brooksms

I think in the beginning I was too concerned about the raw center. This is the inspiration. Clearly they're served very raw so thankfully I'm not stressing that part anymore. I have been baking them all straight from the fridge to keep them thick! However, both recipes stayed very thick at 350 so room temp would probably work just fine. I was hoping to split up the work by making dough Thursday and baking Friday though. Maybe I could let them sit out of the fridge while the oven pre-heats.

Gotcha! I wasn't sure if my expectations were realistic or not. I was told Levain cookies are still semi-crisp at room temp. They just put the cookies in a cardboard box with paper though. For this event mine will have to be individually packaged. I guess the option is to say "If you want them crispy outside/gooey inside, reheat at 350 for 10 mins." I'm just not happy with the softness of the exterior at all. I did try another recipe which is identical aside from 20g more flour, 45g more sugar, omit the 1/8 tsp baking powder. I baked my original recipe as well as this one at a higher temp of 350. It seems crispier on the outside even after being packaged for a few hours. Maybe I just need that extra flour to absorb whatever moisture is making them too soft? Idk...I feel so unqualified. At least I figured out the oven. I re-sealed and will check again tomorrow. This is rough! Maybe I'm too critical but I hate to put my name on something I don't 110% love.

Thanks for the help! The bottoms aren't overly brown in person so no issue there. I realized cutting with a knife, as I did before taking pictures, makes them appear pretty raw. They don't seem like that when just torn apart as someone eating one would. I also looked at videos/pictures of Levain and they definitely leave theirs extremely raw. I think that's just how it's supposed to be. What I noticed is that mine completely lost exterior crispiness once packaged. Today I tried again but this time removed them to wire racks after 10 mins and made sure they were 100% cool before packaging. We'll see if that helps! If not, I might need to turn the oven even hotter to get a more crispy exterior. However, that would require altering my recipe to spread more. As-is they don't spread much at 350 in the commercial oven. Any hotter and I doubt they'd spread at all. Maybe more butter or sugar? Either that or maybe I should put back the baking soda I removed and let them get a bit darker on top without changing anything else?

Good to know! I'm going for Levain Bakery style and having a very difficult time trying to determine how long to bake. These are large 6 oz each and have all been cooled overnight. I think I accidentally smushed the 15 min one but you get the idea. At 14.5 mins you can clearly see my fingerprint in the center. All of them are like that to some extent though. It's more a difference of how much the outside gets dried out. I'm making myself sick with stress over this! The first two pictures are 14.5 mins, then 15, 16, 17 & 18.

Unfortunately I have dogs so that's not an option. I wish I could! I'll definitely be cleaning the glass lol. Is it possible to pick your brain about the leavening in my cookies? At home I was happy with 1 tsp baking soda + 1/4 tsp baking powder for 332g flour. With the commercial oven set to 325 instead of 380, they were too dark at all baking times. I reduced to 3/4 tsp soda + 1/4 tsp baking powder. The first picture is one from that recipe. It looked nice at 14 mins but the center needed more time. More time = too much color. I tried again with 5/8 tsp soda + 1/4 tsp b. powder. As you can see, a couple of the large cookies cracked. I assume this means I need to add baking powder, right? Maybe 1/2 tsp soda + 1/2-5/8 tsp baking powder? Thoughts? I wish I had more time to experiment but I'm hoping to make an event next weekend. Feeling the pressure!

Gotcha! So it seems I needed to lower the oven by 50-55 degrees and bake 28% less time. I guess that isn't too far off from what should be expected. I cut some baking soda from my recipe and am going back now to try again.

The oven is attached to a large gas stovetop which appeared to be on very low. I was told the whole unit has to be turned on like this to turn on the oven. Obviously the oven door was closed but maybe the exhaust isn't very strong? Idk...it smelled like gas.

Unfortunately nowhere near there! Thank you though. The testing was terrible! The commercial kitchen oven is so old and the glass so dirty I could barely see inside. It's gas so I was breathing that in the whole time. The line on the temp knob was drawn on by sharpie and off by 25 degrees. Even reducing the temp I use at home by 60 degrees and cutting the time, my cookies got way too brown before the centers weren't done. I tried various times/temps and it always happened. I suppose I could try cutting down on the baking soda and try again. However, aside from these xl thick cookies, I want to offer a wide variety of kinds especially for the holidays. It doesn't seem practical to do extensive testing for every single recipe. How will I know how much to reduce the temp for each one? Is this how all convection ovens are or was this one just difficult?

Thank you! On my way to testing now. Fingers crossed it goes well!

I thought one of the main benefits to convection was not having to rotate lol! Won't leaving the door open to rotate and switch shelves let out a lot of heat?

I'll need to bake a lot of cookies though, possibly 300. I don't think baking conventionally with one tray at a time as I have been will work for that, especially since I have to pay hourly for the kitchen. I'd lose all of my profit taking forever lol!

Hi! I'm finally starting a baking business and will be going to the commercial kitchen today to test times/temps for my xl 6 oz cookies. In my home electric oven I've had the best results with 380 F for 18 minutes. Any less time and they're too raw in the center. They spread more than I'd like at lower temps. It's difficult to get the center cooked enough without over-drying the outside at higher temps. The general recommendation when switching to convection is 25 degrees less in combination with a reduction in baking time of 10-25%. Any opinion on this? It is so hard to tell when the centers are perfectly done. A minute or two makes the difference between total mush and just right. Should I put empty pans on the other levels of the oven to simulate how it will be when baking a lot at once? Any advice is appreciated! I have an event to bake for in one week and the kitchen is rented hourly so there's not much time to experiment. My biggest fear is someone saying the cookies seem dry or raw!