Hello and fan assisted temperature

MikeDavidson

Hi. New to the forum so hi everyone! I've only been baking for maybe a month - about 4 yeast loaves. I have a starter on the go for 3 days and it's looking fine. My question is about temperature - my oven is fan assisted so should I be altering the temperatures listed in the beginners Blog and recipes? Thanks, Mike

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SimonM's picture
SimonM 2012 June 19

 Welcome!

 

I am no expert, but I have a fan forced oven and I use the temperatures as is and have never had an issue. If anything I err on the side of a shorter cooking time, but not much change.

 

Cheers,

Simon

petanque 2012 June 21

fan forced ovens can tend to dry out the dough and so reduce oven spring.

 

if you can turn the fan off you will get better results

Old Possum's picture
Old Possum 2012 June 21

I bake my loaves in a roaster to keep the steam around the loaf while it is springing and my baguettes (too long for the roaster) are baked with steam at the start too. I have a fan forced oven and have tried with and without the fan and don't notice much difference as long as there is steam to ensure good oven spring. 

Robear 2012 June 21

I use a super heated pan in the bottom of the oven for steam. Sometimes it gets a bit overdone! This is with the fan off.

MikeDavidson 2012 June 22

 Interesting, I don't think I can turn the fan off - or at least ive never tried! Will look tonight. Found a blog on here about fan ovens that im gonna try. thanks

Staffo 2012 July 11

I work with a fan forced oven.  I cannot switch the fan off. I have picked up a few tips, and tried a few ideas out.

First, I bought an oven thermometer that I can hang in the oven. The fan forced oven is cooler that the temperature settings indicate. It can be anything from 10 to 20 degrees celcius cooler. 

So, it is worth checking the actual temperature you are cooking at - calibrate your oven!

 

Somewhere I read, I think it was Sourdom who wrote it, get the temperature up high, before you put the bread in the oven, then switch off the fan/ oven for the first 10 minutes. If you are using this technique, use two other techniques:

-  Use a stone in the oven (pizza stone, terra cotta tile - unglazed, and check that it doesn't have any nasties in the production process, slab of stone - granite?) The stone helps to stabilize the oven temperature (thermal mass).

-  Use steam, especially in the first 10 minutes. Sometimes I use a water bath in the bottom of the oven. Sometimes I mist with a misting bottle.  The steam helps with the crust. 

 

With yeasted breads these techniques are not so important, but with sourdough they seem to give much better results. 

 

I should mention, I bake gluten free. However, since I picked up these tips from regular bakers, I am assuming they are equally applicable.

 

Staffo

 

simon3030 2012 July 12

I have always used a fan oven.

As Staffo, I always use a stone, in my case a granite worktop saver. In the UK, £10 from Wilkos or Morrisons. The oven is preheated to around 180C for around an hour with the stone in, and a tin in the base heating up.

 

I then whack it up to as high as it'll go, around 240, according to the oven thermometer I use to check.

 

I boil a kettle, ready to pour into the tin.

 

Open the door, semolina on to the stone, loaves from peel to stone, (and/or put in tin loaves) boiled water into tin, much steam; I also spray with  a garden sprayer, shut  the door quickly, as the heat pours out due to the fan ..

 

I then leave the oven at 240 for around 10 minutes, then rotate loaves, turn down to 180, bake for around a further 20/25 minutes. Internal temp of bread around 94C.

 

I get great spring, although all sorts of techniques help here - a good tight stretch & fold, good slashing etc....I am not very consistent with this...I bake both sourdough & yeasted, and I would agree with Staffo that the SD loaves need all the help they can get...

 

Experiment is the answer, and do what suits your oven..

Martkimwat 2020 May 2

Hi, this is my first post on the forum. I have only just started making sourdough bread and made my second loaf yesterday. My first loaf came out reasonably wel (beginners luck?) although it was very gooey and sticky during the folding process and never really developed any surface tension. I wanted to copy a particular type of loaf that  I have been buying from Waitrose (sourdough with sundried tomato, onion, basil and chilli) so I added the extra ingredients, dry at the very end in the last stretch and fold. I have a fan oven on which I cannot turn off the fan. I am using a dutch oven ( cast iron lidded pot) to bake the bread and bake it at 260 C for 20 minutes then lid off and reduce temp to 230C and cook for further 20~30 minutes. As I said, the first loaf turned out fine but on the second loaf decided to reduce the hydration from 80% to 77%) to make it less sticky, and to use the extra 3% water to hydrate the dried ingredients (sundried toms, onion etc). The dough was easier to handle but still did not develop any surface tension. After the loaf had cooled, I cut into the loaf and bizzarly it is much more moist than the first, almost gooey. any ideas what I am doing wrong? from the sound of the comments on here I am cetainly cooking at a high enough temperature (Simon3030 is using 240/180C with a fan oven) so should I try a longer cooking time and if so what specifics? also any idea on why my dough stays slack and does not develop surface tension?

bomberns127 2020 May 4

i have to ask, why would you want to hydrate the things you are putting in the loaf? adding water to dried tomatoes and onions means you have put water pockets in the dough which will never lose their water content, a tomato put in a hot oven even after 40 mins is still a ball of mush, sundried seems the way to go.

when you knocked back and formed the loaf did you draw back the loaf to you across the worktop with both hands? it creates surface tension, check out patrick ryan on youtube, his channel is  ilovecookingireland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FVfJTGpXnU&t=2s

around 10:50 into the video, the man is a natural

good luck

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