March 26, 2014 - 7:38am
how to get a thinner crust?
I am following the methods and recipes in Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast book. With the exception of hydration, which I always have to increase (dry flour in Arizona?)
The ceramic dutch oven is giving a great crackly crust that I could never achieve with oven-generated steam. However the thickness and chewiness of the crust is more than I would like. You really have to tear at it to get a bite. The crumb structure is mostly fine. So is there anything I can adjust - time, temperature, hydration, that will still give me the crackly blistered crust, but in a thinner form?
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Tyler:
As I move along in my baking I've noticed that my crust is getting thinner. My first loaves had very thick crust. Loaves these days have a much thinner crust and springy crumb underneath.
I'm not sure to what I should attribute this to.
FWIW I use a thin pizza stone, usually bake the first ~15 minutes at 525dF to (lately) 550dF, and I use steam (I have a pan on the bottom of my oven, every 3 minutes for the first 15 minutes I add about 5 to 8 ice cubes to the pan.
At what temperature do you bake?
Cheers-
Dave
that using higher percentages of lower gluten white flour will yield a thinner crisper crust then high gluten bread flour.
My thoughts are these: The purpose of using the Dutch oven method is to trap the steam given off by the baking dough inside the closed space of the DO so that it can interact with the forming outer layer of the dough (the crust). The reason the crust of breads made with this method is so thick relates to the duration that the DO's cover is kept on during the baking. The longer you keep it on, therefore, the thicker the crust.
Run some experiments. For example, bake three loaves of identical weight. Bake one in a DO, cover on for 30 minutes. One, cover on for 15 minutes. One, cover off for the total baking time.
Once we figured out that there wasn't a reason for steam after the 12-15 minute mark when baking on a stone there must not be much reason for having the lid on a hot DO for more than 15 -18 minutes..
good tips here
I am making a 1.5lb boule in a 6 quart Emile Henry ceramic DO
I bake at 475 after a 30 minute preheat
I think if I went higher to 550 the crumb would be raw while the crust burned, for this size boule
I am using unbleached bread flour, plus some percentage (20-50%) of whole what flour. I guess that puts me in a high-gluten region. Is there any way to compensate for the whole wheat flour, or are those destined to be thick crusted loaves?
The other thing I thought of would be taking the loaf out of the DO completely after the crust is set, rather than just removing the lid. Think that would help?
I am not sure that more gluten = thicker crust. My first breads were made with crapola store brand AP flour and I had thick crust. I then moved to Gold Medal AP flour ... still had thick crust and poor oven spring. Then I moved to KAF Bread Flour and everything changed ... during this time I started baking at higher and higher temperatures. I also changed how I made steam ... initially I had a metal bowl of water in the oven - I then tried pouring bits of water into a hot pan in the bottom - and I now use ice cubes in a hot pan.
During this period (where I changed to KAF flour, changed steaming method, and baked at higher temperatures) I noticed the crust became significantly thinner.
Interestingly I recently made a loaf of Pain de Campagne using Reinhart's recipe ... except that I tried the crapola store brand AP flour. The oven spring wasn't great, but the crust was thin and I had the beginnings of an ear.
Only thing that I think I can definitively say is that I've learned more about proper gluten development and my early loaves definitely had poor gluten development.
Cheers-
Dave
interesting. I will try taking the loaf out of the DO much sooner, then reducing oven temperature to ensure the crumb cooks through before the crust burns.
As far as gluten development, I am basically doing 4 Reinhart "Stretch & folds" . Not in the habit of doing a windowpane test, but I think the gluten is pretty well developed judging by the oven spring and sheen of the crumb