I baked bread tonight and I'm thrilled with the result: A golden, thin, crisp crust filled with tiny bubbles like a baguette and a light resiliant crumb. When I pulled it from the oven it sounded like rice crispies in milk as the steam continued to escape from the loaf. Bread is a deceptively simple thing. If you look at the ingredient list: flour, water, yeast, salt you might think, 'well this won't be hard.' Maybe I'm a slow learner, but I've made hundreds of loaves and this is the first one where I think I have come close to greatness. I've made bread too dense, too dry, too wet, crust too thick, undercooked, overcooked. Even the worst loaves got eaten, mostly. There are so many variables and I wanted to just record what I was paying attention to this time:- Moisture. A moist oven is critical for crust formation. Without moisture crust forms too soon and the bread doesn't rise properly, also the crust can become too thick. Put a pan of water in the bottom of your oven.
- Heat. Start hot. Decrease heat over time to mimic the cooling of a wood fired oven.
- Dough texture. Don't add too much flour. The dough should be shiny and elastic. If it is too dry the bread will be too dense.
Ingredients:
1 coffee mug warm water.
3 - 4 coffee mugs flour.
1/2 packet yeast.
A 4 finger pinch of sea salt.
A 4 finger pinch of sugar.
Process:
Mix the sugar in half of the warm water. Add the yeast, but don't stir it into the water. Wait 15 minutes. It will be frothy looking at the surface. Add the rest of the water to a large bowl and start adding flour 1 mug at a time. Add the salt. Keep stirring and adding flour. When it is just dry enough that it doesn't stick too much take it from the bowl and knead it on a floured surface for a few minutes adding flour as necessary. Make a ball, put it in a floured bowl, cover and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour and a half. Remake your ball and put it on a flat pan covered in parchment paper. Let it rise another hour. Get the oven ready: fill a pan with water, put it in the bottom of the oven and heat the oven to 240 C. Just before the bread goes in wet your hand and rub the surface of the dough. Don't be afraid to get it nice and wet. Quickly open the preheated oven and put the bread in. When I open the door to my oven, steam comes out. After 15 minutes turn down the heat to 200 C. After another 15 minutes (sometimes sooner) it will be done. When you tap the bottom of the loaf it should sound hollow.
Let's hope this works out again the next time. And next time I am going to remove the pan of water with 10 minutes to go, just to see what happens. My only criticism this time was I wanted the crust to be a touch heartier. FYI I did this in a convection oven so, nothing wrong with baking bread in a convection oven.
Links:
Bread baking tips
Yeast bread recipe
Sourdough recipe
4 comments:
Not sure what you mean exactly by a heartier crust. I've recently started "misting" the dough before I put it in the oven. for me, misting means getting my hands wet and patting the dough, so that the surface of the bread is shiny and just about to be gooey. When coupled with a pan in the bottom of the oven, I end up with a noticeably crispier crust, a little thicker. it gets it closer to what I think of french or italian bread, where the first few strokes of cutting almost sound like they're going nowhere.
Oh, and congrats on the bon pain. I've still never experienced the crackling crust. I must be doing something wrong.
My Best Bread Yet?
sudhindra, I claim the right of poetic license on this title.
andy, I am shooting for the crust to be a bit thicker. While i thought my crust was lovely I would have wanted it thicker. I guess that is what I mean by heartier. Poor word choice there.
Post a Comment