My latest sourdough bread. I'm very pleased with the taste, and I'm getting the hang of shaping - not as quickly as I'd like, but I'm pretty happy with today's batch.
I'm trying to figure out how to get the crust right. My last loaves had a softish crust - not terrible, but not as crackly as I'd like. This time I ran the heat higher (around 450F before steam added) and then lowered the temperature to 400F to finish. The crumb is good, but look at the whitish ring around the edge, just inside the golden crust:
(The gold flecks in the interior holes are surface crumbs that were picked up from the bread board.) This crust is hard. It looks from the cross-sectional ring as though there's a tough, dry ring around the perimeter. Does this mean I cooked it for too long at high heat before turning the oven down? If not, what? What should I try next?
