,gummy bread
Hi,
I certainly hope some one out there can help me. I have been baking for the past 50 years but I have never tried artisan bread until I found this site. I went out and bought Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day. I made the basic recipe just as it was printed and the the first loaf was fine, but much too small so the next time I made it double the size. I baked it longer but when it cooled and I cut it it was gummy inside. Eatable but gummy. I tried the recipe again doubleing it and using a fouth to bake and I had the ssme problem. I did bake it in a Le Cloche. I left the lid on for the first 20 minutes and took it off for the remaining 20. It came out of the oven beautiful and it even snapped cracled and popped, I was thrilled. But then when I cut it the same thing happened gummy but eatable. that is if you like gummy bread with a crust so hard you could use it to resole a shoe.And because I thought I had underbaked it before I relly let it get brown brown. So I got on this site and looked under recipes and make the one with the 3 cups of flour and 2 t salt, 2 t yeast and 1 1/8 cup water. I made it exactly as printed but the same thing happened. I thought Maybe my dough was too sticky but then I watched that lady make the chibatta on u tube and hers was way wetter than mine. Does anyone know what aI'm doing wrong. It has affected my self confidence to the point where I don't even want to bake my regular bread again.