Temperature Fluctuations in Oven

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Lieutenant Worf on 18 Jun 2017 at 07:34

Starting next week I'll be selling bagels at a local farmers market. I can cook about 34 at a time at 400F in my home oven but when I do I they take much longer to bake and have a weak oven spring. Maybe 450 would be better? Or should I just crank it to the max at 500? If anyone has done something similar I'd love to know how you worked around the issue.

Of your oven can handle it. I have spend a lot of energy trying different settings,and configurations and learned that if I boost my oven to 550 that I am really baking at about 100 f less after opening the door and all the fussing around that happens before the loaves go in. Since oven spring is all about the first several minutes of the bake, I get much better results by maxing out the heat in the early stages. You can always open the door and drop the temps very quickly after the loaves have plumped up. Also noticed that the top racks are about 50f water than the bottom so even with increased temperature the lower loaf is placed the more challenging it is to get the desired result

I have to think you mean 3 to 4 at a time in your home oven, right?

Like kendalm I go with a very hot oven, 500 to 550 F. I have a 1" thick Rokite stone for a baking deck which takes about 2 hours to get up to that temperature. The point I am trying to make is that when I load the baguettes onto the stone, usually 6 to 8 at a time, the oven temperature barely changes because of the mass of the stone.

I too recommend that you crank the temperature to 500 F or above and find some way to retain the heat using a high-mass storage device, like a thick baking stone. Steam is really important in the blooming phase which should take only a few minutes. Personally I steam for 8 minutes, then bake an additional 11 to 12 minutes. How you introduce the steam into be baking chamber can also drop the oven temperature quickly. Keep in mind, even at a steam temperature of 230 F there may still be a 300 F differential between the baking chamber and the steam.

I also learned (over time) that crowding the baking chamber with more product caused the sides of the baguettes to remain under-baked. The heat needs to be consistent all around the baguette for a uniform crust.

 

Jim

Never mind. I reread your original posting and saw that you were talking about bagels, not baguettes. Somehow I transposed what I read.

Sorry for any confusion.