How can I get a 'soft top' on my bread?

angeltreats

I'd put the tinfoil hat on at the start and take it off halfway through. Let me know how it turns out.

I'm just about to soak some fruit to make a barm brack tomorrow, you've really put me in the mood for one!

pookienoodle

My husband is on medication which gives him terrible mouth ulcers and I have discovered this flour improver.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/50g-SAMPLE-SOFT-BREAD-ROLLS-CONDITIONER-FLOUR-IMPROVER-/110597756450?pt=UK_HomeGarden_Kitchen_Cookware_GL&hash=item19c023d622
It makes the most wonderul soft loaves and really great bread rolls which my 4 year old loves in his packed lunch.

angeltreats

Hi Rosie, I made a barm brack this morning so thought I'd report back and let you know how I got on. Well it's not really a proper barm brack because I threw in the cupboard contents, but it's still a tea bread I did try to do something similar to your recipe though.

Anyway this is what I did:

Measured out a pound of fruit into a big bowl (sultanas and raisins), made a pot of strong tea, soaked the fruit in the tea overnight.

This morning, poured off most of the tea into a separate container. On top of the fruit I put a handful of mixed peel, some glace cherries, 220g sugar (half soft brown, half white granulated), and an egg, and mixed it all together. Then added 400g self raising flour (because I had a bag I wanted to use up) and mixed it in, and added a good glug of the tea that I had soaked the fruit in till the consistency looked right.

Greased and lined a loaf tin (a longer than usual one that I normally use for madeira cake), poured in the mixture and put it in the oven at 180ºC. Realised that I'd forgotten to put any spice in but never mind.

Checked it after 40 minutes, it was still raw in the middle but starting to get quite dark on top so I put a tinfoil hat on it, put it back in and left it for another while, checking every so often. To be honest I lost track of how long it was in there in total but it would have been around about an hour and a quarter.

It's turned out lovely, not at all tough on top, in fact it's really soft and springs back when you push it lightly. I remember barm brack used to have white glace icing on top when we bought it from the bakery back home, so now I'm dithering about whether I should ice it.

Anyway I hope this might have been sort of helpful and sorry for rambling a bit Hope yours turned out nice too.

thriftmonster

The tea bread I make from a Jane Grigson recipe is very like the one Angeltreats made and it is a bit tough the first day - but you are meant to wrap it in foil for a couple of days and it moistens and softens then.

ETS: My wheaten has quite a hard crust as well - but I thought that was because I'm a blow in and so don't have the technique born and bred!!!

xrjtg

Most of my experience is with yeast bread (the soda bread I've made is usually rock solid on the outside and raw in the middle), which gets softer if you wrap it in a towel after taking it out the tin.

tulip12

I always add a tablespoon of oil to my loaves. I find my bread is much softer and seems to stay fresh a little longer.

rosie383

Angeltreats, your recipe sounds nice. I made both today too. My recipe for the tea bread/barm brack is pretty simple.
Soak 12oz dried fruit overnight in 1/2 pint black tea. Next day add 1 egg, 8 oz sugar, 12oz plain flour and 1/4tsp baking powder.
I put it in a silicone 'tin' and had the oven heating on high as I was preparing it. I turned it down to GM4 when I put it in the oven and tested it after 90min. Put it back in for another 10 mins and it was perfect. Oh, after about an hour I gave it a tin foil hat and it is just perfectly dark brown without being burnt!
The wheaten I did the same. Oven on hot, then turned it down to 3-4 and put it on a lower shelf. It took about 40 mins to be cooked inside too, but the crust is nowhere near as tough.
I will check out the flour softener, sounds interesting!

angeltreats

Sounds great, glad it's worked out a bit better for you I really think that every oven is so different and every recipe works out a bit differently for everyone, so you really need to do a bit of tinkering to get things perfect.

Triker

A pullman loaf tin makes soft crust bread.http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1-lb-sandwich-loaf--pullman-bread-tin-pan-box-_W0QQitemZ110600391884QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=158759878993&rvr_id=158759878993&cguid=a902c8bb12a0a0e202d04090fff0fcad

There's quite a few available on ebay.

MrsE_2

xrjtg wrote: »

gets softer if you wrap it in a towel after taking it out the tin.

MKy granny always did that & she make cracking soda bread (cracking everything).