I’ve tried a lot of bread recipes over the years, and all my loaves have varying results. Often I end up burning my bread or overbaking it until the crust is hard enough to chip a tooth.
For the longest time, I couldn’t help but wonder what secret techniques bakeries used to create loaves with a soft crust. Did they whip the bread dough into submission? Did they add a special ingredient that kept the crust from hardening? Perhaps they worship some unknown bread god or sacrifice flour, sugar, and yeast to the Pillsbury dough boy?
Turns out those secrets to a softer crust aren’t as crazy or difficult as I initially thought. These simple methods will ensure each loaf bakes with a perfectly soft crust, every time.
1. Bake at Lower Temperatures
Many artisan bread recipes will have you cook your bread at a higher temperature to crisp the crust. Often times, they’ll follow up with a lower temperature to ensure an even bake. My peasant bread recipe, for example, will have you cook your bread at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes and then at 375 for another 15 to 20 minutes. This technique gives the bread a flaky, slightly crisp crust.
But if you want a melt-in-your-mouth soft crust, you need a much lower temperature for a longer period. For sandwich bread and similar recipes, you’ll likely want a temperature between 325 and 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and to ensure an even bake, you’ll need to set aside anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour of oven time.
Note that it’s tough adjusting temperatures if you don’t have a lot of experience baking bread. If you’re not careful, you could over bake or under bake your loaf. Bakers just starting out might want to try one of the other secrets to a softer crust.
2. Brush With Butter
Few things feel more satisfying than slathering butter over a slice of fresh bread. But even though I love putting butter on after I’ve baked my bread, I often forget that you can put butter on before it goes in the oven.
As a repeat example, my peasant bread recipe requires that you brush the loaf with butter before you cook it. Butter contains fats that retain gases during baking, ensuring the dough rises properly in the oven and softening the crust.
If you forget to brush the dough before you bake, you can still apply it as soon as you take it out. The butter will minimizethe amount of crisping a loaf will do as it cools.
This is one of my favorite secrets to a softer crust, and it’s the most reliable method for me.
3. Sweat It Out
If you want to lose weight, or you simply don’t want to use half a stick of butter with every loaf, don’t sweat it. Or rather,do sweat it.
Bread right out of the oven produces a lot of heat and steam. When the hot air hits the cold air, the water vapor condenses, or “sweats.” If you cover your bread with a towel or bowl, you can trap that water in your bread, resulting in a softer crust.
I’ve turned otherwise rock-hard loaves into soft, tasty treats this way. Of course, I’ve also had otherwise delicious loaves turn into soggy mushy balls of dough using this technique by accident, too. Keep an eye on your bread if you choose to try this secret to a softer crust.
4. Try a Recipe That Incorporates Milk
The most basic bread recipes require few ingredients: yeast, flour, sugar, and salt. Additional ingredients affect the texture, flavor, and rise of the bread. Eggs, for example, allow the bread to rise a little higher. Oils add flavor and improve the shelf life of your bread, but they also inhibit gluten formation, so your bread won’t rise as high.
When you add milk to your dough, the lactose (milk sugar) will add a subtle sweetness to your bread, and the milk proteins will increase its nutritional value. Better still, the milk fats help retain carbon dioxide gases during baking, so your loaf comes out softer.
If you want especially soft bread, use milk with a higher fat percentage, and try one of my recipes that use milk as a key ingredient. Take a look at the tags to the right, and click on the #milk.
5. Use a Pain de Mie Pan
You are probably already familiar with the typical bread pan. But have you ever tried a pain de mie, or Pullman loaf, pan?
A pain de mie pan has a sliding lid that keeps the bread covered during baking. It effectively traps in steam that normally evaporates during baking, and the shape allows for more symmetrical loaves, so it works well for sandwich bread.
You can purchase a Pullman loaf pan at a variety of brick-and-mortar stores, such as Walmart, but if you want to buy one online, you can find a Pullman pan on Amazon.com*. Many bakers tout Pullman loaf pans as their secrets to a softer crust, and I can see why.
How Did Your Bread Turn Out?
These secrets to a softer crust have helped me improve the texture of my bread, but I’d love to know how they helped you. Share your experiences in bread making in the comments below. If you have additional tips, please don’t hold back! I’d love to know how to make better bread.
*I am an Amazon associate, so I earn a small commission for purchases on affiliate links. However, my opinions remain my own, so I only share products that I feel comfortable with.
