New to bread-making

noonesperfect

PLease can anyone tell me how to ensure a soft crust?

My father is a bit dentally challenged and dislikes both crusty and chewy crusts.

Old_Joe

I cover my bread while it's still warm and when it cooled the loaf will have a soft crust.

basmic

Adding sugar gives a thicker crust.

Consider a bread machine. I got one for £10, in the local rag - stunk of smoke, but a good clean and it gives nice bread when we run out.

bertiebots

Adding milk gives a softer crust and wrapping in a tea towel or symilar whilst still warm also helps. I am sure there will be a milk loaf recipe on here somewhere!

annie-c

Sprinkle a thickish layer of flour on top of the loaf before baking.

fuzzyfelt_2

Wrap your loaf in a tea towel when it comes out of the breadmaker / oven - the steam will help soften the crust. You can also brush the crust with milk (I do this with rolls), whilst it's still hot. Most of the milk will evaporate, but this will help soften the crust. Good luck with the baking.:T

Obukit

As bertiebots said if you add a teaspoon of dried milk to your mixture it will give it a softer, less chewy crust as well as a richer, softer texture to the bread (it makes it more like the texture of a shop-bought loaf, but with MUCH nicer flavour!).

You can experiment adding more or less milk powder to suit your taste. You can even (as I have done in the past to suit fussy families!) make up the dough as normal then just add the milk powder to one half of it, and put the halves at opposite ends of the loaf tin, so you end up with a "half-and-half" soft and crusty loaf!

Just to beware with covering the loaf when it's cooling, although this will make a softer crust it can also make the crust more chewy, which make not be so good for your grandfather .

overlykeensaver

before putting your loaf in the oven, "wash" over the top with a little water and then dust with flour - seems to work for me! Good luck; it is lovely making your own bread.

noonesperfect

I bought some milk powder from Aldi yesterday so I'll experiment with using that in my baking from now on.