Bread cracks in the oven
I'm having trouble with my hamburger buns cracking in the oven.
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In this photo you can see a a bun with the crust cap cracking, isolating the bottom portion and exposing the crumbs. I used to have Hamilton Beach mixer for kneading and never had any issues. I set the Hamilton Beach mixer on speed 4 for 10 minutes. But now I got a KitchenAid Artisan mixer, and am having trouble with the exact same recipe.
I first tried to follow the KitchenAid instructions to knead only for two minutes at speed 3 which didn't work out well and the dough failed the window pane test. I then searched and found some advice to knead at speed 4 for about 10 minutes. I did and my dough passed the window pane test but somehow after rising during the shaping the crust/surface of the buns show a non-smooth surface (happens a lot more on whole wheat). What are some of the reasons this happens? The same recipe works perfectly with the Hamilton Beach mixer. Any advice on the technicalities would be appreciated.
I've read What causes the crown of the bread to crack during baking? (and I appreciate people citing that). But that question is about a loaf, and it's normal for loaves to crack like that, and normal to score loaves. Hamburger buns, in contrast, are not generally scored, and the recipe I'm making is not supposed to require it. It's worked fine without scoring sometimes, so there's something else going wrong besides the lack of scoring.
Best Answer
Your picture makes me want to say that it's a classic case of underproofing, but... You also mixed that dough at a pretty high speed. I think you may have over-developed the gluten. Sometimes if the gluten is too tight, it won't be stretchy enough to accommodate proofing and oven spring, which can lead to a rough surface during proofing and ripping while baking. This is more frequently a problem for buns since their shape requires them to be molded tighter than a loaf would normally be, and their small size means that they rise faster than the gluten can relax. You might have better luck only mixing for the recommended time on the lower speed, and then folding it once or twice during the rising time.
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Quick Answer about "Bread cracks in the oven"
Dough is Too Wet or Too Dry If your dough is too dry it can form a crust before it had time to rise in the oven. This will cause the crust of your bread to crack and let the air out of the bread wherever it cracks and expand those cracks into bigger cracks or “bursts”.How do you fix cracks in bread?
Cracking is caused by insufficient elasticity, which is usually caused by insufficient moisture. Adding more moisture into the recipe would almost certainly help you out there. You can go with a 70% dough hydration for example, utilizing the stretch and fold technique to achieve stability.What causes a break in the side of a loaf of cooked bread?
Bread blowing out the side happens because the dough was too tight and restricted so couldn't expand upwards, so takes a weak spot on the side. This usually happens from under proofing, bad scoring or the crust setting before rising is complete.Bread Baking Mistakes ! KR118 #breadbakingmistakes
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Answer 2
I think the reason why the bread crown start to crack its because of high heat and moisture during baking, remember that there is high moisture in the centre of a bread(interior) than exterior. the crown of the bread receive heat firstly and rise while the centre of the bread take some time to rise because of the moisture content in the centre of a bread, as the centre of the bread start to rise it cracks the crown of the bread because the crown of the bread is already risen.Check the heat and moisture
Answer 3
Possibly three reasons that I can think of:
- If the water content was less in the dough and because of less moisture the bread cracked.
- Over prooving of the dough during the second rise.
- If you baked the bread at less temperature for a longer time.
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