April 4, 2016 - 12:46pm
Convection or Not
I just realized that my home oven has a function for Convection Roast, and then I found out that it is good for baking Artisan Bread. Has anyone on this forum used that for baking their bread? Did you have good result?
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Quinny,
When I was using a stove / oven (elect) about the only time I'd switch on the fan was during the last 5-10 minutes of the bake.
I think that is that it is hard enough to keep sufficient steam in a vented oven, which most are, without the convection fan blowing and if your bake is in a 'dutch oven' what's the point.
I also found that most of the 'non-commercial' convection ovens do not have a 'controllable' vent system. AND the vents are really VENTS. I believe that is why most folks are using 'dutch ovens' to get the amounts of steam to stay in long enough to get great spring, crumb, and that wonderful crust with little 'blisters' on the side.
Could be wrong, but just my expereance …….
Things in you world going OK? Happy that you are still at it…..
Hi Betsy,
How are you? I'm still working on improving my bread baking skills. A lot to learn! You'll probably see me here from time to time.
I thought about the venting system of the oven, but I am using dutch oven to bake. Not sure if it makes any better with the fan, therefore less time, higher heat...
I use convection in conjunction with a cold dutch oven. Convection avoids the burning of the bottom of the loaf which happens when all the heat is provided by the element at the bottom of the oven. I presume that it also heats the DO faster but I have not measured this.
In my Wolf oven convection roast provides heat mostly from the element at the top of the oven which is probably not ideal for bread, but I have not tried it.
Colinm,
That make sense, never thought of that. I can understand and good way around the vent system to good bakes!!
Knead 'till it feel good…..
Did you mean you did not heat up dutch oven before you put your bread loaf in it?
So far, I have not had burnt bread bottom, yet. But I do wonder if the convection cut some time off. Do you bake your breads the same amount of time using convection as no convection? I read an article saying that the temperature should be reduced by about 25F, and may need to check the doneness 10 minutes earlier. Sounds a bit confusing to me. But my oven is slow to heat up and it would be nice to save some energy.
Yes. I set the oven to Convection and preheat to 450°F. Then I put the loaf on a piece of parchment paper in a cold Dutch Oven, and put the cold DO into the oven. Usually I bake for 25 min covered plus 20 min uncovered, with the temperature reduced to 425°F for the uncovered portion.
I used to preheat the DO until I read discussions of cold DO on TFL. When I switched to the cold DO, I found that the loaves were fine, apart from a tendency to burn on the bottom, as noted by several others. After trying a few remedies I realized that the problem was heating from the bottom element on Bake mode, so I switched to Convection and had no more problems.
I often use Convection modes for general baking and roasting. It is faster because the moving air delivers heat more effectively to the food. The 25°F and 10 min time reduction is simply a rule of thumb to allow for this.
I'm sorry I'm new here, so I did not know anything about loading the dutch oven when it's cold. Is there any benefit for doing so?
So, there is also no need to preheat the oven to 500°F?
It is just a little more convenient working with a cold DO, but not a big deal,. If you search for cold dutch oven on TFL you will find plenty of discussion and pictures of results.
A 500°F preheat will help to compensate for heat loss when you load the oven, especially if your oven is slow to heat up. However, as you will see from the discussions, some people even start with a cold oven, although that seems to require experimentation to get the bake time right.
I see. I will do some searching on TFL. Thank you very much Colin!
Since I bake several breads on two tiers most of the time (for my home-based micro bakery), I use always convection, with excellent results.
My oven is well insulated and doesn't loose steam, that is a requirement, of course.
Karin
Could you please tell me how to insulate a home oven? I would love to learn it.