Hey fellow bakers. My husband and I have been making bagels in our home for years. We generally make up to 12 at a time in our standard electric double oven . The bagels are perfection! So much so that we've stumbled into a very modest catering business for friends and family. We've grown so much, so we've recently begun leasing a commercial kitchen that has a Vulcan VC4GD Gas Convection Oven - Single Stack, Standard Depth oven. Boy are we having a hard time making the leap from electric to this Vulcan. Does anyone have a recommendation on how I should cook my bagels In the Vulcan. Obviously we want to maximize the large space in the oven, and the fact that it has 4 racks so we can make the most bagels possible. However, we will gladly sacrifice quantity - and move to less racks or less bagels per tray - if it means better bagels! HELP!
Here are the facts:
1. Home (double) oven - 6 to a small tray in each oven. Bake at 430 for 19 minutes, then flip for 2 minutes.
2. Vulcan trial run #1 - 12 to a large tray X 4 racks. Bake at 425 (no convect fan) for about 10 minutes until we realized the bagels on outside were burning. Turned on convect fan and baked for another 5 minutes. Result - very crispy/bordelined burned, and flat bagels. We dod open the oven intermittently to shuffle bagels outside to inside and rotate the pans.
3. Vulcan trial run #2 - 12 to a large tray X 4 racks. Bake at 400 with convect fan on the entire time for 15 minutes- spongy, dense bagels with no shine/life/crackle. We did open 1/2 way thorugh and turn the pans.
4. Vulcan trial run #3 - 12 to a large tray X 4 racks. Bake at 425 with convect fan the entire time. We set for 19 minutes but they started to burn - especially on outside and on the middle rack. We opened the oven several times to "shuffle" around the bagels. Result - burned and bready.
Our next step is to try 8 bagels per tray (putting them in the middle of the tray so they are not so close to the hot oven, on 425 for 15 minutes. 1/2 the time without fan, 1/2 the time with the fan. The other though we had was to reduce to 8 bagels and only 3 trays instead of 4. But then we lose a lot in terms of productivity.
WE ARE FRUSTRATED. We are paying $25/hr to make terrible bagels, when we make perfect bagels at home. Can someone please let me know what you'd do differently? It's not a recipe issue - it is a learning to properly use convection oven issue. Any/all suggestiosn are SO appreciated.