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I'm an amateur baker, been making bread weekly for about 9 months now, working out of Ken Forkish's "Flour Water Salt Yeast" cookbook mostly. I had something happen to my bread this week that I would like to understand.

I was making a recipe in the book called "Overnight White Bread" which takes a very small amount of yeast and then rises for 12-14 hours. As a variant suggested in the book, after shaping the loaf in the morning I placed the proofing basket in the refrigerator and then, after work, set it on the counter while pre-heating my oven (I bake in an enameled cast iron Dutch oven). This let it work with my work schedule.

The bread came out pretty good, with an excellent taste. It has great big holes, which this recipe does usually, but I notice that the bread itself sort of separated -- there were extremely big holes near the top of the loaf, but it was relatively dense near the bottom. Basically, it looked as if the bread collapsed some on the interior, but after the crust had already risen and solidified enough to hold itself up. As a side-effect, with just a few gluten filaments beneath it, the top of the loaf couldn't conduct heat away and so blackened more than I would like..

It's not a huge deal, but I'd rather have a more evenly-distributed loaf if possible. Why does this happen, and can I do anything to prevent it?

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  • Possible duplicate: cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/73479/….
    – rumtscho ♦
    Oct 18, 2018 at 9:32
  • Dear Zeldredge, thank you for a well written first post. An improvement suggestion: a picture would help to decide if it is a duplicate, and if not, help with diagnosing your problem.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Oct 18, 2018 at 9:32
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    @rumtscho I think that is very close to what I observed, although mine was even a bit more severe. Unfortunately by the time I thought of making the post, the parts of the bread that most demonstrated what was happening had been eaten, so no picture was possible. I will try some of the techniques suggested in that answer, thank you!
    – zeldredge
    Oct 18, 2018 at 12:15
  • This sounds like a case of "flying crust". For more information about it, check out the "Tunnel Between the Crust and the Crumb" section here: artisanbreadbaking.com/problems
    – Rick
    Oct 24, 2018 at 21:38

2 Answers 2

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That sounds like you allowed the bread to dry while it was rising. And also that you allowed it to rise too long. The latter will produce large air pockets, and the former will make them form just under the crust. Cover your rising bread with a damp towel, don't let it get more than twice as large as it started, and you should be fine.

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This happend to me as an young bread baker. You should always consider slashing the top of your loaves with a very sharp knife or razor blade to relieve pressure inside the loaf and prevent this separation. You may have also over risen your loaves. Check them periodically by pressing a wet finger into one. When the dough does not spring back very fast, its bake time.

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