My bread taste is fine but it's still collapsing. I'm trying all sorts of things. I think my main problem is that the oven is all over the place in terms of temperature. No consistency at all. Yesterday I put a baking tray full of clean pebbles in the bottom to act a a thermal battery and put the temp control on 200 C. The day before that setting gave me 215 C, measured by the thermometer, but yesterday when I took the bread out the thermometer was reading 260 C and the bread was overcooked crust and collapsed top AGAIN. One day the oven set at 180 gives me 200. The next day 180 gives me 165. I also think this irregular operation is occuring during a session. I doubt the landlord will fork out to fix the oven just so I can bake bread. I may have to wait until I move back to my own home to achieve success.
I would love to know how the bakery achieves the closed crumb and low density of their loaves while retaining the moisture level of the finished product. I'm thinking that either the ingredients list is not 100% truthful of there is a significant event taking place in the actual process.
Without dependable equipment, it may be best to use that oven as a storage space for pots and pans. It is not just the ingredients that create the loaf. It also involves: ingredient quality, mixing method, fermentation timeline, baking and cooling. Take a look at some of the white, pan bread recipes on our site for more info. Frank @ KAF.
October 11, 2009 at 8:47pm