When the baguettes that you’ve perfected at home bake too slowly or fast at the cottage, your oven temperature may need recalibrating.
Start by getting an accurate temperature reading. Place an oven thermometer on the middle rack, and preheat the oven to 350°F. Once the oven has preheated, take three or four readings over at least half an hour, and calculate the average temperature. If the temperature is off by 15°F to 30°F, a simple fix can improve your baking.
For newer ovens with digital controls, there’s usually a model-specific combination of buttons to push to get into calibration mode, and then you can enter how much you want to raise or lower the temperature. Even the oven’s engineers probably don’t remember which button combo unlocks calibration mode; if you can’t find your oven manual, search online (the model number is usually on a heatproof label near the door frame or on the back of the oven).
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If you set your electric oven’s temperature with a dial, pull it off and you’ll see one or two adjustment screws on the back. Turn them clockwise to decrease the oven’s temperature, counterclockwise to raise it. Analog controls are sensitive, so only adjust the screws by an eighth of a turn at a time, rechecking the temperature reading after each tweak.
For gas ovens with analog dial controls, the adjustment is more complex and is best left to a technician. And if your gas or electric oven temperature is off by more than 30°F, your oven probably needs a repair, not just a recalibration, before it can give you that perfect baguette crackle.
This article was originally published in the Winter 2023 issue of Cottage Life magazine.
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