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Should I bake with my coils on or off? A scientific explanation
Alisha Fuller
One of the most common questions we get is: “Why does my bread bake differently in the Simply Bread Oven than it does at home?” The reason is simple: a stone deck oven creates a completely different baking environment than a home oven.
How the Simply Bread Oven Differs From a Home Oven
At home, your Dutch oven traps radiant heat and steam inside a small chamber. That combination is what lets your loaf expand, open up, and develop that glossy crust.
In the Simply Bread oven, it’s a totally different system. The stones act like giant batteries, and the heating coils above them are what “charge” those batteries. The coils radiate heat downward, feeding energy into the stones, and the stones then feed that energy into your dough. The moment you load your loaves, the dough starts pulling energy straight from the stones, and that’s what drives oven spring.
You might notice the displayed oven temperature drop after load in, that’s completely normal. The oven is simply transferring its stored heat into your bread. As the stones release energy, their surface temperature dips, and the coils begin working to recharge them.
Once the crumb sets, usually right around the moment the ear peels back and the belly opens, the dough doesn’t need to pull as much energy. From that point on, the coils are mostly restoring the stone temperature for the next bake. You won’t usually see a full recovery on the display screen during the bake because that radiant energy is going right back into the stones.
Coils On vs Off
Turning off the coils mimics what happens inside a Dutch oven: that enclosed, steamy chamber where your loaf gets its dramatic lift. In a Dutch oven, the lid traps radiant heat and moisture around the dough, creating a short burst of high humidity and soft, even heat. That steam keeps the outer surface of the dough elastic just long enough for the loaf to fully expand before the crust sets.
When you turn the coils off in the Simply Bread oven, you’re recreating that same environment. The chamber is already hot, and the steam you inject has nowhere to escape, so the heat wraps around the dough instead of blasting down from above. Without the extra top down radiant heat from the coils, the dough can expand more gently, giving a rounder shape and a softer, more delicate crust.
The trade off is that you’re cutting off the oven’s “recharge.” The stones will keep feeding energy into the dough for a while, but if they stay off too long, you may notice that the heat starts concentrating on the bottom of your loaves, which can lead to bottom heavy bakes or uneven color. This can also lead to a longer heat up in between bakes.
Keeping the coils on gives you constant top down radiant heat, refueling the stones as they discharge. Think of it like your phone. The stones are your battery, and the coils are your charger. If you unplug your phone and start doing something power heavy like streaming a video, the battery drains fast. It’s the same when you load your dough and steam the oven, energy demand spikes. The “apps” running are your dough mass, the steam, and the natural heat loss that comes from opening the door and natural thermal transfer. But when the phone stays plugged in, you are at least putting energy back in while it is being used. That is exactly what is happening when you keep the coils on. The oven is recharging the stones while they are releasing energy into the dough. That’s exactly what’s happening when you keep the coils on, you’re baking while the oven is “charging.”
The radiant heat from above keeps feeding the stones as they feed your dough, giving you a steady, balanced flow of energy. You get even top down and bottom up heat and a more consistent bake overall.
Sometimes, though, the top of the loaf can brown a little too quickly. In that case, turning the coils off toward the end of the bake can help you slow things down without losing momentum.
If you want to experiment, try keeping the coils off just for the first 10 minutes. That’s the sweet spot for capturing soft oven spring while still keeping enough radiant energy to finish the loaf strong.
Developing Intuition
Heat in this oven isn’t linear. You can’t crank the temp up or down and see an instant change like in a home oven. The stones hold energy until it has somewhere to go (your dough) or until we cut off the heat source. Once they’re charged, they’ll stay hot for a long time. The key is keeping the environment steady. Even and consistent heat will give you the best results.
The more you bake, the more you’ll start to feel how the oven behaves. When it’s holding heat, when it’s discharging, and when it’s ready for the next load. That rhythm becomes second nature over time, and once you understand it, you can adapt to any bake day, any dough, any condition.
Play around. Try coils on vs off and see what your dough responds to. There’s no wrong way! Only the way that works best for you.
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