the bread is for and, like you said, the type of bread, but generally... yeah, give me a nice, dark crust. My rule of thumb is: bake until the color starts to worry me, then give it another 5 minutes. Bake bold!
Marcus
Well if you were baking hamburger buns or Kaiser rolls, that would be too dark, but for a sourdough with a 25% whole wheat content, that is spot on. All the flavour lies in that caramelised crust. Don't be disheartened by others comments. They are probably used to eating pale supermarket sandwich loaves and don't know any better, neither do they mean any harm. Try and educate them to the wonderful complexities of flavour that lie in a darker crust. That dark little pointy end (the focus of your pic) is the part I would relish the most of your loaf. I know it would taste good. :)
Syd
Thanks everyone for the feedback. I was not disheartened regarding the too dark comments, I was merely curious about how others felt. I am glad to know I am not the only one.
Timbit