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convection oven

Judy L <bh628@yahoo.com>
Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:15:00 -0700 (PDT)
v111.n037.2
I bake breads on convection setting all the time. I bake and sell for 
the Farmers Market. There's no way I could bake 6 loaves of bread 
evenly on bake setting! I just have to turn down the temperature 
about 25 F lower than bake setting. I bake 4 challah or 6 sourdoughs 
at once. It also allows me to bake on the top shelf.

Also, it's great for muffins. The circulating heat really helps them 
rise as I bake at 350 F convection.

It's not great for crusty breads, however. A baking friend and I 
found a good way to do that, though. I bake on my stones with steam 
(in broiler pan) at 450 F bake setting for 15 minutes. The crust 
carmelizes during the first half, anyways. I then turn the oven to 
325 F convection for the last 15 minutes. My appliance repair guy 
says that this is helping my oven get a break when I do multiple 
batches of crusty breads. The oven does cool down to 350 F and takes 
awhile to get back up to 450 F for the next batch. But I found that I 
can put a new batch of breads on my peel when I put the first batch 
in the oven and they will be ready for the oven by the time it heats back up.

My friend's professional convection oven can't do crusty breads 
because it sucks air out of the oven--even on low fan. So it depends 
on your oven.

Hope this helps.
Judy