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How to make a crispy and crunchy crust?
The way the crust comes out depends on a variety of factors.
Choose the right recipe
Crusty bread is usually the simplest: flour, water, yeast, and salt. They do NOT use eggs, butter, sour cream, sugar, mashed potatoes, or anything else that might turn them into softies. Sure, you might see a crusty bread recipe calling for a teaspoon of sugar, a tablespoon of butter, or a tablespoon of dried milk powder. These small amounts of softening agents may keep the loaf’s interior tender but won’t affect the crust’s crispness.
Soft dinner rolls aren’t meant to be crusty; don’t force them beyond their comfort zone because therein lies disappointment.
Shape the dough with more rather than less surface area
A big, fat, round or oval loaf – a boule – doesn’t have as much opportunity to shine in the crisp crust department as a thin baguette or individual rolls. While you can make a big loaf with a crisp crust, the ratio of crunchy to tender will be much smaller.
So, if you’re a real fan of crust (as opposed to soft interior), opt for smaller, skinnier, or flatter loaves or rolls.
Water (brushed or spritzed)
Water may be brushed on or spritzed for a speedy, no-hassle glaze.
Spraying or brushing loaves with water while they bake will produce a crispy and crunchy crust with a nicer (in my opinion!) colour than the unglazed one. Water keeps the dough skin from forming the crust, enabling the dough to expand. It also smooths out the crust, creating a more refined appearance. Apply just before baking.
Create steam in the oven
Important: Just in the oven. No Bread Machine baking.
The artisan bakers, those masters of the perfect crusty crust, have a professional secret: the steam-injected oven. Nothing offers the baker quite as lovely a crust as an oven filled with steam for the first part of the baking process.
While you may not have access to such an oven, you can try to replicate steam’s role in creating a crisp crust by making your homemade steamy oven.
For a crispy and crunchy crust, spray water just before baking.
Place a sturdy pan (cast-iron preferred) on the bottom shelf of the oven as it preheats, then pour 1/2 cup or so of water (or ice cubes) into the sturdy pan as you’re loading the loaves into the oven. The result? Billows of steam are trapped in the oven.
Keep the sturdy pan with boiling water on the bottom of the oven while the bread bakes.
After 7 minutes, turn the pan around and spray more water on the bread.
It has to do with the starch in the flour. As bread bakes, its outer layer (crust) eventually reaches 82°C/180°F. At that point, the starches on the surface burst, become gel-like and then harden in the oven’s heat to a crackly consistency. Steam hitting the bread’s surface facilitates this process.
Bake on a pizza stone or steel
Many bakers find they can create a decent crisp top crust but struggle to make their bread’s bottom crusty.
The best way to brown and crisp your bread’s bottom crust and enhance its rise is to bake it on a preheated pizza stone or baking steel. The stone or steel, super-hot from your oven’s heat, delivers a jolt of that heat to the loaf, causing it to rise quickly. At the same time, the bread’s bottom, without the shield of a metal pan, which takes a while to absorb and transmit heat, bakes super-quickly, becoming brown and crisp.
Also check:
- Finishing the crust – glazes, washes, and toppings
- How to create an Artisan bread with a rustic crust
- How to make a crispy and crunchy crust?
- Everything You Need to Know to Start Baking Awesome Bread Using a Bread Maker
- Fast2eat Bread Recipes
- How to make bread with a soft crust
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