Achieve Softer Sourdough Bread Crusts With This Paper Towel Hack

A sourdough boule is a picturesque type of bread, with a beautifully browned, crispy crust to contrast a bouncy and tangy crumb. That said, too thick of a slice or too hasty of a bite of crusty bread could wreak havoc on the roof of your mouth. Whatever your reason for wanting softer sourdough bread crust, there's a simple paper towel hack to achieve it.

Foodie and sourdough baker Jenny Silva reveals how easy it is to soften sourdough crusts in a short Instagram video. The best thing about the hack is that it's supplemental to the original recipe; you don't have to change anything about the ingredients or bread-making procedure. All you need to do is drape a moistened paper towel over the sourdough bread when you pull it out of the oven. The wet paper towel will transfer moisture to the crust, and the residual heat will effectively steam it to soften it. Once the wet towel has dried completely, you can remove it from the loaf as it continues to cool. The water and heat steam the crust enough to soften it, and the rest of the time spent cooling will expose it to dry air, preventing the crust from becoming soggy. You can employ this hack on any type of bread you bake to soften its crust. It's also a hack to put a homemade twist on store-bought corn tortillas, making them ultra soft and steamy in the microwave.

The paper towel hack will work on any of our sourdough recipes, like this four-ingredient fresh baked sourdough or this kale pesto-swirled sourdough. Water plays a big role in bread making in general as it's blended with different types of flour and the sourdough starter. Ensuring the proper temperature and proportions of water to flour is important to the success of the crumb. Furthermore, a Dutch oven like this one from Lodge is one of the best vessels for baking sourdough because it helps steam the bread as you use the lid to cover the bread for the first period of baking. Removing the top for the tail end of the baking time will ensure that the crumb isn't overly moist and the crust is browned and crispy. So, even though the goal is a softer crust, do not keep the bread covered for the entirety of its baking time because it might just be the reason why your sourdough crumb is sticky.

Another bread-baking mistake that can still happen even after the paper towel hack is complete is not waiting until the bread is completely cooled to slice into it. If you cut your bread before it's completely cooled, you'll be left with a doughy, mushy crumb. Not letting your sourdough cool fully is especially detrimental when you factor in the added moisture from the paper towel hack.