Outside of loaf dark before inside is baked
I've been experimenting with a flour mix that is mostly whole wheat with some bread flour mixed in. This has required me to use much higher percentages than I normally would. 80% hydration feels more like 65% while I'm mixing and shaping. Because of this, my loaves have been having a hard time getting rid of that extra 80g of water for my 1080g loaf, and the last three have been underdone on the inside while the outside is getting extra dark.
At first I thought the darkness was due to the whole wheat, and the "underdoneness" due to incomplete proofing (my starter is still a little immature). But just today I had a beautifully proofed loaf which looked great at 15 minutes, but then at 35min it was dark enough that I felt like pulling it, even though I could feel that it was still pretty heavy. I dropped the temp and gave it an extra 10 minutes at 350F, which gave a decent final product, but I would have been happier with a little longer bake time.
So I was wondering if others have had this problem, and if so, what have they done to counteract it? Is it better to bake high-hydration loaves for longer at lower temperatures? If so, how does that work if you want to start in a 500F pot or cloche?
Any help or advice would be appreciated!
~Peter
Hi!
I've read people used to use falling ovens - they would fill the oven with wood, burn it, and once it was pretty hot, remove the wood and the ashes, and then give it some time to reach a nice temperature and bake the bread in there, as the temperature fell - to bake lean loafs. Some people using WFO still do this.
I believe you could follow that: high temperature (very important for a good oven spring) the first 10 minutes, then reduce each 10 minutes, until you think it's baked.
I have a gas oven here, unfortunately, so I bake 10 minutes in high temperature (my oven says 290 °C, but I don't believe it), then reduce to around 230 °C for another 15 minutes and then finish it of at 290°C again until I get the right brown colour.
Hi Peter, Sugar (in any form) in the loaf will cause the crust to be dark, With my bread I set the gas fan forced oven on high (230 C) until the loaf just starts to brown, then drop it back to 190 C. I use a temperature probe to tell when my loaves are done, so I go on the look of the loaf, I am aware of the time it's been in but go on the look. Hope this helps,
Bill.
Another option is to put a tent of aluminum foil over your loaf during the final portion of the bake. You can thereby achieve the oven spring in the early portion and eventually arrive at the desired internal temperature without having the outside burn. (Also, note the distinction between caramelized and burned -- the former is good and the latter is not.)
The combination of adjusting the oven temperature and using a foil tent should help.
Thanks for the responses! I think I might try the gradually lowering temp technique first, and then the "low at first" technique. I did something like a cross between them this last time. I started with the oven at 525F (my usual initial temp), but instead of dropping to 450F like I usually do, I went to 375F. I turned the oven back up after the initial steam in the closed pot, and then dropped it back to 350F. (None of this was a deliberate plan, other than initially lowering the temp. I was mostly just reacting to how the bread was behaving.)
I feel like the oven spring might suffer from the lack of initial blast with the second method, but I'm willing to try it! And rather than spend an hour getting the oven and pot up to 525F, if I could start the bake at 350F I could save time and gas.