Bread SOS Episode 4: My Bread is Too PALE! – Bake with Jack

[Music]ohayo baker’s jack here bake with Jacktowers bringing you episode 4 of yourbread SOS and from here on in we’rechanging the SOS service a little bit Ihope that’s okay because the last threevideos clocked in at nearly half an houreach which was never intended it’s justthe way that things happen I wanted togive you as much information as possibleeach week and that’s the way it happenedI can’t do that week in week out becauseediting a 30-minute video takes ages andso here’s what we’re going to do fromnow onI’d like to make these videos moreaccessible for everyone a more immediateI want to get to the court your problemssooner and so we’re gonna be answeringone or maybe two questions in a videojust like this each week to keep thingsrelevant the video is going to beshorter they’re gonna be straight to thepoint and if it was at all possiblethey’ll have even less of my incredibleediting Flair so let’s go into today’squestion which comes in from Lisa inMichigan and she says I have been a homebread baker for 12 years most of thetime I can identify my mistakes in orderto correct them but this problem has mestumped sometimes my bread doesn’t brownproperly and the crust is unusually hardso hard that it’s difficult to cut itseems like an increase in baking timewould do the trick but it doesn’t helpokay this morning I had the pale hardcrust problem it’s edible but not greatsee attached photo what am I doing wronglet’s take a look at the photofor a bread like this I feel like theanswer is down to steam either you’renot baking with steam at all you’re notbaking with enough steam and the reasonI say that it’s because looking at itthe crammed looks a little bit high theoutside is lacking that golden color iswhat we’re talking about that goldenbrown a vibrant color that we all wantand it even though it is thick right andthat’s why I feel like the problem issting when you bake your bread theoutside will go dry and then it willpuff a little bit and as soon as theoutside goes dry and creates a crustit’s not going to go any further whenyou bake with steam in a humidenvironment it keeps the outside softerfor longer allowing it to rise up biggerand also brings that nice brown gold andkind of high heat and steam is what youneed so if you’re not baking with steamat all here’s what I’d recommend have adeep tray of the bottom of your ovenwhen you’re ready to bake your breadboil a kettle of water load that ovenwith your bread and tip that water intothe tray underneath making lotus themeshut the door keeping the steam insideand that will help your loaf to rise upproperly and get a nice brown color onthe outside you can see this whole thingI wrote down here my nose if you watchthe sourdough video number 130 at 22minutes and 18 seconds I will show youexactly what I do in my oven at home andif that is not enough steam for you youcan double up the trays you’ll notice ifyou’ve got a baking stone on one shelfyou’ve got a shelf underneath and thebase of the oven do two trays of waterin there and that will double up youryour steamed and even more steaming youroven at one go not all ovens are good atkeeping steaming if the seal on theoutside of your oven isn’t complete ifthere’s a gap in it or somethingallowing this thing to escape some ovensgot air vents where steam escapes youcan only do your best and if you stillcan’t get your oven to keep the steamingwell try baking inside something in aDutch oven or a deep casserole dish witha lid on something covered up because inthat scenario your loaf as it bakes yourdough as it bakes moisture comes off ofit and it creates its own stink withinthat contained environment that way youwon’t even have to bother we’re doingsteam in the first place because it’salready inside the Dutch oven and allthe pot in the first places that makesensesame question from our Lee in BritishColumbia that’s in Canada by the way Ihave been bakedyour recipe using the scrapings methodfor sourdough and it’s been workingwonderfully niceI used to use I used to use my Dutchoven for baking but since using yourmethod I’ve just been using a stone witha water tray my question is this how canI get a darker crust okay so if you havebeen using a Dutch oven don’t feel likeyou have to change to what I do thereason I don’t use it that Chavezbecause I always bake 2 loaves in one goI never do one loaf is sourdough and sowithout the Dutch oven I get two loaveson my baking stone side by side like yousaw in that video I don’t bother usingthe Dutch oven if you get great resultsusing your Dutch oven use your Dutchoven you don’t have to just do what I dojust because I that’s what I do you knowgive these things a try and set on themethod that works the best for you itsounds like you need the oven to behotter or for longer the first blast ofheat when we’re baking a sourdough lifewe bake it really hot for that first bityou can extend that bit if you want itto get browner because the rest of thetime after you turn the heat down itsjust baking it through to the middle soif you’re not getting enough colorextend that first blast of heat andhopefully it should get you nice andbrown before you continue to turn downthe heat and bake it for longer samequestion again in a slightly differentway from Fernando in New Jersey thankyou very much my bread making burden isthat all my breads come out light andpale instead of deep brown they’resupposed to be right I use thing andhave kept them in the oven rack puts hemminutes longer than the recipe says butstill doesn’t seem to work ok if you’reusing steam and it’s not working andyou’re baking for longer that’s notworking play with your oven you need toget to know your oven all ovens arecompletely different this is somethingI’ve learned from baking in otherpeople’s ovens all over the place in alltheir different houses for years andyears in my classes once you get you yougot to get to know the oven first rightand if you’re baking at home write downwhat you’re doing the whole time useyour oven in whatever way you use in thefirst place change something for nexttime you need to bake it hot and youneed to use a steam but some ovensreject this theme some ovens in theextreme case for example in our gerstuff and an Argos seems to take ages tobakeages to go Brown right but when it doesgo Brown the crust is delicious and theinside is super moist so play with thesettings on your ovens and get to knowit try Baker for longer try bakinghotter try playing with steam but don’tdo all these things at one go okay allovens are completely different changeone thing for once and in the next timeyou bake change something different andsee how it comes out as long as you makeit something edible you’ve won the gameand everything else can be tweaked overtime from one bake to the next bake sonext week you’ll continue to learnyou’ll continue to understand what’sgoing on inside of your oven some peopleneed to bake in their oven for a littlebit longer flip up so now to finish offthe rest of the heat is uneven forexample there’s loads of different waysyou need to get to know your oven and Ihope that helps you out so the key to anice dark and golden crust this highheat and steam weather that’s achievedwith one tray water two trays of wateror inside of that Chavan creating itsown steam that’s how you get to the coreof the problem I hope that’s helped youout I hope that’s provided you with someuseful information for you to move onand learn the next bit by yourself athome if you’ve got questions about yourbread problems issues you might behaving them send them to mebread SOS at baker with jack dot co dotuk’ and in these short sharp to thepoint minimal editing of videos once aweek or maybe even a couple of times aweek if we get good air I’ll try andhelp you out as best as I can listenthank you very much for stopping by foryour bread making SOS a video and I’llsee you soon bye bye and there it isyour bread SOS episode I hope youenjoyed it I hope the new format was toyour liking and don’t forget if you wantto get all my content of the week inyour inbox every single Thursday you cansign up for your homeBaker’s bulletin I’ll leave the linkunderneath and I’ll see you soon bye bye