A temperature probe is a must for any budding artisan bread baker. Take the guesswork out of baking your lovingly crafted loaf by using a temperature probe to tell you that the inside of the bread is cooked.
Spending a day nurturing a loaf only to find it has been ruined by under-baking must be one of the saddest things to happen in a kitchen!
Under-cooking your loaf is a common problem when learning the craft. Take the guesswork out of baking your loaf: don't:
Rely on the colour of the loaf as it only tells you how well the outside has cooked.
Rely on the loaf sounding hollow when tapped as this isn't reliable.
Rely on time alone as varying doughs and loaf sizes take different cooking times, to say nothing of the evenness and quality of the oven.
A loaf is cooked when the inside gets to at least 90ºC. So, why not use a temperature probe set to 95ºC, with an alarm to call you when the loaf is done? You will still need a small amount of experimentation to become fully familiar with this method of baking, but it is easily mastered.
This probe operates in the range 0-250ºC and has both an alarm and timer. The probe can be inserted into nearly cooked bread with the door closed over the wire an the alarm set to bleep when your desired temperature is reached. Don't forget that the probe and wire will become very hot!