ill be trialing a large steam injection oven in a few days which will allow me to bake 20 loaves at a time. what I'm wondering is it best to leave oven open until all loaves are in or close and open every time I load a loaf in with my peel (I can only load one at a time). either way I lose the moisture from presteaming oven - unless mist dough before putting it in....any advice? I know when I was doing work experience in a bakery they had big loaders which allowed them to load large volumes simultaneously but I haven't that luxury.....
thanks in advance
or anything else flat and not too heavy that will hold multiple loaves and fit into the oven.
thing is these deck ovens are at least 5 feet long and 3 feet deep and stacked ontop of each other so i need a long peel...they also have stones in them so i get a great hearth bake off them....i might just have to speed up and do an extra bit of steam after the door closes...i cant have everything :) well...i could have a loader.....
I've seen videos of people loading those with long peels with multiple loaves on each peel. I expect that takes a bit of practice, but would be more efficient. I load six onto the stones with each on a separate peel and close the oven after each one, then add water to the steaming trays in the bottom. Seems to work, though I do lose a lot of heat.
thanks Lazy Loafer....i think i can get 2 on my peel...my advantage is that the deck ovens have great steam injection programmes and the stones retain heat for quite a while. They also have adjustable heat on top and bottom so i can play with that.....
Lucky you... getting to test a big oven like that with steam injection!
I guess I'd first ask the manufacturer that question. I am sure they have a learned opinion on the subject. With that said, doing mass loads with my deck oven I first start the steam about 30 seconds in advance, then add as many loaves as I can in as short a time as I can. I might place 3 loaves on each peel, get the scoring done, then slide them in 3 at a time off of each peel. Sometimes I load them one at a time but I have everything done with each loaf (dumping from bratform, dusting, scoring, etc) before I begin the process.
I generally start my official steam time once all the loaves are in the oven.
cool. i did a test bake the other day but it was only with 4 loaves in each oven (theres 3 ontop of each other)....worked like a dream but im upping to 20 per oven so that will change things....using a steam injection deck oven is heaven....and makes you understand the importance of a good bake after you slice open the loaf....such a difference in crumb, colour and crust....thanks...i generally do everything from scoring, dusting, etc before oven anyway so i guess im on the right track...got to get the speed up now :)
Note that adding a full load of cool/cold dough can drop the oven temperature quickly. Of course the large commercial ovens recover faster but it is something to consider. I have found that I generally run my deck at higher temps if I am going to run large loads, one after the other. I also use a quick-reading temperature probe to verify internal temperatures as the bake time nears the end.
Let us know how this all works out please.
i will indeed - just got my trading licence so will know in 2 weeks or so...thanks for the help and advice always good knowing the bakers on this forum have your back :)