Was at the local megamart grocery store today, passed the bakery
section and noticed they sell whats supposed to be some kind of hearth
type loaves, I dont know what they call them, but they are slashed
boule shapes, some seeded, some whole grain, some labeled sourdough.
Wasnt tempted to buy anything, even though one read "San Francisco
Style Sourdough". Now this (chain) store has a small bakery making
"italian" bread, birthday cakes, pies, cookies and such, but I doubt
they got involved in baking all this stuff, perhaps the "parbaking" was
done somewhere and they finished it off. What was interesting though
was a crust I have never seen before, I forget exactly which bread it
was on, I think it just said sourdough, but the crust was rather
delicate, (wrapped in clear plastic), it wasnt blistered, but perhaps
cracked to a real extreme. I get cracks running acrossed my crust all
the time, I can even hear the crackling when they cool, but nothing
like this. The crust was actually all broken up and (appeared to be)
flaking off, kind of like it was rolled in double sized cornflakes.

Has anybody seen crust like this? Is this possibly some faulty loaf, or
is this some form of bread I havent encountered yet?

hutchndi

"hutchndi" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> ... The crust was actually all broken up and (appeared to be)
> flaking off, kind of like it was rolled in double sized cornflakes.
>
> Has anybody seen crust like this? Is this possibly some faulty loaf, or
> is this some form of bread I havent encountered yet?

The defect you describe is know as crust "scaling" and is due to an
overdevelopment and hyperoxidation of the dough.

- Steve Brandt

"Steve B" > wrote in message
...

> > ... The crust was actually all broken up and (appeared to be)
> > flaking off, kind of like it was rolled in double sized cornflakes.

> The defect you describe is know as crust "scaling" and is due to an
> overdevelopment and hyperoxidation of the dough.

Might also be do to hyperdrying of the hot crust when it comes out
of the oven. Expect more under conditions of low humidity. Control
by regulating the rate of drying, and/or by limiting drying. Try bagging
in paper, in plastic.

--
Dicky