The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Question for the bakers

saintdennis's picture
saintdennis

Question for the bakers

Now the question: If you bake one pound sourdough whole wheat boule let's say one hour at 450F, what time or temperature will be if boule is 5 pounds????

                     Saintdennis

LindyD's picture
LindyD

I don't think the temperature would change.  After all, if you are cooking a 50# turkey, the oven setting is the same as a 20# bird.  Just takes a heck of a lot longer.

As to the time, no idea.  I think a probe thermometer might come in handy (inserted after the first hour).  Set it for 205F and wait for the alarm to chime.

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Hi, Saintdennis.

I must respectfully disagree with Lindy. (But I do want to see a photo of her 50 pound turkey!) The usual range in weight between big and small turkies is maybe a factor of 2 (15-30 lbs). Within that range, what Lindy says holds.

But you are talking about a factor of 5! (1-5 lbs.). If you kept the temperature the same and just increased the time, your crust would be too dark.

I would start out at a high temperature to get good oven spring, then lower it for the rest of the bake.

Somewhere I saw guidlines for how to bake different shapes - time and temperature. I cannot recall where right now.

David

gaaarp's picture
gaaarp

BBA has a recipe for a Poilane-style miche that weighs in at about 5 pounds.  It is baked as follows:

Preheat oven to 500 dF.  Put the bread in, lower the heat to 450, and bake for 25 minutes.  After 25 minutes, rotate your loaf 180 degrees, lower the temperature to 425, and bake for another 30-40 minutes.  The loaf shoud register about 200 dF.  Reinhart suggests that if the bottom of the loaf gets to dark, you should place the loaf on an inverted sheet pan. 

I made this miche once, and I recall it baking at the times he suggested.  I didn't have any problem with the crust getting too done.

Wisecarver's picture
Wisecarver (not verified)

...I can attest to baking 50 pounders.
I used to own Solomon Farms and raised plenty of very large Bronze turkeys.
They'd be so large you had to partition them because the entire dressed bird would not fit in a standard oven.

OK, now you want to know how we kept the large birds juicy?
Highest heat your oven can do with the bird stuffed with greens and soaked with Ale.

OK, that was a bread distraction but...We eat something with our bread, right? :-)

verminiusrex's picture
verminiusrex

I baked a 5 lb loaf before (just wanted to see how big I could make a freestanding loaf).  I followed my standard recipe of 400 degrees for the usual 40 minutes, then kept checking about every 10 minutes until internal temp reached 200 degrees.  I don't remember what the total time was, but it was over an hour.  After the initial 40 minutes I covered the loaf with aluminium foil so the crust would stop browning.

Edit-just so you know, the loaves have a harder time rising upwards and start spreading outwards the more dough you use