The Fresh Loaf

News & Information for Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts

Cooking temperature

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grigothirty's picture

Cooking temperature


I have a question regarding cooking time, in general.

Let's say you have a rectangular loaf that cooks at temp X for Y minutes that has great quality and characteristics/color.

If you double the recipe and keep the same shape of the loaf, how would you expect the X and Y to change in order to achieve the same quality and characteristics/color?

tgrayson's picture

The controlling factor is how long it takes the heat to penetrate from the exterior to the deepest point on the interior. If you keep the temperature the same for the larger volume bread, it will take longer for the interior to get cooked, so the exterior will be over-browned (burned). You'd have to reduce the temperature and bake the bread longer.

grigothirty's picture

Thanks for the input.  I agree with your analysis.


Does anyone have any cooking times and temperature of the top of their heads when the dough has about 800 grams of flour and is rectangluarly shaped?

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

and ingredients?  type of flour makes a difference

and amount of "extras" butter, sugar etc. 

Roughly 1350 g dough  ...  the thicker the dough, the longer it takes to bake.  

Sweeter doughs are baked at lower temps.  190°C  

Flour/water/salt and yeast higher temps.   --->  free form  445°F  (230°C)  White wheat?  30 to 35 min?  


grigothirty's picture

Nothing fancy, just flour water salt and some yeast.  Around 68% water ratio.  AP flour.  large rectangular-ish loaf.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

also, when it's done, give it a five more minutes for a nice crust color.  

Which shelf?  line up the top edge of the dish with the center of the oven.  Or risen loaf in center.

moschogianis's picture

My $.02 - Most likely, a mitigating factor is the shape of the loaf. e.g., if an essentially tubular shaped loaf were simply elongated to accomodate the increased amount of dough, then the thickness (distance from surface to center) would remain the same and would suggest baking time would only increase due to the greater mass being heated. 

Capn Dub's picture
Capn Dub


It just happens that my sourdough recipe contains exactly 800 grams of flour (plus the flour in the starter, which contains 125 grams).   Here's my procedure:

Preheat the stone--or Dutch oven--to 500°F.  Immediately upon placing the loaf on the stone, decrease the heat to 435° (425° for the large loaf).  Bake for 30 minutes (35 for the large loaf).  Check the color and continue baking as long as necessary to get the color I want--usually another 3 or 4 minutes.  This gives me an internal temp of 205-207°F.

I recommend using a good digital instant-read thermometer until you establsh the correct times for your oven.  After you know how your oven performs, you don't need to worry about checking the loaves; the clock will tell you when they are done.

All this presumes your oven has been calibrated.  You can assume only one thing about an oven as it comes from the factory: The temperature of the oven will not match the display.  I calibrated mine by setting it to 350° and heating it with the stone in it.  Then I used an IR thermometer to check the temp of the stone.  It was 35° off!!