For every housewife who loves baking, I think these Questions and answers will be interesting and useful. Here we will mainly talk about baking of bread.
Why is my bread cracked or torn?
A. The bread will definitely tear if it is not risen enough. The volume of the bread should double, only then can it be put into the oven.
B. If you forgot to make cuts on the bread or made very small cuts, in these cases the bread also tears.
V. If your dough is too hard, then the bread will also crack.
D. You forgot to create steam in the oven*.
Why did my bread spread?
A. Your dough is too soft - this is described below.
B. You shaped the bread incorrectly.
Q. You left the bread proofing too long - in this case, the dough falls at the slightest touch.
You can very simply check whether the bread is good enough or not:
How to determine if shaped bread has risen enough
Basically you just need to watch the test. If its volume has doubled, it means it has risen enough.
You can also check this like this:
Lightly press the dough with your finger; if the indentation rises quickly, the bread has not yet risen sufficiently.
If this depression gradually disappears, then the bread should be sent to the oven.
Well, if the depression remains a hole or the bread falls at the slightest touch, then it has stopped standing, of course, in this case it needs to be baked urgently, this will only affect the appearance, not the taste
Why did the dough turn out very liquid or very stiff, although you did everything exactly according to the recipe and took the specified amount of ingredients?
Flour is to blame for this. It is different everywhere, depending on the variety and humidity, so sometimes the flour takes less, sometimes more liquid. In this regard, the recipes indicate only an approximate amount of liquid; it is impossible to indicate the exact amount.
Russian flour usually contains more moisture than European flour, so you need to take it for every 100 grams. flour 10 grams less water than indicated in many recipes. Never add all the liquid specified in the recipe to the dough at once, but do it little by little until you get the dough of the desired consistency; if necessary, you can add more liquid than indicated. I do not recommend adding additional flour; this may affect the taste and quality of the bread.
Why is ready-made bread heavy?
Because it is not baked - baked bread becomes light and sounds dull when we knock on it.
Why wasn’t the bread baked even though the baking time and temperature were as indicated in the recipe?
Each oven works differently, one bakes faster, another longer. Therefore, it is not possible to indicate the exact baking time, but only approximately. Here everyone should know their oven and experiment with time. If after the specified time the bread is heavy and does not sound dull, it means it is not baked and you need to increase the baking time.
Why does bread have a very dark crust?
A. The oven is also most likely to blame here - it actually has more degrees than you think. Try lowering the temperature next time.
b. If the crust is already dark and the bread is not baked yet, the oven is also to blame. In this case, you can cover the bread with baking paper and leave it in the oven until ready.
Why does my bread have insufficient sponginess?
A. The bread is not good enough.
b. You have made a very stiff dough - the softer the dough, the larger the pores.
d. The more rye flour the dough contains, the less “sponginess” the finished bread has. Pure rye bread generally has very small pores and this is quite normal
Why does my bread have a very hard or thick crust?
A. You forgot to create steam in the oven*.
B. The oven heats up more than the thermometer shows. In this case, try baking at a lower temperature next time.
Q. You have selected the wrong oven setting. It is best to bake bread in the normal “Top and Bottom” mode, without a fan - the fan makes the bread dry.
D. You overcooked the bread in the oven.
If you have a very hard crust, you can cover the bread with a damp towel for about 20 minutes immediately after baking.
If the crust of the bread wrinkles and becomes soft after cooling
This means that the water vapor remaining in the bread after cooking can move into the crust and soften it slightly. To reduce the amount of water vapor, try reducing the amount of water by 10-20 ml or using half the amount of sugar.
If the bread is sticky and the slices are uneven, it was too hot when you cut it. Let the bread cool on a wire rack before slicing, allowing all the steam to escape.
Why do you need to put bread in baskets for proofing?
If bread rises in proofing baskets, then it is clear that it grows only in height, and not in width.
You can use any round or oval bowl to proof bread. Just remember to line your cup or pan with a linen towel, lightly sprinkle the towel with flour and place the bread in there, seam side up. Of course, when we transfer the bread to a baking sheet, it settles a little - this is normal, but in the oven it rises again.
* For successful results of bread and rolls, steam in the oven is very important - steam helps the bread rise and gives it a crispy crust.
Steam can be created in the following ways:
Method one:
When the oven has warmed up, put buns or bread in it, close the door for just a couple of seconds, open the oven again and spray it on the walls of the oven with a spray bottle and quickly close the door again, after 3 minutes repeat this procedure again.
Method two:
Place an empty baking sheet or some kind of container on the very bottom of the oven, place a baking stone on the next level (if you have one) and turn on the oven to warm up ~ 20 -30 minutes earlier before you put the bread in the oven. When the oven is warm, boil water, pour it into a mug and place the risen bread in the oven. Immediately pour a cup of hot water onto the bottom baking sheet (mould, container) and quickly close the door, just be careful not to scald yourself with the steam.
Whatever method you use, after 10 minutes of baking you need to release the steam from the oven. If you sprayed with a spray bottle, then open the door slightly and the steam will come out on its own, and if you have a cup or baking tray with water, then you need to remove the pan (container) from the oven
Making bread is a complex technological process. It is not surprising that finished ones may have various defects. They can be caused by low quality raw materials, mistakes by the baker who kneads the dough and bakes it. It is worth noting that flaws associated with the quality of ingredients are extremely difficult to correct, while technological flaws can be corrected. The article talks about bread defects and ways to eliminate them.
Causes of defects
Experienced bakers know that defects are usually caused by four things. Let's look at them in more detail:
- Low or other components.
- Errors made when preparing the recipe.
- Errors made during the technological process (for example, incorrectly carried out kneading, baking or other stages).
- Microbiological reasons.
Irregular shape
Among the most common defects in bread is irregular shape. The bread may be wrinkled, unsymmetrical, and blurry. This happens for various reasons. Asymmetrical and skewed products are produced by careless shaping when the baker gives the dough the wrong shape. Bread made from fermented dough is usually puffy and pancake-shaped, with a concave top crust. This can be explained by the fact that as a result of prolonged fermentation or prolonged proofing, the dough loses a lot of gas, and therefore simply cannot rise in the oven.
Another reason for such a defect in bread is stacking it in bulk and careless handling during loading and unloading. Hot bread wrinkles very quickly. Flour can also be the cause of the irregular shape. For example, flour made from sprouted grain, also called malted flour, produces almost flat bread. What can cause flattened and pale sides of bread? Tight fit under the stove. As a result, the individual loaves stick together. Often there are knobby protrusions on the lower crust. They are called “floats”, they appear due to insufficient proofing.
Insufficient volume
If the bread is characterized by insufficient volume, and its crust is covered with a large number of cracks, you should pay attention to the fermentation time. If the dough is fermenting longer than usual, most likely the reason is the low quality of the yeast. There are several options for solving this problem:
- you can increase the dosage of this component;
- compressed yeast should be activated;
- This ingredient should be replaced if necessary.
Surface defects
By the way, insufficient proofing can cause large cracks to appear on the surface of the product. This defect in the bread crust can also appear when there is no steam, and during the first baking period the temperature in the oven is set too high. If the surface of the bread is covered with a network of small cracks, it means that flour made from grain damaged by the turtle bug or poor quality yeast was used. This bread defect can result from insufficient moisture in the proofing chambers and lack of steam. Bakers say the reason why small cracks appear on the finished product is a draft during proofing. The solution to the problem is simple: it is enough to carry out this stage in special chambers.
Speaking about defects in baked goods, one cannot fail to mention the upper crust, which has fallen off and become concave. The reason for this flaw is the excessive duration of proofing of the dough. Among the external defects of wheat bread is the separation of the upper crust of the product from its crumb. Experienced bakers know that this problem is a consequence of unfermented dough and insufficient moisture. Another reason is the impact of the workpieces on the mold or oven during planting or at the initial stage of baking. Too thick a crust appears when the oven is heated unevenly or the bread baking process takes too long.
Dark spots and blisters on the bread crust appear due to the fact that drops of water got on the workpiece before the baking process. A dull and gray crust is the result of a lack of steam in the baking chamber. Be sure to moisturize it.
Burnt or pale crusts
One of the main defects in bread when baking is the formation of overly colored (burnt) crusts. Most often, this occurs due to the fact that flour milled from frost-killed or sprouted grain was used for the product. In addition, the cause of this defect may be a long baking time of the product or high temperature in the oven.
If the crust is burnt and the middle remains raw, you should pay attention to the temperature in the oven. Most likely it is too high. Try lowering the temperature or replacing the furnace.
Excessively pale crusts on finished bread are due to flour characterized by low gas and sugar-forming ability. Another reason is dough with low moisture content or excessive fermentation time. Often, pale crusts are caused by the low temperature when baking bread in the oven.
Bread crumb defects - foreign inclusions and lack of mixing
The defect, such as foreign matter, is the result of damage to the sieves in which flour, malt or other ingredients are usually sifted. Bakers call unkneaded lumps of poorly mixed flour. A mess is formed due to violation of the kneading regime. The defects in the crumb include the hardening of the lower crusts. Most often, this defect appears in rye bread. This happens because the oven is not heated up enough. Hardening can also occur if the finished hot product is handled carelessly. Another reason is the cooling of rye bread on a cold metal surface, its excessive moisture and unbakedness. The hardness in the middle of baked goods is caused by kneading the dough in hot water.
The bread turned out porous, but the pores are unevenly distributed? The whole point is that flour made from defective grain was used, the dough recipe was violated. Another reason is the lack of warm-ups.
Are there large voids in the crumb? Most likely, the reason is insufficient mechanical impact on the dough. This problem can be solved only by evaluating the work at the stage of rolling and rounding the dough.
Sticky, dark or crumbly - the main defects of the crumb
Speaking about the shortcomings of bread, it is worth noting such problems as uncooked crumb, rough crumbly or dark. In the first case, the cause is flour that was made from frost-killed or sprouted grain. In addition, sticky crumb is formed due to the following factors:
- excessive dough moisture;
- insufficient baking time;
- too strong and prolonged mechanical impact on the dough when kneading it.
Freshly baked bread, the crumb of which is rough and crumbly, was made from dough with insufficient moisture. The dark-colored crumb of the finished product is due to the use of flour, which was made from sprouted grains.
Rings and spots in the crumb that have a dark tint usually appear due to the fact that water at too high a temperature was used when preparing the dough. It is because of this that the activity of yeast decreases, and at the same time the intensity of fermentation. As a result, the starch gelatinizes.
Crunching on teeth
If a crunch appears on your teeth when chewing bread, you should pay attention to the quality of the flour. Most likely, this ingredient was of poor quality; it contains sand, earthy parts or mineral impurities. It is strictly prohibited to allow such flour into production.
Foreign tastes and odors
For what reason can baked goods develop foreign tastes and aromas that are unusual for them? Experienced bakers know the answer:
- The presence of foreign impurities in flour. For example, bittersweet, wormwood, weeds that have a bright smell and taste.
- Using low quality yeast.
- Use of spoiled eggs or dairy products in making bread.
- Using rancid flour.
- Violation of storage conditions for flour used in the preparation of products.
Sometimes the bread has a malty taste. Typically, this problem occurs with unbrewed varieties; the cause of the bread defect is the use of frost-killed or sprouted grains in the production of flour. Violation of the dosage of salt leads to the fact that the finished product has either an under-salted or over-salted taste. Bread made from dough that has fermented or not fermented is too sour. Another reason is a violation of the ratio of acetic and lactic acids.
The bitter taste is the result of using rancid fat. Of course, it needs to be replaced. It is important to adjust the storage conditions of this ingredient.
Yeast and salt related defects
Bakers cite incorrectly chosen yeast dosage as the main reason leading to bread defects. It is precisely because this ingredient is not enough that the crumb becomes dry and dense, and the bread quickly becomes stale.
Does the bread have a sticky crumb, has it spread out, and its crust is dark? The cause of defective bread is lack of salt. Excess of it, in turn, leads to the fact that the bread is thick-walled, with large pores. In addition, the process of dough maturation slows down significantly.
Dough moisture
When considering bread defects and the reasons for their occurrence, it is worth talking separately about such a characteristic of the dough as humidity. High humidity causes the bread to spread and the crumb to jam. In addition, the energy value of the product is reduced. In turn, low humidity causes the crumb to become dense and dry. This bread goes stale very quickly.
This type of bread defect (pictured below) is often encountered by both housewives who bake products in bread machines and experienced bakers. Among the factors leading to such a flaw, experts identify the following:
- low dough moisture;
- too sharp a decrease in temperature during baking;
- excessively intense kneading;
- draft;
- insufficient fermentation time for the dough.
The reason may also be the reduced baking properties of the flour used to make the dough. For example, low quality of the product, lack of gluten, too low ability to retain water. You should either replace the flour or use products to improve the taste. The crumbiness of baked goods can also increase due to the fact that the dough contains an excess amount of water.
Sometimes hearth bread cracks at the bottom, sometimes it even tears not in the place of the cut, but in a completely different place, and why this happens and what can be done to solve the problem is not always clear. It would seem that for a home baker this is not so critical if, in general, the bread turns out tasty and fluffy, but there are so many perfectionists among home bakers! In this material I will talk about those crust failures that are caused not by short proofing, but by unsuitable baking conditions, and at the same time I will tell you how and what can be influenced to make it better.
- Little steam
As you know, bread needs a lot of steam in the first 15 minutes of baking so that the crust does not dry out and remains elastic, so that everything that needs to be gelatinized and caramelized in it gelatinizes and caramelizes. But the last thing is about color, aroma and shine. In the first 15 minutes of baking, the bread continues to grow; moreover, this is the most active phase of growth, at this time the workpiece actively evaporates moisture, crumb pores are formed, and the bread increases in volume. At the same time, its surface must remain elastic in order to be able to stretch, and the bread to visually and actually increase, and this can only happen if the environment is humid enough. If there is not enough moisture, the surface of the dough dries out quickly, it is sealed too early, the cuts also freeze and do not open, however, the growth of the bread does not stop because of this, large metamorphoses continue to occur inside, so the bread tries to grow in those places where the crust did not have time lose elasticity and ability to stretch. As a rule, these are the bread sides, close to the bottom. Even if you bake without steam at all, pay attention to the color and aroma of the crust at the very bottom, in the place where the bottom meets the sides. Most likely, there they will be of a different color, more saturated, perhaps with a slight golden tint, and they will smell more pleasant than the rest of the crust. This means that the steam lingered there at least a little and moistened the crust, and these parts of it remained elastic longer and could grow under the internal pressure of the bread. As you know, it breaks where it is thin, and in our case we have the opportunity to see this clearly.
on the left is the bread without steam, it did not open along the cuts, but randomly. On the right is bread baked under a hood.
It often happens that in conditions of a lack of steam, the crust tears on the surface, on the side, or very close to the cut, but still by, and this all suggests that due to a lack of moisture, it was formed incorrectly, as a result of which it was not the cuts that opened, and the gaps. Read more about the use of steam and stone for bread in.
How to decide.
Usually, through trial and error, everyone finds a convenient way for themselves, which one is right for you - it depends on the characteristics of baking in your oven. For some, it’s enough to throw a few ice cubes onto a baking sheet one level below and spray it on the hot oven walls with a spray bottle. Some people use bowls or frying pans with boiling water at the bottom of the oven, some heat sea stones and splash boiling water on them, some lay out wet towels, others put a baking sheet at a higher level to lower the roof of the oven and trap the steam around of bread. For me, the most effective method has been the cap method, where the bread is covered with a large bowl, and ideally with a thick-walled ceramic cap (I use a bread set from).
This method is good because it is suitable for any oven and works 100% everywhere. It is enough to warm the cap well, cover the bread with it for 15 minutes, then simply remove it. The bread will give itself the optimal amount of steam, the crust will not be “washed off” from excess moisture and the cuts will open beautifully.
- Uneven heating in electric ovens
All or almost all (just in case I won’t be so categorical) household electric ovens heat unevenly and the heating from below is usually less than from above, even if it is possible to separately regulate the temperature conditions of the lower and upper heating elements. This is especially noticeable if the oven is not heated up enough. Once in such a bread, first of all, it begins to grow from above, since it is there that the temperature is higher, there it begins to bake faster, its crumb warms up faster, active evaporation of moisture and expansion of pores begins there earlier. It turns out that on top it has already warmed up and grown, while in the lower parts of the workpiece the temperature is lower, but it still has to grow in a voluntary-compulsory manner, expanding and increasing more under the pressure of the upper, more heated sections of the dough, rather than from timely and full heating.
Such bread often has the shape of a mushroom, it seems to jump on the leg, while cracking along the perimeter of the bottom, which may not even brown. Interestingly, bread of this shape has a very characteristic crumb. Despite the fact that outwardly it looks as if raised upward, when cut, its pores do not tend upward, as befits successful bread baked in the right conditions, but in width, and hardening or accumulation of very small pores is possible at the bottom.
How to solve
- Unheated stone or baking sheet
This is a very, very common reason for the crust to explode around the perimeter of the bottom and all for the same reason - because of the difference in temperatures. A poorly heated stone means an initially lower temperature on the bottom and a higher temperature on the top and sides throughout the ENTIRE baking time. A cold stone will lead to a violation of several baking conditions at once and will lead to defects in the formation of both just the crust, the shape of the bread as a whole, and the crumb. A cold stone will instantly and quite significantly lower the temperature in the oven, the bread on it, instead of immediately starting to grow upward, will spread outwards, receiving insufficient heat, the pores will open less easily, the bottom will remain pale and in some cases even damp. Such a bottom of already prepared bread seems to sink inward and bend out. Observe, if you notice this in the bread you are baking, it means you are not heating the stone properly.
If we talk about fireclay stone, then even half an hour is not enough for it, and by not warming up completely, it takes on some of the heat, lowering the temperature in the oven as a whole. To reliably find out how quickly the stone warms up, use ovens; built-in ones usually lie. Everyone lies!)
You can read more about how baking temperature affects bread.
If you use a baking sheet, and also like to leave bread on it, without warming it up in advance, then you probably also encounter tears in the crust around the perimeter and all for the same reason.
How to solve
Increase the oven preheating time, be sure to use an independent thermometer.
Bottom line
As a summary, I note that the main reasons for the crust to break in unnecessary places are the difference in temperature and lack of moisture in the first stages of baking, and insufficient proofing. All this talk about uniform temperature, about a well-heated stone, in fact, about the fact that bread turns out best in conditions close to those of baking in a wood-burning oven. They are based on a hot under and low arch, which provide both powerful heat and the presence of steam, which the bread itself creates.
This is why I love my ceramic hood - it can pretend to be a wood-burning oven and bake bread quickly, beautifully and efficiently, despite the fact that 240 degrees is the limit for my oven.
Good luck and delicious bread, friends! And beautiful!
Friends, hello! Recently, someone got upset on Instagram: a video was removed from YouTube, which tells about 10 mistakes bakers make, what to do now! I saw this video and, to be honest, I wasn’t upset at all, because there was too much nonsense there. I’ve been writing about how bread works and how to make it so that you can bake good bread for seven years now, but now I’ll write about failures: why things might not work out, about the most common defects in bread! We will mainly talk about wheat bread :)
1) The bread did not fit, the bread had a rubbery crumb, why?
Let's describe this disgrace: the crumb is dense, can be raw in places and very dense, as if stuck, and may contain large, coarse pores. In the case of rye dough, these will not be large pores, but a heavily peeled upper or lower crust, large rough cracks on the outside and sometimes inside the bread. Wheat bread usually has a bland, unexpressed taste or, on the contrary, acrid-sour with bitterness, the crumb is rough, rubbery, and the crust is ugly.
The sourdough may be to blame - it does not loosen the dough, does not saturate it with gas. You need to understand that this also has its own reasons - either it was bred this way, or you are doing it this way now, so that it weakens every day (for example, you keep it in the refrigerator), or the raw materials are to blame, for example, too soft water or low-quality flour.
Or! They did not allow the leaven (dough) to ripen; they used it when it had not yet become lush. The activity of the dough directly depends on how the leaven (dough) has matured, because the word “ripened” means how much culture it has accumulated - yeast and lactic acid bacteria for fermentation and loosening of the dough. If it hasn’t become fluffy and hasn’t started to sag in the middle, it’s still not enough; if it’s fluffy and has sagged slightly, it’s ready! If there is no splendor or bubbles at all, then it’s too early. Maybe it was cold in your place, or maybe the leaven was weak.
Unripe starter:
Mature sourdough:
Here are several articles about sourdough.
Or maybe your inexperience is to blame, because of which you did not take into account the external fermentation conditions, did not pay attention to the behavior and condition of the dough, acted too early or too late, which led to a defect. Too early and the dough is not allowed to rise, fluff, shape or bake. It's too late - it's been allowed to ferment too long before too much acid accumulates and the gluten breaks down. For example, they left the dough to ferment all night on the table, and not in the refrigerator, despite the fact that there is a usual amount of leaven (dough) in the dough.
Well-proportioned dough, porous
Another reason for unloose crumbs is cold!This is especially true with the arrival of cold weather. It became cold outside the window, it became cooler in the kitchen, and accordingly, the fermentation temperature decreased, which is why the dough began to ferment more slowly. If you do not pay attention to this and the condition of the dough, you may not notice that the dough has not yet risen, that it needs a little more time, and form it earlier than necessary, or bake it before the dough becomes loose and fluffy.
Here is a small selection of materials on the topic.
2) Sour bread
As you understand, this topic is a continuation of the one above. The reason for the excessive acidity in the taste is a weak starter, but you need to try to understand exactly why. For some reason, the yeast in your starter is weak and slow, while the LAB is faster and accumulates a lot of acids. If your starter is healthy and active, but you are poorly versed in fermentation schedules, the dough is overripe and the dough is over-fermented, there will be sourness, but it will still be healthy and tasty. Unhealthy sourness is immediately noticeable - it is acrid with a bitter aftertaste, and if this is observed, the reason is weak sourdough. How to invigorate your starter, read the articles:
(this update is discussed in detail here)
Just in case, how to breed wheat or rye sourdough:
(how to develop rye sourdough from whole grain and peeled rye flour)
3) The top of the bread has sunk
You take bread out of the oven and the top collapses, or you put it in the oven and see how it collapses during baking. Or they moved it out of the basket, and the bread seemed to deflate, or they cut it, and it deflated. As you understand, there can be several scenarios for the development of events, but there is basically one reason - the bread has fermented. This means that at the final proofing stage immediately before baking, the workpiece fermented for too long, as a result of which a lot of gas accumulated in the dough, and the gluten weakened too much, became flabby and lost the ability to maintain the elastic shape of the workpiece. In simple words - it has fermented, it has stopped. If this happens, reduce the proofing of the dough by 20 minutes or lower the fermentation temperature by 2-3 degrees, and if you want to extend the fermentation for several hours, then generally put the basket with the dough in the refrigerator.
4) The surface of the bread is severely torn
They baked it, and it was so unwrapped, torn apart so much, that you look and think: what’s wrong with it??? Usually this crust is accompanied by a little more rubber crumb, seemingly loosened, but it seems to be missing something. There can be many pores inside the bread, but they are all narrow and directed straight upward. The reason for this defect is the opposite of the previous one - not enough proofing.
If you can easily deal with the previous problem (the dough has fermented) by reducing the proofing time, then this is more difficult, since there may be several reasons. The dough might not have had enough time to proof simply because the room was cool or your starter was working slower. Or it may be that you did not allow the dough to rise during fermentation (that is, during the fermentation that follows immediately after kneading), you shaped it and began to wait for proofing.
The fact is that the better the dough fits at the fermentation stage, the faster the proofing will be. Almost all the recipes on the blog follow a schedule: 2-3 hours of fermentation, 1-1.5 hours of proofing at medium temperatures, and all of them are designed so that your dough will have time to rise well during fermentation, and, as a result, will rise quickly on proofing. But! If you start dividing and shaping without waiting for the dough to become puffy, the proofing will not be able to fit within the schedule, and the dough will take more time to rise. In such cases, I say: focus on the dough, feel, taste, listen. This is the only truly effective way to understand the dough - to listen to what it tells you and shows you.That's why!Let the dough ferment, wait, and if you don’t understand, read the article , and re-read the article againand further
In fact, this is another big, beautiful and interesting topic, a short journey inside bread, which you will definitely need to do and write an article))
5) The crumb is denser than desired, the middle is dense
Several reasons, choose which one you like best))
- Rough molding with pressure in the center results in a denser crumb in the middle, which needs more time to rise than the outer layers, which do not press as hard, so it does not have time to open and turns out denser. The solution is to learn to mold, practice, don’t press the middle! If the dough diverges during shaping, moisten it so that it sticks to each other better, make sure that there is not a large amount of flour on the dough when shaping.
How to form a round blank:
How to form an oval blank:
- The heat of the oven was not enough for the existing workpiece, so the edges opened up, but the middle remained quite dense. The workpiece, entering the oven, immediately begins to warm up, but this happens unevenly: first the outer layers, thin edges, and then the dense middle are heated. That is why, for example, a stone is so important - to give the bread more powerful heat, and this stone must be heated well (60 minutes at 250° ).
- They didn’t allow the bread to ferment well after kneading at the fermentation stage, so they started shaping it early. Read more about this in the article.
6) Bread melts in the oven
- If it actually spreads and does not deflate, then most likely the reason is weak kneading and weak molding. Here you need to understand that gluten can help maintain the shape of the bread and prevent the dough from spreading, and we develop gluten in kneading. Dough that is poorly kneaded is not elastic, breaks when stretched, sticks, it is impossible to form a good workpiece from this and such a workpiece will not open the cuts, they will simply corrode. A good preparation is when the surface of the dough is well stretched and feels elastic to the touch, but the inside is soft and retains its fluffiness. In many ways, it is the tensioned surface of the workpiece that makes it so that it does not blur immediately after it is taken out of the basket.
- Another reason why bread spreads is low baking temperature and a poorly heated stone. The temperature in the oven may not be enough to grab the crust and it begins to float. Therefore, bread is obtained with smaller pores and less volume.
The top bread was baked at 170°, the bottom at 240°
Here is a small selection of articles on the topic:
7) Bread crumbles
If your bread crumbles when slicing, then the main reason is either weak kneading or too intense, but the essence is the same - lack of gluten, its weakness. And this weakness, as you have already noticed, can be caused either by excessive kneading and destruction of gluten, or by under-kneading and underdevelopment of gluten. The firmness and elasticity of wheat dough, the ability to stretch and return to its previous shape, retain a large amount of gas inside, and form a dough frame - this is largely due to wheat gluten. If it suffers, then you get sticky and overly stretchable dough, low bread volume and, as a result, a fragile dough frame that collapses during the baking process. This means that the gluten threads and films that retain the gas are destroyed, the pores are broken, if that’s clearer to you, and crumbles fall out when cutting. If you under-knead the dough, then approximately the same thing happens, the same crumbs, it’s just that the destruction of the gluten bonds occurs not due to over-kneading or overheating, but due to the fact that they never developed in the kneading and were not able to stretch properly in the dough. period of bread growth in the oven and torn. I think that I will write about this separately, a very interesting topic)) Conclusion - learn to knead, learn to feel the dough, and first read:
8) The crust of wheat bread cracks with many small cracks.
If your bread comes out with a lot of small cracks, then most likely you were dealing with sticky, weak dough or dough that contains a large amount of rye or gluten-free flour. As with the crumbiness of the crumb, multiple cracks in the crust are a consequence of weak gluten.
9) The bread turns out with a rough thick crust without beautiful cuts, torn cuts, does not open in the cuts.
There was no couple at all
It must be said that such a crust also does not smell very tasty, at least not at all like the smell of a golden thin crust. You know that the most fragrant part of bread is its golden crust during the minutes of cooling?)) So the crust we are talking about now has practically no smell, because it did not have enough moisture in the first 15 minutes of baking. In general, a lack of steam in a bread oven has a whole range of manifestations: the cuts do not open but freeze, the bread rips on the side or in any unexpected place, but not where you cut it with a blade. The crust is not golden, does not have a rich color, but appears gray, whitish or matte. All this is due to a lack of steam and if you think that you are creating it by placing bowls of water on the bottom of the oven, you are mistaken if the crust says otherwise.
The couple was not enough
There must be a powerful burst of steam in the oven, which can be created either by the bread itself under a hot hood, or by boiling water that you splash on a hot frying pan or something else, but which leads to active, powerful evaporation of moisture in the oven.
By the way, almost all the wheat bread on the blog is baked under a ceramic hood. And yes, there is a difference in what to use: a domestically produced clay pancake maker or domestic ceramics. You can argue with me, but I will still be right, because I compared it in practice))
As a result, I want to say that we now considered all these defects and causes as if separately from each other, because for many it’s easier this way, but with bread everything is like with people: one thing leads to another (karma, practically)), so try to consider any defect not in itself, but in context. This means that, in addition to some major major defect, pay attention to all aspects: crust, crumb, taste, tears and color of the crust, crumb structure, fermentation time and temperature, dough behavior, etc., analyze the picture as a whole! Now, perhaps, it seems difficult to you, as if putting together a big puzzle, but that’s how it is: you just start putting together the puzzles and the picture will come together. If you approach bread with patience and love, this will definitely happen!
Good luck and write about defects that are not here, I’m sure I forgot something))
What should you do to prevent the bread crust from cracking when baking? and got the best answer
Answer from Victoria Privetnaya[guru]
If the dough is kneaded well and allowed to mature properly, it will not crack. You can level the surface with a wet hand. Do not coat with yolk. Bread must breathe.
Answer from Yolan-mi[guru]
Do not add yeast to the dough and set the optimal temperature. When it is higher than necessary, it rushes sharply and the top cracks.
Answer from NEXT[guru]
When the dough is too steep, the crust may crack.
Answer from Haddock[guru]
§ 478. Baked breads must be cooled gradually so that the crust does not separate from the crumb, since they shrink differently when cooled. Therefore, the breads removed from the oven are placed side by side, as close to each other as possible. Well-baked bread should be lightweight, have a hard, brittle, smooth crust and a soft, elastic crumb, show fine, frequent sponginess when cut, and be easily soaked with saliva. The crust, cracked in places, indicates that the heat of the oven did not increase gradually, the crust formed prematurely and was broken by escaping bubbles of carbon dioxide or steam. This can be prevented by piercing the bread with something in several places before placing it in the oven. A dark-colored crust indicates that the heat in the oven was too high*); in this case, it is worth covering the cooling bread with a napkin and thus trapping the water vapor escaping from it so that the crust becomes soggy and becomes lighter, but at the same time softer. The weight ratio of crust to crumb is 1/4 - 1/6; the amount of water in it is from 15% (or less) to 20%. The crumb of rye bread contains approximately 48%, and wheat bread - 45% water.
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1003. Defect - large cracks, deformation of the upper crust
Characteristics of the defect. Bread made from whole-wheat flour with a significantly deformed upper crust due to wide, spreading cracks across the entire surface. The top crust is not properly rounded and slightly overhangs the side crusts. The porosity is coarse, uneven, and larger in the center of the product. The taste and smell are sour.
Causes of the defect. Significant overproofing of cured dough pieces before baking. The defect intensifies if the dough is prepared more moist, contrary to the norm allowed by the standard and the baking properties of the flour.
Prevention methods: 1. Ensure the optimal mode and duration of proofing of dough pieces.
2. Do not allow the wet dough to become too warm; strictly adhere to the production recipe and test regime.
When processing weak flour, the dough from which becomes very liquefied during proofing, it is recommended to reduce the duration of proofing to a minimum and increase the dosage of salt. To avoid voids in the crumb, the surface of the dough pieces can be pricked.
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