October 16, 2020 - 1:55pm
Internal bread temperature never gets above 200
Hi newbie here. My bread never seems to get above 200F.
Loaf 1: oven preheated to 500F for 1hr with cast iron dutch oven. Loaf goes in preheated dutch oven, immediately dropped temperature to 425. 30 minutes lid on. 15 mins lid off, checked internal temperature 197F. Back in for 10 minutes 199F. Back in for 10 minutes 200F.
Loaf 2: preheat oven to 500F 1hr with cast iron dutch oven. Dough temperature is 77F before it is put in the Dutch oven. Dutch oven in, heat lowered to 480F. Cooked with lid 20 minutes. Lid removed cook continued for 15 minutes cooked, temperature checked 196F. Back in for 10 minutes, temperature checked 198F.
Any speculation as to why my loaf will not get above 200F? Thanks in advance!
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Welcome to TFL!
First off, that loaf looks great, both crust and crumb.
1. what is the weight of your dough? What is hydration %? what is the percentage of whole wheat?
2. do you preheat the dutch oven with lid on or lid off?
3. Is the dutch oven enameled? Or bare (seasoned) cast iron?
4. What is your elevation above sea level? Boiling point of water decreases as elevation increases. At some point, water boils at 200 F.
5. How long are you letting the loaf cool before cutting open?
1. I did not wiegh the dough. The dough is 60% hydration. Starter is a whole wheat starter but the dough is all bread flour.
2. The Dutch oven was preheated with the lid on.
3. Bare seasoned cast iron
4. I'm at 8500 feet
5. The loaf was almost room temperature. I let it cool for about 2 hours.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/boiling-points-of-water-1328760
according to that chart, water boils at 196 F at 8500 ft above sea level.
Another source here, same temp, 196 F: https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/boiling-points-water-altitude-d_1344.html
Nice loaf!
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Here's King Arthur Flour's recommendations for how to adjust for high altitude baking: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/resources/high-altitude-baking
Just a hunch but try to get the dough into the pot sooner, a little less proofed.
Here is the poke test for loaf 2 Loaf 2 video
Hi WB! I think there might be a couple of possibilities. Your oven might not be baking as hot as the display is saying or your thermometer might be off. Also, I usually bake the first phase at 500 degrees (for 25 minutes) then lower the oven to 475 for the last 20. I then turn the oven off and leave the loaf in the DO, lid off, for an additional 10 minutes, with the oven door slightly open. This method consistently results in around 210-215 interior temp. However, the picture you included indicates your loaf has baked well. You should probably invest in a small oven thermometer, the kind with a small foot and face dial, that you leave in the oven, so you can double check temps though.
The bread looks great. However, for future bakes you might want to purchase an inexpensive oven thermometer to accurately check your oven temperature, if you haven't already done so. Preheating your oven for an hour should be long enough to preheat your pots to 500℉, especially if the lid is off. Once your oven first reaches 500℉, the inside of your pots won't be, especially if heated with the lid on, so after you check the temp of your oven, place the oven thermometer in the pot to double check. You can also use a relatively inexpensive laser thermometer to check the temperature of the pot, but that might be overkill. If the temperature of your oven and pots are accurate, I would wonder how accurate your bread thermometer is. I upgraded mine recently, and there was a 2 degree discrepancy between the less expensive one and the upgrade. Whatever you are doing is working, and I wouldn't bake your loaves any longer waiting for the temp to go over 200.
Richard
I think your bread looks great. What is your concern?
It is slightly gummy after waiting until cool to cut. It would also be nice to see a higher rise.
Are you using malt in the dough? Or milk products? And sour/starter? If so how much? And tel me, is the bread on the sweet side inside?
al.
And you are opening the oven and checking temperature too frequently.
The standard internal temp recommendation is not usable for you, given for your elevation. You need to develop your own rule of thumb. Water is evaporating out of the loaf (normal) at a lower temperature for you. Standard temperature recommendations are based on sea level elevation.
How is the crumb on your bread? Try again, and do not check the temperature until at least 50 minutes of cooking time has elapsed.
I'll try that out thanks, I'll keep testing. Crumb is only slightly gummy after waiting to cut till room temperature.
What altitude are you at? I am at fairly high altitude and my laces do the same thing,
If your loaves come out good, and yours look great then don't worry about it.
Hi Bob, l'm at 8500 ft
Aha! You are at high altitude, like I am.
For me water boils at 205º F so in theory I can only get my loaf to 204º F before it burns.
In reality I only get to 197º F even if I leave it in longer than really needs to bake so I now simply bale to 197º F and everyone is happy.
I suggest that you check the boing point of water with your thermometer, (you are at slightly honer elevation than I am at), since you will never reach that number (the loaf will burn badly if you actually get to that number because all the water would have to be cooked out before that temperature is reached, at which point it burns rapidly).
Then estimate that you will be filly baked at 5º to 10º F less than that number, as long as it bakes for 10 to 15 minutes at that temperature.
Do some experiments and let us know what happens. Good Luck!
Thanks so much. I'll keep experimenting and let you know!
Woodenbear, I'm at 9,300ft and have the same results you do.
I wonder from other folks...the holes in my bread look just like Woodenbear's photo. I keep testing different tweaks, but I never get the prized large, irregular holes. It's delicious (with good crust, crumb, and significant oven spring) so I'm not really concerned, but I wonder if the lower boiling point of water might be preventing them from developing?
Or maybe there's someone else at altitude who's producing large holes that would disprove my theory?
I believe it ferments faster too. Try cutting back on yeastie beasties or shorten proofing times.