keeping crust crusty in the new tropics

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squattercity on 12 Sep 2023 at 08:55

Now that NYC has almost rainforest-level humidity in September, I have a question about how to keep the highly saturated air from destroying the crusts on the breads I bake.

The past few weeks, I've been playing with recipes from Maurizio Leo's Perfect Loaf book. Yesterday was my chance to bake his 100% whole wheat. The night was around 90% humidity and, though the bread was dark and the crust quite tight when I pulled it from the oven, it had become soft and almost mushy when I carved into it this morning. The bread's delicious and pulls a nice spectrum of sweet flavors from the grain. But the crust wilted in the high humidity and I'm wondering what to do.

Should I overbake when the humidity's closing in on 100%?

Do I need to rig up a special anti-humidor to use as a cooling chamber?

Any ideas?

Rob

Here in the south east it is humid year round. I decided to go for soft crusts. 

We used desiccant packs in the lab to minimize degradation of moisture-sensitive materials. These food-safe packs could be placed in a airtight bag or box and regenerated when exhausted. I have not tried this brand myself.

When I was a kid, we had a cookie jar that had a small glass insert containing an indicating desiccant that screwed into the lid. It could be removed and regenerated in the oven when it turned color. Couldn't find an image online, though.

I did find an image! It's a Blue Magic Krispy Kan:

s-l1200.jpg

That is a great idea. Maybe you could recharge in the cooling oven after baking.

So...if you really want crusty crust and the conditions are against you....just a left field suggestion...

Perhaps 2 options:

  • Change your bread style. There is a reason Banh mi is Banh mi - regardless of humidity it will always be crusty.
  • Change your flour.  Some flours are just better at holding a crust. Yours may be fine with low humidity but not be able to carry it for all seasons.  

Also have you looked at reducing the humidity of your flour storage?

A cookie tin with a moisture reducing wick is an amazing invention! Maybe I can rig up a jumbo version that can accept the 1.2 - 1.5 kg boules and batards I tend to bake.

I was thinking: I could embed the dough in a sack of uncooked rice -- but that would likely not only prevent moisture from coming in but suck most moisture out of the bread as well.

As for flours -- great thought. Certainly, the seals on the jars I keep my flour in are not airtight -- and the whole wheat I baked with had been sitting around for a month or so.

Keep those ideas rising!

Rob

I know a crusty crust is the hallmark of a good sourdough loaf of bread. However, my young grandchildren don't like it so "hard" and "tough". So recently I brushed the loaf (warm from the oven) with melted butter, another time with olive oil. They liked that! But even with those treatments, the bottom of the loaf is inedible as far as they're concerned. (My 6 year old granddaughter is missing 5 of her front teeth!) So is there something I could bake the bread on to make the bottom not so hard/thick crusty?

 

Three things that would help:

- Bake at a lower temperature.  The lower the temperature, the less the crust will be cooked by the time the inside is done;

- Proof and bake in a loaf or Pullman pan;

- Enrich the dough (with butter, eggs, etc).

With the lid off you get a traditional rounded top. With it on you get square slices with very little crust but it requires careful estimation to get the correct amount of dough.

Baking at lower temperature and longer would also help.