by Batman » Thu Feb 25, 2010 4:48 pm
When I bake bread in my wfo, I tend to leave the door on until its about time, take the door off pull a loaf to the entrance shove the thermometer in the centre of the loaf and take the temp. If the internal temp reaches 96c I take the loaf out otherwise give it an extra 5 minutes baking time.
Mitchamus, pretty sure it doesn't mean an IR thermometer, which as the CK points out would just measure the temp of the surface and it is the internal temp we are interested in.
I wouldn't stick the thermometer in until near the end of the baking as the crust may not be properly formed and the bread could, though probably wouldn't, collapse. There will be some de-gassing, I can normally see some steam escape when I push the probe in but not much, assuming that the bread crumb structure is good ie small air bubbles.