Oven Temperature and Internal Doneness

Each bake has an oven setting and a pull temperature; hit both and the guesswork leaves the kitchen.

A wet loaf — anything toward the 80% hydration end — goes into a 230–250 °C oven with steam for the first 20 minutes. The steam keeps the surface soft long enough for the loaf to finish expanding before the crust sets.

A dry baguette or a tray of rolls wants the opposite treatment: 240–260 °C with little or no steam, so the crust sets thin and crisp rather than thick and chewy.

Cakes sit much lower, at 160–180 °C. Above 180 °C the outside of the batter sets before it has finished rising, and the crumb comes out dense and tunneled — a failure no amount of extra time in the oven will repair.

Whatever the bake, doneness is an internal number. Lean bread is baked through at 96–99 °C in the centre; enriched or butter breads are done at 93–95 °C, because egg and butter darken the crust early. An instant-read probe beats judging by crust colour in both directions.

Egg whites have their own temperature ladder: soft peaks at about 71–74 °C and hard peaks at about 82 °C. A bowl that looks weak in a 20 °C kitchen may simply be under-whipped rather than over-whipped — keep whipping before blaming the eggs.

For the rises that come before any of this, the dough temperature and proofing page covers bulk and final proof; for cakes that sink or dry out despite the right oven setting, the cake failures page isolates the other causes.

• Wet loaf: 230–250 °C, steam for the first 20 minutes
• Baguettes and rolls: 240–260 °C, little or no steam
• Cakes: 160–180 °C
• Lean bread pull temperature: 96–99 °C internal
• Enriched bread pull temperature: 93–95 °C internal
• Egg whites: soft peaks ~71–74 °C, hard peaks ~82 °C

Further reading

• Dough Temperature, Bulk Proof and Final Rise
• Why Cakes Go Dense, Dry or Sunken