Does a Convection Oven make a difference?

I’ve been baking bread in a clay baker or a 4qt Le Creuset pot with a pizza stone on the bottom rack. My baker or pot is on the middle rack. So far the results of my bread making is fine. I have a convection function on my stove but haven’t used it.

Would using the convection improve the outcome?

I am not sure about improvement, but I always bake with convection on and it seems to be working fine. As long as you keep the bread covered during the initial spring phase, I don’t think the concern from the convection fan dispersing humidity becomes an issue. I hope this answers part of your question.

Hummm… haven’t thought about the impact of the fan in reducing humidity. Good point. I always keep my bread covered during the first phase then take the cover off for final browning. In any event I’m going to use the convection the next time and see what differences there are.

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When I first began to bake bread, using a Dutch Oven, I left the lid on for the first 20-30 minutes, but then when I removed it for the final bake, I had to turn around the DO around in the oven to even up the baking…this was especially true when I had two loaves in the oven at the same time.

Thinking that the convection setting would even up the heat, I used it for the covered portion and got a more even initial bake. I then reverted to regular bake for the second half of the (uncovered bake time). Loaves came out great.

One morning, I forgot to switch from convection to regular when I removed the lid(s) and found that the loaves still came out just fine…perhaps the crust a bit crispier. My basic SD recipe is only about 74% hydration and still had a plenty moist crumb.