August 15, 2024 - 7:57am
Toasting pan bread
Does anyone else have trouble getting the bottom half of pan bread to toast the same as the top part? The top half comes out nicely toasted while the bottom is much lighter. I resorted to threading a wire through the upper section of the bread slices and resting it on the toaster so the slices were halfway in the toaster. That was a pre-toast. It's a pain in the butt and requires oven mitts.
I can understand why the enclosed lower portion of a pan loaf might retian more moisture/be a bit denser, but my loaves seem properly baked and not obviously moister or denser below the equator. Of course, store-bought pan bread toasts evenly. Grrr.
Just wondering if this is a problem for anyone else with tinned loaves.
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I think it's just the way our toaster works, though, rather than being something about the bread. Evidently the heating elements near the top put out more heat than those lower down. Or so it appears.
Paul
Well, hot air rises, so it's no surprise if the top part of a slot is hotter than the bottom. Sometimes I make use of this quirk by putting an edge most likely to char at the bottom.
When you press the toaster down the lowest part of the bread is not near the filament. Which is probably what you're trying to solve when the threading a wire etc so the bread isn't too far down. That and what Tom said... heat rises.
What I used to do with my old toaster was toast it once (not on a too high setting) and the flip the bread upside down and toast again.
Guys...you're not accounting for store bread toasting evenly. Although I didn't mention it, I usually place the slice sideways in the slot. This is a photo of a slice that went in upside down, so the white bottom was at the top of the slot.
Toasting looks weak at the sides as well, suggesting the areas of the dough that were compressed against the pan sides don't toast as well as the upper portion.
Now there's a stumper! Still, I have seen that a slice with a thin end will brown that end more or even char it if it's at the top but not at the bottom of the toaster slot - on my toaster, at least.
Please post a photo of your toaster showing the elements and slice support bar in the down position, with no bread in the toaster.
This definitely looks like those three sides that touch the pan either have higher moisture or higher density than the rest of the loaf. I would lean toward moisture, unless you can see a difference in crumb structure before toasting.
Maybe try removing the loaf from the pan before it's finished baking? You could bake it directly on the oven rack for however long it takes to brown sufficiently.
Fred, because it happens only with homemade bread--but not freestanding or machine-made loaves, that was my suspicion. So, I thought it might be quite common with others, too. Except for Paul, no one reading seems to have the problem.
I will try removing it from the pan, although my dark pans make the bottom & sides fairly dark to begin with. Perhaps leaving the loaf in the turned-off oven for awhile will help.
If the pan is browning the sides and bottom faster than the top, that could also be sealing the crust against the moisture that is trying to escape. I would've expected the moisture inside the loaf to equalize as it cools, but it seems undeniable that something else is going on here.
Is this good enough, SM?
Try messing around with the toaster settings a bit. I think there's something going on with it.
It’s your oven baking unevenly. The color of the toast verifies an uneven bake happening in your oven. In your case try a lower the oven rack especially if you are using a light colored bread pan. You may want to change the baking temp as well. You can also remove it from the bread pan and finish it on the rack for the last 5 to 10 minutes.
Thank you for your reply Don. I do use dark baking pans, but will try lowering the rack and upping the oven temp (it's usually 350°), also remove the loaf at the end, as suggested by you & Fred. It's always a trade-off in trying to get a loaf perfect. I like the bottom & sides to be fairly light-coloured and soft, but I realize if a solution exists all these things have to be tried. Instead of placing aluminum foil over the top to keep it from over-browning, I use wet parchment paper (as suggested by a TFL member), so perhaps wrapping the entire loaf in parchment for its last bit in the oven might work. There's always something to experiment with.
I do know I open the oven door a lot to move the loaf pan and cover the top and the oven loses a lot of heat. Ironically, the stove has a double oven and the upper chamber bakes very well. Alas, it's not tall enough for a risen loaf of bread.
If you can fit a baking stone or steel under the loaf pan, the stored heat would restore the oven temperature much faster.
I've been baking pan loaves at 375 - 400 deg F. I think it's useful to decant the loaf and finish it bare in the oven for the last say 10 minutes of baking. If there is still too much moisture in the loaf, a stay in the turned-off oven helps me, as others have said too..
TomP
Tom, do you mean just put a stone in the oven, or put the pan on the stone? There's lots of room to do either.
Put the pan right on the stone. The risk might be a dark or burnt bottom but if so you can adjust from there.
When I arrived here in the South, I had a vague notion that I should learn more about southern cooking. That includes biscuits, since apparently they're included with everything. I'd usually made Grands version from Pillsbury, but being a Northern-type person, not all that big a fan of biscuits.
I made them from various recipes (didn't like any of them), and the major problem is: How to warm up biscuits.
In Southernese, "tender" means dry and crumbly. The normal biscuit is low hydration, with the less gluten development the better. Otherwise they become "tough and chewy." (I like tough and chewy! That's normal!) Because of that, if the biscuits aren't eaten immediately, they quickly become dry and hard.
People freeze the baked biscuits because with no yeast, the dough dries out and the baking powder runs out of energy.
Invariably, the solution is to use the oven -- not the toaster.
I have to say, I wholeheartedly agree! I tried the toaster, and although it kind of works, it's nowhere near as excellent as the oven. It only takes about 3 minutes, and you can use the broiler if you want control over the browning. Plus, you can put a pat of butter on the open face before it goes into the oven, which you can't do with a toaster. Then add some honey when they come out hot!
Although it may sound like "a lot of work!" to turn on the oven, you actually don't even have to let it preheat all the way. Just keep an eye on the surface as the oven comes up to temperature. Otherwise, you can use 350-F or the broiler. You can loosely wrap the biscuits (or buns, in this case) whole, in foil and go a bit longer if you're just warming.
My first recipe, as I got back into baking and learning bread, is a Japanese milk bread, made in a stove-top pan, as 8 buns. I learned that an electric stove won't work, and had to get out my butane gas burner. THAT worked.
The buns cooked evenly, brown on both sides (the video has some cool tricks for that, too). And just like the biscuits, the problem was...so how do I get that "just out of the oven" taste and wonderfulness later? The oven!