The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Modifying bake times when reducing dough weight

aviwolf's picture
aviwolf

Modifying bake times when reducing dough weight

Hi! I'm inspired by the community bake post and still haven't participated but maybe will in the next one since I'm still learning. There's a spreadsheet where you can convert a 1000g loaf to 700g loaf by dividing everything by 0.70, but wondering how that affects baking times with a dutch oven set up. I like the idea of baking smaller loaves, but do you still bake a 700g loaf at:

500ºF for 20 min covered
450ºF for 10 minutes covered
450ºF for 30 minutes uncovered

Also wondering how you can convert baking times for other type of loaves. There's a 30% whole wheat recipe I want to try that makes one loaf at roughly 1100g but convert the recipe to make the final dough weight 715g (about 65% of the original).

Bake times for the loaf at 1100g:
500ºF for 20 min covered
475ºF for 20 minutes uncovered

Would I bake at the same temperature for a 715g loaf? If not, would love to hear what you think.

Thanks!

David R's picture
David R

It's not really the weight - it's the shortest distance from the crust to the middle. If I make a 700 g round loaf and a 700 g very long skinny baguette, the baguette is done faster because the middle of a baguette is not far from its crust.

A smaller distance may need a hotter oven and/or a shorter time - but also remember that there is such a thing as "close enough"; you might not need to make a big change.