During the process of baking, certain
changes take place in the loaf. The gluten that the dough contains is
hardened by the heat and remains in the shape of bubbles, which give the
bread a porous appearance; also, the starch contained in the dough is
cooked within the loaf, but the outside is first cooked and
then toasted.
57. OVEN TEMPERATURE FOR BAKING.--In baking bread, it is necessary first
to provide the oven with heat of the right temperature and of sufficient
strength to last throughout the baking. As is indicated in Fig. 4, the
usual oven temperature for successful bread baking is from 380 to 425
degrees Fahrenheit, but in both the first and the last part of the
baking the heat should be less than during the middle of it. An oven
thermometer or an oven gauge is a very good means of determining the
temperature of the oven. But if neither of these is available the heat
may be tested by placing in the oven a white cracker, a piece of white
paper, or a layer of flour spread on a shallow tin pan. If any one of
these becomes a light brown in 5 minutes, the oven is right to commence
baking. Every precaution should be taken to have the oven just right at
first, for if the bread is placed in an oven that is too hot the yeast
plant will be killed immediately and the rising consequently checked. Of
course, the bread will rise to some extent even if the yeast plant is
killed at once, for the carbon dioxide that the dough contains will
expand as it becomes heated and will force the loaf up; but bread baked
in this way is generally very unsatisfactory, because a hard crust forms
on the top and it must either burst or retard the rising of the loaf.
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