[redforever]

This will be a long post giving some further tips to keep in mind when making bread.

Bread dough needs a warm, moist environment to proof properly. The warm part is obvious…the yeast needs to be warm to activate and work. Why moist though? Well, if the environment is dry while your bread dough is proofing, it will develop a skin on the exterior of the dough and that skin can affect bread in a number of ways. It can prevent the final bread product from rising properly in which case you will get a loaf that is not very high and that is dense and not very fluffy. Most breads that are made and baked properly, outside of some Artisan breads made with flour from heavy grains, will feel light for their size.

There are multiple ways to provide moisture while the bread is rising or proofing.

You can put the bowl of dough inside a food-safe plastic bag, inflate with some air so the plastic does not touch the dough, and then tie shut. You can put the dough in a bowl and put a plate over the bowl, as long as the plate seals the bowl so moisture stays trapped inside.

You can put the dough in a bowl in the microwave along with a cup or two of boiling water to provide moisture. You can use that same idea to proof the dough in the oven. Turn the oven on for 3 to 4 minutes and then turn it off. Put a large pan of boiling water on the bottom rack, put the bread dough on the middle rack, and close the oven door. The oven light can be turned on to provide a little warmth as well. I use the oven for the initial proofing of my bread dough but not for the final proof when the bread has been shaped. In most cases, the oven has to be preheated to bake the bread and then you would have to take the dough out and cover it anyhow. I don’t like to disturb bread dough too much during its final proof or rise.



You can also invert plastic tubs over the dough while it is initially rising or after it has been shaped and is rising. Just use your imagination to figure out what works for you.





If a skin forms, and the bread cannot rise properly, the dough that is rising inside can burst on the side or on the top of the loaf. The final bread product will still be edible and quite good but it will not as fluffy as it should have been and it certainly will not be as pleasing to the eye. Take a look at these two loaves to see what I am talking about.





There can be multiple reasons as to why bread bursts in this fashion during baking but the three main culprits are under-proofing of the dough prior to putting it in the oven to bake, not deep enough slashing of the final dough before it goes in the oven to bake, and not enough steam or moisture provided during the initial 5 to 10 minutes of baking.

Most bread dough should proof until it is about doubled in size. At that point, if you very lightly poke the bread with your finger, the indentation should slowly fill up.

Most Artisan breads that are baked at very high temperatures need steam and moisture during the initial part of baking. In the first few minutes of baking, loaves of bread will rise rapidly as the gases trapped inside expand and the yeast has a final burst of activity. This is called oven spring. Providing steam or moisture during this time helps keep the crust soft and that allows the bread to continue expanding freely. If the crust gets hard too quickly, the dough can’t fully expand evenly and so it cracks where the pressure points are.

There are multiple ways to reduce the risk of your bread bursting while baking. You can capture steam by baking the bread in clay bakers or in cast iron Dutch ovens, even under a make shift inverted baking pan of some sort. La Cloche and Romertopf make clay bakers for making bread. There are multiple brand names of cast iron Dutch ovens on the market…just be sure to use one that can withstand high heat, particularily the knob on the lid.

There are various schools of thought as to baking bread in a clay baker or cast iron Dutch oven. Some say to preheat the containers first and then transfer the risen loaf to the container to be baked with the lid on for the initial part of baking time and with the lid off for the last part of the baking, to ensure proper browning of the loaf of bread.

Some say to proof the dough in an unheated clay baker or Dutch oven and only preheat the lid.

Others say to just bake the bread normally...in other words, don't preheat the container or its lid. I have pretty well tried them all and don’t find any noticeable difference. Personally I prefer not having to transfer dough to containers that are very hot. I even have some recipes that call for putting the risen dough into a cold oven rather than a preheated oven. All seem to work fine. I think what is more important is the actual dough that you are putting in those containers to bake.








You can also provide moisture in the oven by putting a cup of boiling water into a pan placed on the lowest rack in the oven at the same time as you put the bread in the oven to bake. You could use a couple of cups of icecubes instead of boiling water. Never put either directly on the bottom surface of the oven. You can also spritz the oven and the risen bread dough liberally with water when you put the bread in the oven to bake.

If you are slashing the bread dough, make sure that the slashes are deep enough. I find that a very sharp serrated knife with a long blade works best to slash the top of the risen dough, prior to putting it in the oven. Cut into the dough about 1/4-inch deep and at an angle of about 30° to 45° from the vertical, not directly downwards. If the knife sticks, either dip it in cold water between slashes or coat the blade with oil.

I bought a lame but I find it does not work as well. It is basically a device to which you attach a razor blade. I will admit that a lame is handier if you are slashing bread that is inside a cast iron Dutch oven though. However, a razor blade held on its own basically serves the same purpose.

You might wonder why bread dough is slashed. One reason is for decorative purposes. However, most Artisan breads that are baked at a high temperature are slashed to prevent the dough from bursting during baking. Basically what you are doing is using the slash to provide pressure relief points. In other words, you are estimating where the bread might burst and slashing at those points.




This dough is not proofed enough and is not slashed deeply enough.


Fully doubled in size, nice deep slashes. Notice the air holes where the slashes are?


Baked nicely, did not burst during baking.

And sometimes you might not have checked the dough early enough and it has over-proofed. That means it is starting to break on the surface.



There are a few things you can do to try and remedy the situation. If the surface of the dough is just starting to tear, as shown in the picture, you can try to bake the bread as is. It will further tear though as it bakes and it won't get as much oven spring once it has over-proofed. You can also try to slash the bread where the tear is starting. It is not a perfect solution, but if you are short on time, and the dough is not badly torn, the slashing sometimes works.

If the surface of the dough is badly torn, simply reshape the dough and let it rise again, keeping in mind that the next rising time will be shorter than the last one.