long baking time for bread

Different cultures will have differing opinions of what good bread is. In some cultures, the entire crust is sawn with a rasp, so there is nothing left but soft bread to eat. To others, it isn't good bread until the crust is nice and crunchy. I figure it's probably some cultural preference for the bread that turns out from 2 hours of baking on low heat. If you really gotta know, there's only ONE right way to bake bread - the way that makes bread you want to eat!

Think it mostly depends on the size and shape of the loaf being baked. Because of all the air bubbles tapped inside it, bread dough is a strong insulator. Thus the larger the profile, the longer it takes to heat up all the way to the center. So a 4 lb loaf's crust would likely harden too much and burn before the interior was done, if baked at high heat. At a moderate temperature it can stay in the oven a long time and will be cooked all the way through by the time the crust is done. Would also explain why high hydration/no knead loaves may be baked so quickly inside infernos; they are generally not too tall and spread fairly wide, so oven's heat penetrates more rapidly: the internal temperature easily reaches 200°C by the time the crust has browned — about half an hour or so. An extreme example of high hydration, rapid cooking is flapjacks, whose batter is fried in oil for just a coulpe of minutes, thereabouts. In contrast, a 2 lb sandwich rye can take an hour fifteen minutes to develope a rich golden crust, baked at 175°C/350°F. Can see where larger loaves might take hours to reach perfection.

Though am sure others here will have much better and accurate insights than mine!