I love my sour dough bread, but my youngest often has difficulty with the crust . My other adult child like my bread for toasting or making grilled sandwiches, but also find the crust a challenge when making sandwiches for work.
Does anyone have a tried and true recipe for a sourdough bread that is more like commercial sourdough ( with the soft crust ) or, can you give me tips on how to bake my current recipe differently?
Here is my current method:
110 grams 100% starter
308 grams room temp water
550 grams flour
1 scant teaspoon salt
Directions:
- Dissolve starter in water
- Add flour and mix either by hand or in mixer with dough hook until just mixed. (It is ok if a little of the flour is still dry. It should not look like a nice dough yet, should still be a shaggy mess. )
- Let the dough sit for 20 minutes.
- Add the salt and mix thoroughly.
- Knead for about 6 minutes in mixer or by hand until the dough makes a nice , slightly sticky ball. ( I usually do about 3 minutes in the mixer, then turn out into my counter and do a slap and fold type kneading, but really any old kneading works, whatever you are comfortable with)
- Form dough into a ball, and place in a bowl , cover with either a dishtowel or plastic wrap. (I use those shower cap looking bowl covers)
- Place bowl in a warm place , such as the oven with only the light turned on, and let rise for about 2 hours.
- deflate the dough and put int eh fridge over night (or until I get a chance to bake it)
- Remove bowl from the refrigerator, and place in a warm spot (the oven with the light on is again a good choice) . Let warm and slightly rise for about 2 hours.
- Shape into a loaf , and place in bread pan
- preheat for at least 10 full minutes at 450 degrees.
- Make a quick slash in the dough , cover the bread pan with another bread pan of equal size, and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove the top bread pan and continue baking at 425 for 20 minutes.
- Remove bread from pan immediately and allow to cool on a wire rack
I often vary this a bit, as I have found it is a very forgiving recipe. I usually double it and make two loaves at a time.
TYIA for any suggestions.
I just posted about using rye and spelt flour, blended with unbleached bread flour. The impact on the crumb and crust of adding spelt instead of rye was significant. Both loaves I made toast incredibly well - it's silly how good they are. So much so I was thinking of making grilled cheese for breakfast with this last loaf. So with that, while I'm sure you'll get more knowledgeable answers from the rest of the tribe - maybe consider keeping your recipe as is but substituting some of your bread flour for rye and/or spelt flour. Make sure your rye flour is light rye (you'll probably like it better). Posting a picture of your final loaf also helps for clues. Your loaf size is not that big - maybe even try baking it for less time. The longer time you bake, the harder the crust. If you have an instant read thermometer then I'd start taking the temperature of your dough at the 30 minute mark and every 5 minutes after that. As soon as you get an internal temp of 200 - your done and good to take it out. So with that, it could just be that you're baking it a little too long. It's worth a try.. good luck.. bake happy - bread1965 PS - also you're baking pan could be part of it. If you're baking in a dutch-oven (ie: heavy hot pot like a creuset with a lid) then you're trapping the moisture when baking until you remove the lid. But if your pan is light, then you could have some of the steam in the bread escaping your pot and drying out your crust.
This is the post I just made: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/52070/impact-spelt-versus-rye-flours
Sorry.. just realized you're using a bread loaf (of course).. ignore my dutch oven comment..
Oil,butter or lard will help to soften it up a bit. 1-2 tbsp.
Reduce the baking time.
Brush butter 0n the the crust when you remove from the oven.
Wrap in a tea towel as it is cooling.
Wrap with tea towel - my wife prefers soft crust so I always wrap and leave to cool
Try using AP flour instead of bread flour. High protein bread flour is sometimes just too strong and does make for chewy bread with tough crust.
I keep my starters in small bowls in the refrigerator. Each bowl comfortably holds a cup to a cup and a half. The evening before I am going to bake I take a bowl out and let it come to room temperature. In another bowl I combine 220g of bread flour and 220g of water. Then I add all of the starter and stir it in. Cover and let rise in a warmish place overnight - at least 12 hours.
The next day I take 400g of the starter and put the rest back in the refrigerator. I nuke 185g of milk until it is just barely warm then add 2.6g of salt, 5.5g of sugar and 24g of oil. Stir until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Add this to the starter and stir until mixed. Start adding more bread flour until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl, then knead on a pastry cloth until I have added a total of 300g of flour. If it feels too sticky I will add a little more flour until it is "right". Pam the bowl and put the dough in it for the first rise which usually takes 2-4 hours depending on how warm the kitchen is. Turn it back out, knead and form into a loaf, put into a Pam'd loaf pan and cover for the second rise which takes 1-2 hours. When it has doubled in size score the top and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or so. It may be necessary to tent the loaf for the last 10 minutes or so. Remove from the pan and put on a cake rack and cover the top and sides with foil until cool.
Slice and enjoy.
20 minutes is plenty, bake to 205 F on the inside, brush the loaves with milk when they cone out of the fridge and them wrap them in plastic when cool. No more hard crusts and happier kids for sure
Thank you all for your hints. Trying dabrownman's out today.
I already use AP flour- except when I use WW flour, sometimes sprouted, sometimes not. Everyone likes the crumb and that taste, it was just the crust was too crunchy for the little kids. I think it is perfect for me.