"Chris R. Sims" <chris.r.sims@gmail.com> wrote:
>my girlfriend prefers bread with a softer texture & crust (her main
>criteria for picking out bread in the grocery store is "squishiness").
It may be time to find a new girlfriend... or educate the one you have.
The bulk of any bread's taste is in the crust. There are so many
wonderful crusts beyond the painted on brown of squishy bread. (My
comment was mostly a joke. Couples don't have to share all their tastes....
>Possible factors:
>* Baking on a sheet pan rather than stone. This one seems
>promising, but will it impact oven spring? I would prefer not to
>lose bread volume, if possible.
Oven spring is considered by many bakers to be a flaw. If you have
tremendous oven spring, you haven't let the bread develop fully, and
as a result it is lacking in taste. Other bakers live for oven
spring. Still, I think it is better to let the loaves fully rise, or
to nearly fully rise. When I was running a bakery, more than 80% of
our sourdough breads were pan breads. No problems.
>* Baking at lower temperature for longer time. Would this give a softer crust?
Lots of people have problems with getting their bread done, all the
way through, without burning the outside. There are a few things you
need to get right to get the bread right.
Start with the dough development. The dough should pass the
windowpane test when you are done kneading it. This is where you
pinch off a ball of dough, and tease it between your hands,
stretching it out until you can see light through it without the
dough tearing. You aren't trying to read a newspaper through it,
just hold it up towards a light bulb and see if you can see light
through it. If not, knead another 5 minutes and try again. And,
yes, you can develop whole wheat to the point where it passes a
windowpane test (although home ground flour may present special
problems in this regard).
Next, don't overcrowd your pan, if you are baking a pan bread. You
should fill the pan somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 full so the bread
has room to rise. If you aren't using a breadpan, you might pinch
off some dough and put it into a measuring cup so you can watch it
rise. The dough should at least double before you bake it.
Many oven thermostats are off. So you should invest in an oven
thermometer. Make sure your oven is at the right temperature when
you put the bread in - I don't care for the "start with a cold oven"
techniques mostly because they aren't terrible repeatable.
Finally, baking is a balancing act. You want the crust the right
color at the same time as the crumb is as done as you want it. I
suggest using a chef's thermometer to measure the temperature of the
crumb. Shoot for about 205F as being done. If you want the bread
more, or less, done, shoot for a higher, or lower, temperature.
Now then.. the balancing act. It takes time to bake the crumb as it
takes time for the heat to penetrate the dough and turn it into
bread. If your crumb is underdone, you have to leave it in the oven
longer. If your crumb is overdone, you have to bake it less time
next time around.
However, the crust is controlled more by the temperature than the
time. If you want a darker crust, turn the heat up 25F or so. If you
want a lighter crust, turn it down.
The catch is.. the two are related. If you reduce the heat, you may
have to increase the time. Take notes, adjust as needed, and soon
you'll bake bread that looks and tastes the way you want it to.
As a final comment - Professor Calvel always said you can't burn
bread. He wasn't quite right, but most people do underbake their
bread. Most of bread's taste is in the crust, and if its underdone,
the taste doesn't develop. So, try baking the bread 5 minutes longer
than you thought you should. Taste it, try it. See if maybe you want
to go another 5 minutes next time. A crust can become quite dark
without being burned.
>* Duration of final proofing. I have been retarding the dough in
>the fridge overnight before baking in order to increase flavor. But
>does retarding also result in a crisper crust?
I haven't seen any correlation between retarding and crust crispness.
Retarding formed loaves tends to lead to a blistered crust, which is
considered a flaw in France and a virtue in the USA. However, the
crust can be soft and blistered or crisp and blistered.
>* Hydration of dough. It seems like a dryer dough would have a
>softer crust, but I'm not sure. (I'm basing this on the extra-crisp
>crust of high-hyrdation breads like ciabatta, but I can't really
>grasp the physics or chemistry of why this should be so
No, that's not really related. The ingredients and baking conditions
have some impact on crust formation. However, when you bake the
bread, the water is, to no small extent, baked out.
>* Oven steam. Would adding less steam result in a softer curst? Or
>is it the other way around?
Steam tends to lead to a crisper crust. However, that is based on a
relatively short steaming - a matter of minutes, not for the whole
bake time. If you steam too long, you impact your oven temperature
(unless you have a commercial oven that can produce super-heated
steam), but too much steam will produce soggy bread in any
situation. If the oven is too wet, the water in the bread can't bake
off. In short, if you want a crisp crust, a blast of steam for a few
minutes will help you.
>* Adding fats. I would prefer to avoid this one, but would adding
>milk, oil, or butter influence crust texture?
Why avoid it? Many breads need fats, oils or milk to be what they
are supposed to be. To some extent, a lean bread will have a crisper
crust than a richer bread. However, a rich bread can still have a
nice thick, though somewhat softer, crust.
>Obviously, a basic requirement is not losing the great flavor of
>traditional sourdough.
That is, I am afraid, a misnomer. Sourdough has been used in every
country in the world from the time of the Pharaohs. It was the main
leaven until the late 1800's when commercial bakers yeast became
reliably available. If you enjoy a bread that was available before
1880, it was almost certainly a sourdough bread. Sourdough is, at
the end of the bake, just a leaven. What it always brings to the
table is an increased depth of flavor, improved dough handling
characteristics, and better bread keeping qualities.
Beyond that, things get fuzzier. If you use a lot of sourdough
starter, you tend to get a milder bread with less of the classic San
Francisco Sourdough bite. The French prefer a milder sourdough, or
Levain, taste. Some Americans prefer a stronger or milder taste. If
you use less starter and a longer rise, you tend to get more
"sourdough taste." ANY bread can be a sourdough bread. One of my
customers once told me that he didn't care for my sourdoughs, but he
just LOVED my Cinnamon Raisin bread. I didn't have the heart to tell
him it was a sourdough bread too. A mild one.
I have a good number of sourdough recipes at my web page,
http://www.sourdoughhome.com that might help you.
Good luck,
Mike
...The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating
system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the world...