How To Achieve An Amazing Crust (It's So Easy!)

Want to make super-crusty bread at home? This article is for you. I have a simple technique. No hassle. Works every time :o)

I've been experimenting with crustiness this week. Whenever I buy good* bread it always has this amazing, thick, crunchy crust.
*Not the cheap floppy stuff that comes pre-sliced in a plastic bag, though I do buy that sometimes. It has its place.

By 'good' bread, I mean the kind that you pay a bit more for because it is made locally, in small batches. It may be labelled 'artisan' and it may be sourdough. It may be covered in oats or seeds. It probably isn't tin-shaped and it probably has some pretty marks cut into it, or the concentric ring markings left by a proving basket. Maybe it has all those things. It certainly has a robust crust that is dark and flavoursome, having been caramelised almost to the point of being burnt.

My mum made the bread in our house when I was little. My packed lunch always included stout, wholemeal sandwiches that were a workout for the jaws. I wouldn't have had it any other way. I did not envy the flabby, colourless sandwiches of my peers although I could see that the other children did have a certain speed advantage when it came to finishing their lunch and getting out to play.

It was there, in the school lunch hall, aged four, that I first began to consider crusts. Children all around me would carefully nibble up to the edge of their sandwiches and discard - what?! As far as I could see, the edge was only slightly less soft than the rest of their insubstantial bread. I pondered on this strange lack of effort as I stoically ploughed through my homemade bread. I rather liked crusts. I still do.

Good bought bread, as I was saying, has a great crust because commercial bread ovens are designed to create the perfect baking conditions (I'll get to those in a moment) but, never fear, I've been experimenting again and there are some things that we can do to replicate these conditions at home. In fact, I've honed a really simple, no fuss technique that works pretty bloomin' well, every time.

Incidentally, there is a lot of information on line about crusts. It makes interesting reading but I'm not going to try and go into all the science here. My aim is simply to share the technique that I have found most successful with the least hassle. That said, it helps to know that a good crust depends on sufficiently caramelising the starches in the flour on the surface of the bread. This requires an even heat and a high temperature. You don't want the crust to form too fast, however, since that will restrict the bread from rising properly and make for a less fluffy loaf. Those enviable bought loaves that are fluffy on the inside with a dark, crunchy crust have been given sufficient temperature and time to spring up in the early stages of cooking before the crust is allowed to dry out and brown.

Assuming that you have used good quality ingredients to make a decent bread dough, two things seem to be important in creating a good crust:

1. Heat - You need to help your dough to reach a high temperature as rapidly as possible, once it goes into the oven. Ideally, you want to distribute the heat evenly. This will enable the 'oven spring' - an initial expansion of the air bubbles to inflate the dough in the early stages of cooking, making it light inside.
2. Moisture - You need to ensure that your crust doesn't dry out too fast, preventing the bread from rising fully. In a commercial oven, this is achieved with jets of steam.

Don't worry: I have a master plan.

To give you context for the master plan, here are some ways that you could easily obtain optimum heat and moisture in your oven. (Read on for my overall easiest way.)

To maximise the amount of heat going into your bread, and distribute it evenly, you could use a baking stone, which you preheat as the oven is warming up. I do not have a baking stone but I have found that preheating my baking tray or loaf tins has a similar effect. (Also, preheating loaf tins seems to prevent sticking - nice side effect!)

As for moisture, there are various ways you could create steam in the oven. Suggestions include: putting a bowl of water on the bottom of the oven, putting ice-cubes on the bottom of the oven, using a spray bottle to create mist in the oven.

Those techniques work and, anyway, you just have to do the best you can with the equipment you have.

Here's what I do (super simple technique)

The best success I've had with great crust creation has been using my Le Creuset casserole dish* (the link is to the same one as mine, on Amazon, but I think any heavy cast-iron casserole dish with a lid would work well. Maybe even a Pyrex casserole dish would be good enough.)
*This is an affiliate link. If you buy anything on Amazon after clicking through with this link, I may get a commission. So please buy something really expensive. Thanks ;o)

You need to preheat it in the oven so that when the bread is ready to bake, you can pop it onto the hot metal surface and it sizzles. Then you put the lid on to start the cooking. The heavy lid traps enough steam in the casserole dish to slow down crust formation and let the bread rise sufficiently. After 15 or 20 minutes (it's not crucial) you remove the lid and let the crust begin to dry out and caramelise. By the time the cooking time is complete, your bread will be crusty all over and a tasty, dark brown colour. And because you pre-heated the casserole dish, the loaf just pops off the surface as easy as anything. Bonus!

Now, I know everyone has their own way of doing things, and I'm not even saying mine is the best way, but it's the most hassle-free way I've found of getting great results.

Feel free to leave a comment below if you have a great technique to recommend too.

More!

Beginners, this book is for you.

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You are only a few hours away from the smell of freshly baked bread in your own kitchen.

I will guide you.

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30+ original recipes from Freshly Baked in a printable, easy-read format.

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