Can we believe what a tiny oven does to bread volume?

I was reading the King Arthur Flour blog on Tuesday and found out that a standard home oven at 350 degrees actually kills yeast activity way faster than I thought, like within 10 minutes. My last loaf in our 24-inch apartment oven in Chicago came out flat as a pancake, but the same dough recipe in my mom's big double oven in the suburbs rose twice as tall. Who knew oven size and heat distribution could mess with proofing that much? Has anyone else seen a big difference switching ovens?

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1 Comment

joseph_west5912h ago

Wow, I had the exact same thing happen with my old countertop oven in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen! I started preheating a cast iron pan inside the oven before baking and that evened out the heat enough to get a decent rise on my sourdough. Also, I just moved my dough to the top rack and it made a way bigger difference than I expected.