I've been using my bread machine to make the dough for breads, then i cook it in the oven.. however, i find that when i cook it in the oven, it often comes out with the crust way too hard.
The bread is excellent, but the crust is too hard.. what can i do to change this?
What temperature do you bake it for and for how long?
Hi Bev,
That varies so much as to be impossible to answer...
The time and temperature depend on the size of the loaves and the ingredients. As a result, virtually any recipe that I have seen specifies both.
Did yours?
All the best,
The orig>"I've been using my bread machine to make the dough for breads, then i cook
and Bev was asking for further information about the recipe the OP was using.
(This is why quoting the pertinent parts of the message you're replying to is important.)
-- Jenn Ridley : snipped-for-privacy@chartermi.net
Well... She had me fooled...
All the best,
Quick bread..... yeast bread.....sourdough....rye...white............ ???
"Bev Medcalf" a écrit news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m01.aol.com...
usually about 40-45 minutes at pretty high.. so at around 450 Farenheit.
The ones i make the most often are sweet bread and italian bread, both using bread machine yeast.
:)
I also bake after bread machine kneading, usually whole wheat or some white using Red Star baking yeast. I bake the loaf at 400 and check it after 30 minutes. Usually it's done.
Sounds like the heat is too high and you've got it in for too long. Often it won't burn but will make the crust very thick and hard.
Check also with alt.bread.recipes - nice bunch over there.
After making a 4-cup white- bread- recipe dough (1-1/2 T of oil) in the bread machine which is 90 minutes in my machine (and the setting I use for my pizza dough), if I take this dough out, shape it into 2 baguettes, and let it rise in a french baguette pan (the kind with multiple miniscule holes in it),, heat the oven to 425, spritz the loaves when I put them in and turn the oven to 400 and bake for 20-22 minutes, these baguette crusts are the worst EVER.
As I use this setting to make pizza dough a lot, I thought it would be a simple matter to make a couple of loaves as above if I decided not to make a pizza. I have shaped this before into a batard & a boule with the same consequences, HARD crust. I have done this enough that I will not do it anymore. I don't know why this happens. But it is an easy way to get a replenishment for your bread crumbs or crutons.
Dee
thanks very much! :)
(Please NOTE: My correct e-mail address is in my Signature) On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 09:42:03 -0400, during the rec.food.baking Community News Flash "Steph G.B" reported:
You are welcome, but do stop by alt.bread.recipes since they are the experts.
Hard crust means dry crust. Here are some causes and solutions. In the first place lean doughs cause harder crusts. You can use fatter doughs to reduce crust hardness. Even spreading some oil on the dough prior to baking will tend to soften the crust.
Secondly, crusts get drier the longer and hotter they are baked. Baking for a longer time at a lower temperature will tend to reduce dryness in the crust while still baking the bread to the proper internal temperature. Overbaking the bread, of course, will tend to dry the crust. You should have a dark golden crust with an internal temperature in the finished bread between, say, 195 and 210 degrees. Sometimes it takes a lot of experimentation to get that right. Once you have it, you can record the formula and reproduce it every time in the same oven.
Commercial bakers steam dough during the early part of the bake in order to make the crusts thinner. You can reproduce that to some extent by either putting a pan of water in the oven with the dough or spritzing the dough several times in the first 10 minutes of baking.
I had the opposite problem today. I made a cinnamon raisin bread today using a fairly fat dough that I use normally for making soft dinner rolls. The finished loaf was way too soft and the crust way too thin and light. I liked the flavor of the final product but not the texture. I know now that I need to use a leaner dough next time. I'll probably play around with removing the butter and shortening from the formula and adding an egg or two. That should hit it about right. Go experiment. Very small changes in the mixtures of baked goods often product very significant changes in the finished product. Good luck
Fred Foodie Forums
You can also try using either an egg or milk wash instead of water.
It depends on whether the crust is hard because it's over baked, or because it dried out when it was cooling.
You may want to try baking a little longer at a lower temperature. That will slow down how fast the crust bakes, and should result in a softer crust.
You may also want to try baking the bread as usual, but wrapping the bread in a clean dish towel while it cools. That will keep the crust from drying out.
My mom always brushed her bread with butter when she took it out of the oven, and that worked as well.
jenn
-- Jenn Ridley : snipped-for-privacy@chartermi.net
InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.