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Hot take: I tried baking bread with a cold oven and it actually worked but the crust was weird
I read somewhere that starting bread in a cold oven gives you a better rise, so I tried it last Sunday with my usual sourdough and the inside was perfect but the crust came out soft and pale like a dinner roll. My husband said it tasted fine but I'm not sure I can get past that chewy outside, has anyone else tried the cold oven method and got an actual crust out of it?
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the_rowan6d ago
Oh man, I went through this same thing last winter and it drove me nuts. The trick is the cold oven gives you a slow rise which is great for the crumb, but you gotta crank the heat at the end to get any color on that crust. What I do now is start it cold, let it bake at like 350 for most of the time, then bump it to 450 for the last 15 minutes or so. You can also take the lid off your Dutch oven for that final stretch so the steam escapes and the outside can actually dry out and brown. If your crust is coming out pale and soft it basically means there was too much moisture hanging around the whole time. Try that and you should get a real crust without losing the nice inside.
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