Whether you put a cover on your sourdough whilst baking makes a huge difference.
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Here we have two loaves made from the same dough. It’s spelt flour mixed 50/50 with spent beer mash (which was barley and rye). The left loaf was cooked in an open tin, the right one in covered tin.
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The crust is lighter on the left because it dried out. With a moist bread like this, it doesn’t really matter that much. But with the sourdough millet and sorghum bread I make not having a lid leaves me with a top that disintegrates into crumbs when I slice.
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You do not need to have expensive equipment to ‘lid’ a bread. I have a loaf in the oven right now resting on a pizza stone and covered in a large stainless steel mixing bowl. Works a treat.
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Do you lid your breads?