Another attempt at eliminating the 'flying crust' problem
Hi,
I posted a couple of days ago about avoiding large holes under the top crust of my rolls: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/39392/large-gaps-under-top-crust [1]
I had another couple of attempts at the recipe, bearing in mind the advice I received about shaping and proofing, but the problem hasn't been entirely eliminated. I made sure to pat out the gas fairly thoroughly during shaping, and proofed for a shorter duration.
The first batch looked nice:
And had a nice crumb structure considering that this is an enriched bread:
The other rolls were eaten before I could take any pictures, but they seemed similar in appearance and crumb. I didn't cut any vertical cross-sections, but I felt encouraged. I didn't notice any big gaps while eating, but everything gets kind of squished together so it's hard to tell.
No changes in procedure were made for the second batch. The horizontal cut looked similar:
But the vertical cut revealed that the problem persists:
I sliced another roll to double check, same story:
These rolls are very tasty, but clearly there is something I need to tweak.
Thoughts for next time:
- Make some of the dough pieces into round rolls, and others into ovals, to see if the problem is related to the shape
- Reduce the proof time further, perhaps baking in two stages to compare
They didn't seem overproofed to me - when I poked them gently with my finger, the indentation bounced back fairly quickly but they felt light and airy. I only made very shallow indents though. I also think I degassed adequately during shaping.
Any thoughts welcome.
-Simon