Marilee, I have been using a convection oven for baking bread for 4
years. Prior to that I baked in a "normal" radiant oven. There are
differences in procedure but in my opinion convection baking is better. I
bake on a stone. In convection baking the height of the bread in the oven
doesn't matter because the air inside is circulated. The stone can be low
in the oven. Here is my procedure for hearth-style breads, only the
temperatures varies with the size of the bread.
1. Preheat the stone to 475 to 500 F using convection mode. It takes about
20 minutes for the oven to get to temperature. I add another 15 minutes
for the stone to heat uniformly. When your bread comes out uniform in
color top and bottom you know you got it right.
2. Turn the oven off, slash the loaves, place them on the stone, add mist
or steam, close the door. Leave the oven off until the oven temp drops to
400 to 425 F. I use the lower temps for large loaves, the higher for
baguettes. Keeping the oven off during cool down time keeps the
steam/moisture in the oven and lets it settle on the crust. If the oven
were on during the cool down period, the convection fan would drive the
moisture out of the oven through the vent. (If you can seal off the vent
while the oven is off it would be even better.) It should take about 7 to
10 minutes for the temperature to reach the lower value.
3. When the lower baking temperature has been reached (remove the seal on
the vent, if sealed) turn the oven back on in convection mode. By this
time the oven rise should be finished and the crust should be set. At this
point the added moisture has done its work and the convection mode helps
drive heat into the loaves and the moisture out of the loaves and out of
the oven. Once the crust shows color, open the oven and rotate the loaves
180 F. The moving air in the convection oven tends to brown the "windward"
side faster.
I get thicker chewier crusts with convection baking and I think it is
because the moisture is driven out of crust by the convection fan. An
internal temperature of 195 F will result in a moist crumb and chewy
crust. At 205 F the crust will be a bit cracklier and the crumb
dryer. Leave the loaves in the oven with the oven door open for 5 minutes
to help dry and set the crust even more.
Werner