Soft Crust Sourdough Bread Recipe · Coffee Fit Kitchen (2024)

FAQs

How do you get a softer crust on sourdough 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.

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.

Excess flour can cause a thick, tough crust. If you are using rice flour in particular, this can cause a tougher crust to form. Try to minimise the amount of rice flour you use and brush off the excess before baking.

Glucose syrup, honey, or agave work great. Glucose syurp and these other liquid sugars are known as invert sugars. Invert sugars are less prone to crystallization. This will then keep the crust soft and flexible rather than hard and crispy because the sugars are not setting on the surface.

One of the most common mistakes is having a dough temperature that's too low for the starter to feed on all the flour in the dough, resulting in a crumb that's dense, with fewer openings. "Starter is happiest and most active at around 75 degrees. If it's a lot colder, the process will be much slower.

My Beginner's Sourdough Bread has a light, open crumb (interior) with a deeply-colored, crunchy crust. As the new obsession set in, I started making fresh sourdough bread for every meal. There was something about the whole bread-making process that I found captivating.

Shape the dough into a round (boule) or oval (batard), then place the dough in proofing baskets. Cover proofing baskets with reusable plastic and seal shut. Then, place both baskets into the refrigerator and proof overnight. Preheat your oven with a baking surface or combo cooker/Dutch oven inside to 450°F (230°C).

How to get a thin 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.

Bread flour (or baker's flour) is a high protein, white flour that is milled specifically for baking bread and sourdough. You'll get the best results for your sourdough bread from using bread flour. The most popular bread flour in the US is King Arthur Bread Flour.

Sourdough bread will keep well for up to 3-5 days at a moderate room temperature of 18-20°C or 64-68°F.

One of the simplest methods of storing bread isn't actually a form of storage at all. Freshly baked sourdough can be left out on the countertop for a day or two before using any of the rest of the methods in this guide.

For a few short minutes before the crust forms, steam inside the oven also helps contribute to a nicely textured crust. To create steam, fill a spray bottle with water and spray the loaves 2 to 3 times during the first 10 minutes of baking or until a crust has formed.

If your bread is especially hard, brush the outside with water before wrapping it. Then, heat it on the center rack of your oven for about 30 minutes for a whole loaf; or 15 to 20 minutes for a partial loaf, or if you have a long, skinny loaf like a baguette.

For a perfectly chewy pizza crust recipe, use bread flour rather than all-purpose flour. Bread flour contains higher protein content than all-purpose flour which gives pizza crust its chew.

It likely baked for too long at too high of a temperature. Reduce the bake time and temperature until it no longer burns. Use the suggestions in this guide post to help reduce burning on the bottom of your bread dough.