I have a couple of questions about this last bake ( image enclosed). When I took the dough from the proofing basket and turned it out on the clounter to do the egg wash and caraway dusting the oval shape widened and when I put it in my Breadtopia cloche it fit very very tight.
How do I make the oval shape tighter so ltaht does not happen? Did I not shape it tight enough before putting it in the proofing basket even though it fit okay?
I wouldlike the cuts in the bread to be as brown as the rest of the bread. How do I do that ? Do I rewash some egg on them after a few minutes of baking ?
Thanks as usual for alll your help; this is a delicious recipe; we love it in our house
Hi! I added your photo here ^ to make one forum thread.
Are you baking this in the Oblong Cloche? If so, is there any extra space at the ends of the cloche after you put the dough into it? If so, you could shape your dough longer, and that might help it be narrower.
Unless you have big holes in the crumb, your shaping is probably tight enough, but it wouldn’t hurt to de-gas and roll it aggressively. The air pockets will refill during the final proof. Which brings us to the next possibility: less extensive final proof will make the dough hold its shape more, but may not be worth the compromise to the crumb.
Another possible solution is to lower the hydration of the dough and/or chill the dough before baking (if you don’t already do this). Both of these strategies will stiffen the dough and reduce spread while you’re doing the crust treatments.
Scaling the recipe down by 10-20% might just be the easiest option. Multiply each ingredient by 0.9 or 0.8.
Score browning: washing the score openings when you take off the lid should do it – also, just taking the lid off earlier may be sufficient.
(1) The method used for the final shaping, and (2) how the dough is put (lowered) into the proofing basket both can have an affect on it ‘relaxes’ (spreads) when released from the basket.
My experience is (3) refrigerated dough does not relax quickly at all when released from a proofing basket. Recently, I’ve been baking dough from refrigerator to counter (for scoring) to oven, non-stop. There is some spread in the oven, tho I have not compared it to starting a bake with the same dough at room temp. Either way, refrigerating the dough before baking should help the loaf to fit in the cloche. A concern would thermo-shock for a ceramic cloche.
Thank your for your suggestions. I had at one point thought of stretching the dough in a long Breadtopia cloche to fit better. I think a more vigorous degassing will help as well.
I have been allowing about 45 minutes or so from fridge before putting iron the cloche so there is no thermal shock.
Re hydration : I did lower the amount of water 395 grams to 370 but maybe I should even lower it a bit more; my final fridge proof was 12 hours but I suppose I could shorten that as well.
Again, thanks to you and Otis for your always helpful commentary.
If you use parchment paper between the cold dough and the cloche, thermal shock shouldn’t be a risk. (I’ve been doing that for years with no cracking.) Any of the changes you mentioned could work, but if you like the crumb you’re getting, proofing less or lowering the hydration further could tighten it up. Worth testing of course!
The crumb was fine for me; and I too bake regularly using parchment paper so it is good to know that that should prevent any cracking.
The only “issue” was the oval shape relaxing when dumped from the proofing basket. I will try and really de gas the bread next time and try to make a tighter oval ( not sure the recipe will make enough quantity to fill the longer Breadtopia oval cloche.
Bread is delicious I must say. In many ways I prefer it to the other dark rye bread recipe you have which I have done many times and love as well…
Hope you have a great relaxing turkey time…many thanks again for your help
