September 9, 2020 - 6:41pm
How do I make it turn brown?
This is a loaf I baked. It's 90% HW, 10% SW, a smidgen over 70% hydration, one tsp salt, two tsp both sugar and active dry yeast. Two 45-min risings, five min in-between of slap/fold (and still practicing to master the technique).
Final rise of 30+ minutes in the pan to get a nice dome, and happily this time the dome didn't collapse as has happened with HRW and HRS.
Baked for 30 min at 400F., Then took out of pan to bake for another five minutes to "crisp up" and get a satisfying brown exterior.
So, how do I get it to turn brown? Am I missing an ingredient? Do I paint it with something, like an egg wash? What?
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Judging from the photos it may have overproofed a little and that can inhibit browning by eating all the sugar.(simplified version) You may want to reduce the time before shaping and bake it when it is about an inch above the rim before it is fully domed. Steaming the oven will help with browning as well. I use a wet rolled up towel in a bread pan that gets more boiling water when the bread is loaded into the oven. The amount of sugar can be up to 5% of flour weight and maybe a little oil or butter in the dough would help with the browning.
Egg whites brushed on will make it darker and shiny but I have only done that for white flour buns.
Thank you, I'll try your suggestions?
For this loaf, I went to one-hour rise, ten-minute kneading -- and 2.5% sugar by wheat weight. Ultimately, I simply left it unpanned for ten minutes instead of five, and that got it browned.
But it was the sugar you suggested that really put it over the top! The flavor was immensely improved. Everyone at our local Eagles raved about it, and told me not to change it.
I might still experiment with adding mollases instead of sugar, but I now have a winning recipe for 100% whole wheat loaf.
Tomorrow, I'll try it with HRW instead of HW & SW.
Thanks again!
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"Two 45-min risings, five min in-between of slap/fold...". I might do a second bulk when more yeast in in the recipe ( and it will be shorter than the first one) but I think the slap./fold should be before the first bulk rise. Try one bulk rise about one hour long.
Thank you for your suggestions. Will try them!
try getting it into the oven when the top of the dough is level with the pan edge. :)