How to Get A Thinner Crust on Sourdough Bread And Make It Softer & Less Chewy (2024)

FAQs

How to Get A Thinner Crust on Sourdough Bread And Make It Softer & Less Chewy? ›

If you aren't quite ready to try a higher hydration dough, you can also try to increase the amount of steam inside your Dutch Oven. Spraying your dough liberally with a water atomiser helps to thin out your crust. It can also help you to get a beautiful blistered sourdough crust!

A thin sourdough crust can be achieved with a higher hydration dough. Lower hydration will generally give you a thicker, tougher crust. Increasing the hydration to at least 70% and up to 80% should give you a thinner, crispier crust on your sourdough bread.

The flour you used may have contained too much protein. Protein is one of the ingredients that help yeast bread brown. Use bread flour that is purchased at a grocery store or a national brand of all-purpose flour.

tips for avoiding a gummy sourdough loaf - 1) try making a loaf with lower hydration 2) make sure to develop the gluten sufficiently, whether through autolysing, laminating, kneading, or folding 3) make sure to proof long enough 4) make sure to bake long enough and let the loaf cool before cutring #sourdoughtok # ...

Using high-protein white flour (13-14% protein) in your sourdough pizza dough can lead to a chewier pizza. If you'd like to reduce the chewiness, try using a lower protein flour for the pizza dough (like all-purpose flour or Type 00 with lower protein).

If you are rubbing your dough with flour before baking to accentuate your scored designs, this too can dehydrate your crust, causing it to be tougher and more chewy. Try just spraying with water before baking or minimising the amount of flour you're using on the surface of your bread.

Brush With Butter

Butter contains fats that retain gases during baking, ensuring the dough rises properly in the oven and softening the crust. If you forget to brush the dough before you bake, you can still apply it as soon as you take it out. The butter will minimize the amount of crisping a loaf will do as it cools.

Over-kneading has a tendency to result in chewy bread. Here's how to tell if you've kneaded enough. Another possibility—you used bread flour when all-purpose flour would do. If a recipe with bread flour turned out chewier than you like, try it with all-purpose and knead only as much as the recipe directs.

Uneven heat in your oven can be the culprit – if you loaf is nicely golden on the outside but gummy or moist in the inside, it's baking too quickly on the outside. Trying reducing the temperature you're baking at and bake for a bit longer. Experiment until you find the sweet spot, and take notes along the way.

Oven Off Method For Crusty Sourdough

The easiest solution to stop sourdough crust going soft after its cooled is to make sure you bake it long enough. When checking if your sourdough is cooked, if the crust feels a little thin or you can still push down and feel give, return it to the oven for longer.

Why is my sourdough so dense and gummy? ›

If your loaf is dense, has uneven holes and a gummy texture, most likely there wasn't enough active wild yeast in your starter to make the bread develop and rise during baking. This can be the case even if your starter seems really happy and bubbly.

12- Once the dough is out of the oven, remove from the pans quickly and place on a wire rack to cool, and brush with melted butter. This will help the crust to be soft. Wait at least 20 minutes before cutting.

Linen is a breathable and durable fabric that provides an excellent environment for bread. As long as the bag is closed, it will keep just enough moisture inside for the sourdough to retain its soft interior while preventing the outside from getting soggy.

Oil acts as a tenderizer. Also don't over mix your dough. Fat will definitely help you with softness (oil, milk powder...). Don't forget to bake when your dough is at its sweet spot (best fermentation spot, before it collapses and after it inflated and is soft enough).

What makes dough chewy? The chew in dough comes from the flour used to prepare it. Bread flour contains higher protein content than all-purpose flour which gives pizza crust its chew.

I feel like, more often than not, the issue is under-hydrated—meaning you didn't put enough water into the dough. If your dough is too stiff, basically that means it's resistant to being blown up by the yeast. DOGU: If your hydration is low, increase it.

Your sourdough crust goes soft after cooling because there is still too much moisture in your bread. The baking process should have removed this moisture, but if it's too short, the moisture remains in the crust and softens it as soon as the sourdough cools.

The best way to cut your loaf is to use a sawing motion. If you have a good knife – one with a long enough blade that is sharp and serrated – it should be able to do most of the work. There should not be a need to push harshly into the loaf with the knife or with the hand holding on to the other end.