Internal temperature problem when cooking 100% Wholemeal Spelt
I made some 100% spelt wholemeal loaves which involved baking at 220c for 27 minutes. I use silicon bread moulds.
To get a better handle on when the bread would be ready without it being burnt I used a temperature probe and assumed that the loaves would be ready when the probe registered 96c. Within 20 mins the probe was bleeping as it had reached 96c but the loaves were not ready as they looked a pale donkey brown. I continued to cook for the full 27min (all at 220c)
Because 100% wholemeal spelt does not rise well, in comparison with other artisan doughs, I am wondering if in order to use a probe I should aim for a higher internal temperature. This might be true if the lack of thickness of the loaf is insufficient to effectively insulate the loaf's centre. This could cause the outside temp to break through to the centre of the crumb before it is properly baked. Does this make sense?
This is purely speculation on my part but I am thinking that the probe might actually be conducting heat to it's tip and giving you a reading of the outside temperature. If the probe is stuck in something like a roast, which is much denser than bread, the probe would be cooled and not allow conduction of enough heat to give false readings. I like to smoke meat and if you smoke a pork shoulder you get the same effect if you put the probe near the bone.
Gerhard
If you are right then I do not know how to adjust to get to the true internal temperature. I have no way of knowing the true temperature for calibration. Does anyone have an idea how I can use the probe to measure the internal temperature?
My probe curves to the cable. The curve acts as a handle and the handle part is always not in the item being measured. I had assumed this was taken into account in the design of the probe and that the heat does not travel down the probe from the external part of the probe (handle), because if it did then every internal measurement would be very inaccurate.