Whole grain crust texture

[texassourdough]

Re: Whole grain crust texture

Hi James!

I think Annie's comments are pretty "on". The loaf looks like it might be a hair dense (possibly a bit underproofed but again, you hammered the gluten pretty hard - looks more like a more-or-less "normal" high grain addition semi-whole wheat loaf.

The crust picture seems to show an exceptionally thick crust. I think Annie is right on - that you dried it out in the proofing. A plastic cover should help keep it wetter. Also...I find convention really dries out the crust when I use an electric oven so I would suggest turning the convection off.

As "awful" as it looks I would definitely eat a slice! ) (Clearly it was pretty doggone good!) (But as a perfectionist baker I sympathize with trying to understand the "cause".)

Bake On!
Jay

[james]

Re: Whole grain crust texture

OK, I think I may have got to the bottom of the problem. The loaf baked in the WFO was also hard (not quite as hard as in the electric oven but hard nonetheless), and I made some rolls and they were hard too. I make many of Hamelman's and Reinhart's lean doughs with seeds and they are never hard (in fact I had loads of PR's Struan in the oven at the same time and they were all soft), but the difference is soaking the seeds/grains overnight. I think what may be happening is that the seeds are robbing the dough of its moisture and then the crust is drying out. I'll test this out later in the week.

Hah! That could be it. Let's be honest -- I know you are supposed to soak whole grains and seeds overnight, but I rarely do it. They could be sucking moisture out of the loaf as it proofs and bakes.

I will try this as well.

Let's see where this goes.
James

[BRIFRO]

Re: Whole grain crust texture

I make all of my bread with 100% fresh stone ground flours using multi grains and all of the loaves I have made had the identical crust as your loaf. The one exception was a multi grain loaf I made with all of the flours sifted through a fine mesh strainer including the flour I used to build the starter. The strainer took out the larger pieces of bran from the flour. The crust was completely different. It was very thin and very soft compared to the other loaves. I made the same bread without sifting and the crust was thick and very crisp as yours.

Brian

[egalecki]

Re: Whole grain crust texture

I'm trying a new one today- Hamelman's flaxseed rye. James, you just wouldn't believe the amount of water those seeds soaked up overnight. I'll bet that Annie's right about that and the crust.

I'll let you all know how it turns out- it's quite a bit more rye percentage-wise than I've used before. The sourdough starter smelled better than my last attempt at a high-rye dough, though. Good thing. That one smelled to high heaven. Upon reflection, I think that it was contaminated by that leucostonoc stuff.

[AnnieMacD]

Re: Whole grain crust texture

OK, guys, the jury is in. I made my multi-seed bread again and all I changed was that I soaked the seeds overnight. I did use only sourdough and baked on the stone in the electric oven (just as above). It is a totally different loaf. The crust is soft and not as thick. The crumb is much more even and it also is softer. Here are both the pics. The one on the left is the hard crust and the other is the soft crust. So, my conclusion is to soak the seeds/grains and remember to adjust the water in the recipe.

Annie

[Dutchoven]

Re: Whole grain crust texture

I am sorry I cam into this one so late...Annie I have to say you are right on...at least in my opinion...I remember once making bread with garlic and basil...usually with fresh garlic but once didn't have any fresh but had some dried minced garlic...added it to the dough with out hydrating it and man what a hard crust...so I really agree...many of the european whole grain breads like bavarian pumpernickel, roggebrood, etc...all use soakers or actually boiled grains...helps them to stay moist...some of them also use molasses which tends to make a softer and moister bread...I remember something about taking advantage of the hygroscopic characteristic of sucrose...
All the best!
Dutch