September 2, 2012 - 8:31am
Baking Temps
Do you typically bake as hot as your oven goes or do you do it at a specific temperature? My oven can get as hot as 600 degrees, but the bread recipes often call for a pre-heat at 500 and a bake at 450, though commercial ovens bake much hotter.
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I bake my sourdough bread in my convection oven at 450F for 20 minutes, followed by 350F for 40 minutes. As it happens, 450F is as high as that particular oven will go. My conventional oven will go to 550F but I don't recall ever baking anything at that temperature. Possibly the frozen pizzas that we used to eat required 475F. It's a much larger oven and I seldom use it now that I have the convection oven.
No, I never max out my oven when baking bread. I'll heat to 500 for ciabattas, but that's it. Most of my breads are fine at 450 and lower, and some should not be taken above 400. Disclaimer: I am talking about set temperatures, not the actual ones, those are a bit higher.
Although my oven can go to 550°F. I bake lean doughs at 450°, sweet doughs lower 350°F - 400°F. I do pizza near the limit 500°F - 525° depending on the toppings--I like the edges of pepperoni charred.
David G
225C here, I bake most of my loaves at that temperature.