May 17, 2020 - 4:45am
Bake with fan or without fan
Usually recipes don't specify it, so I'm curious whether I should be turning on the fan in my oven or not when baking bread and will it make a difference?
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Usually recipes don't specify it, so I'm curious whether I should be turning on the fan in my oven or not when baking bread and will it make a difference?
I've asked the same question even sent an email to Peter Reinhart asking about it. He didn't have an answer and suggested that I try it both ways. So I did. Bottom line is that I saw no difference with or without the fan.
Are you baking in an enclosed environment like a Dutch oven? In that case, it doesn’t matter.
If you are not, then it’s important to have no fan on during the part of the bake you want steam in. With the fan on, all of your steam would go away (bad!)
I kinda like to have the fan on during the covered part. It maybe just a mental thing, but the fan is supposed to even out the oven (i.e. no hot spots) and so theoretically the dutch oven would get even heating. Whether it makes a difference in reality, I have no idea.
Thanks
I read somewhere that if I turn on the fan, i need to reduce the temperature. This was in context to baking cakes, not bread though.
I always thought the fan would be better, to even out the heat so it doesn't burn on one side - and you don't have to rotate the item in the oven because of the even air distribution.