When baking bread in the oven, do you set the temp to 400 or 350 and for how many mins. I seem to have varying thoughts on that and my breads usually come out hard...any suggestions.
More varying thoughts! All my recipes say 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.Tap the crust for doneness. I always let mine rise a little extra, and cook a little less than recommended, so it turns out soft and fluffy.
Most breads I would say the temperature should be about 350. If you set it too high it can dry out the bread or make it hard. Make sure also not to add too much flour when you make it. If there is a particular recipie that you are looking for go on cooks.com. They have recipies for everything. Good luck
I make various kinds of homemade bread every day. Some crusts are hard just because of the recipe. For most of my bread, though, I prefer baking them at a lower temperature--no higher that 325-350--and then baking them for close to an hour for a large loaf. The other thing I do do make a soft, delicious crust is to butter the top as soon as it comes out of the oven. Yum!
Best wishes,
C.
I set mine to 400 or higher. Bread is one of those things that just takes a lot of time and practice. The more you make it the better you get at making it.
I also find that a pizza stone is nice to have or I will start the bread on a flat pan (pizza or the like) and bake for a few minutes then I like to slide it directly onto the oven rack. I don't normally use a loaf pan. I like to form the loaves by hand instead.
Happy Baking!
If you're talking about yeast bread, it needs to be kneaded for approximately 10 minutes to develop the gluten. Kneading improves the texture and helps the flour to absorb moisture. You can knead it longer without negatively affecting the finished product. The longer you knead it the finer the texture. When you're finished kneading the dough should bounce back when you poke it.
Then it needs to rise twice. The first rising is complete when you poke your finger into it and it does not bounce back. Punch it down and set it to rise a second time. It's rising is complete when it does not bounce back when poked. The dough should double in bulk during each rising.
Let dough rest after punching it down and before forming loaf.
It is OK to let it rise more than twice if you're not ready to bake it. Just keep punching it down.
What temperature to use depends on the kind of bread. White and sourdough are 400, French and whole wheat are 375 according to Better Homes and Gardens. It's been several years since I've made yeast bread. I think that the temperature varies from recipe to recipe.
I suggest that your breads come out hard because you haven't kneaded it enough for the gluten to become elastic enough for the bread to rise or you haven't let it rise enough or because you baked it for too long. The test for being done is to rap on the top. The loaf should sound hollow.
With my favorite recipe, I set the oven at 350 for about 35 minutes. But I'm in a high altitude area, and I'm not sure whether altitude makes a difference or not in oven temp.
The previous comment about not over-kneading is a good one. You want to knead until everything is mixed and the dough doesn't stick to the board (or the bowl). Much more than that, and it'll get difficult and heavy.
Just for fun, you might try going online and seeing if you can find a bread recipe that's close to your favorite. See what it says in those directions and compare it with what you do.
Mmmm... homemade bread... makes me hungry just thinking about it....
P.S. Have your calibrated your oven temperature lately?
Most likely your bread is too hard because you are over kneading it...
Oh yeah the comment about too much flour is good too. We keep adding more and more flour to cause the bread dough to not be so sticky, but I realized that it did make my bread really dry. Try to under flour when kneading and leave the bread dough "sticky". Even though it seems wrong, it works out with softer more moist bread. PS Butter makes EVERYTHING taste better too. :P
