Hi all, another newbie to the sourdough world...baking that is, have been buying other peoples fabulous product for years.
Anyway after some advice on crust. I have made three loaves so far and they have all tasted great but one in particular which had been in fridge overnight had a very very thick crust, the crumb was beautiful and moist but the outside is just too hard. I used one cup of water for steam early on in baking and it was the same dough that had made a loaf the day before, which I did not refridgerate (crust was good on this one).
I actually quite like a bit of chewiness to the crust so any tips on how to achieve this would be appreciated.
Cheers and happy baking.
Mkeeta13
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Replies
Hello Mkeeta13,
The factors mostly involved in crust thickness are oven temperature, baking time and oven humidity because they affect the depth to which drying (crust formation) can penetrate.
Off the top of my head, I cannot think of a reason that a refrigerated dough would form a thicker crust unless there had already been significantly more drying of the surface during its sojourn in the fridge or that you baked for a longer time to compensate for the cold dough.
When you put the loaf into the fridge, was it inside a sealed container (plastic bag), covered with a towel (damp or dry), uncovered? Did you bake for the normal time or longer? Were there any other differences in your procedure? You specifically mentioned using steam, is this your normal practice or was it only for this loaf?
Keep on bakin'
Farinam