Bread too moist?
Hi Everyone,
I'm new to the board - although I've "lurked" from time to time over the years. But I've been spending more time recently baking bread! I bought a copy of Ken Forkish's book for no other reason than it looked pretty good I've decided to "bake it"!. I've got too many bread books but have until recently been more of a bread voyeur! But at this point I'm four bread bakes into the book and figure I'll finish the book.
I've decided to document my progress here: https://flourwatersaltyeast.wordpress.com/ so that I can keep good notes of how each bake has gone.
Here's my question: (per this week's whole wheat bread bake):
How wet should my final bread crumb be? After letting today's loaf rest three hours on a rack I cut in and found that the bread was pretty moist inside. It wasn't raw. But it wasn't what I'm use to when I BUY artisan breads at markets, etc, where the crumb is pretty dry. I'm not sure what to make of it. Sometimes at restaurants that have made their own bread I'll have a similar experience - of having a moist crumb.
What do you think? Thank you in advance!!
and bake Whole grain breads to 210 F and then turn off the oven crack the door ajar and let the bread crisp on the stone for another 5 minutes. No more wet crumb!
Happy baking and welcome to all lurkers
Thanks dabrowoman.. I've been careful to document everything to think about what I'm doing. But while I've known about getting our bread to 200+, it just didn't occur to me to test the internal temp!. Dare I say simply brilliant!? Thanks for the advice!
Thanks dabrownman!
Always enjoy seeing peoples journeys - thanks for posting and enjoy the bakes!
Thank you Edo.. it's all a great ride! Eating my mistakes along the way!
Hard to know sometimes what is a "mistake" I will bake something that doesn't end up just like I want and just about the time I am feeling it is a "failure" I find half the loaf gone and family and friends saying how wonderful it was. Can't beat that ... so enjoy the those "mistakes" with some butter or cheese!
My daughter and I pull out the salted butter and eat our way through debating how the bread turned out!. It's amazing how much my 'mistakes' taste with salted butter! :)
The only true failures end up in the trash. Those that don't quite meet your hopes and expectations are 'training' or 'experimental' and are entirely edible and may even generate rave reviews. There's a lot to be learned - enjoy the ride!
Cathy
For the past 6-8 months, I've been baking the Tartine Country loaf, and using it as a training ground to perfect technique. One of the things that I've been struggling with is that the crumb tends to be *almost* slightly rubbery in its texture. Well, I'm in San Francisco again this week, and stopped at Tartine today and picked up a loaf for both enjoyment and forensic analysis. Guess what? It turns out that I've been absolutely nailing it all along. That $8 loaf that I bought today is basically indistinguishable in taste, texture, and crumb from the loaves that I've been producing every week for the past year. So, I guess my point is not to be too worried about a moist crumb unless you simply find it unpleasant.
That's a great story! Thanks!
!!!!