New to commercial baking

[CanadianBakin']

Hi! I've been lurking for a couple months and really enjoy this site! I'm a 33-year old married mom of 2-year old twin girls with not a whole lot of extra time but I love baking and have been in the kitchen since I was a little girl. I work part-time in sales but will be beginning a new job October 1st as a baker for a new gourmet coffee & tea shop. I will be contracting them my skills and recipes and working out of a small kitchen in their shop. I had hoped to work out of my house but found, as some of you have, that the health inspectors aren't keen on that idea.

Questions I hope you can help me with...

I have never used a convection oven. Any ideas on how to adapt my recipes? I will be mainly baking large cookies, squares, muffins, scones, loaves and cheesecakes. Maybe some yeast breads later.

Can I successfully multiply my 8x8"bar recipes x 4 and bake them in a half-size sheet pan?

I will only be baking 2 days/week so many of the items will be frozen at least for a short while. After reading the cheesecake thread I know not to freeze those. I was wondering if you can make & shape scones, freeze them raw so someone else can bake them fresh on the mornings I'm not there?

That's all I need for now. I'm sure I'll have more though. Thanks so much for all your help.

[KarenS]

Yes, you can shape and freeze scones. You can also increase your bar recipes.

About freezing cheesecake- the Cheesecake Factory is one of the biggest chains in the country. They are doing well; all of their cheesecakes are sent to locations frozen. I have frozen and sent cheesecake too. There is so much fat- you don't notice a difference (though I do add cornstarch to cheesecake to have a more even finished product (not overbaked on the sides and raw in the middle).

[andiesenji]

I have been using a commercial (Blodgett) convection oven for several years.

I have found that I get a better product if I keep the temperature as indicated in the recipe but shorten the time, sometimes by half, for very thin cookies, by 1/3 for thicker cookies.

Also for baking yeast breads to get the "oven-kick" the temp has to be optimum. Time is the variable and when making a new recipe I check he internal temperature of a loaf with an insant read thermometer to make sure it is done. Once established I mark the exact time the loaf attained the correct temperature for doneness and use that as my baking time in the future.

Regarding cheesecakes. You either have to turn the convection fan off while cooking or have a barrier to keep the fan from blowing ripples in the batter while it is soft.

I have a sheet of heavy gauge aluminum, 8 inches wide, 32 inches long, bent into an arc that is large enough to allow a 14 inch cake pan to set inside it and into this goes the water for the bain marie when baking cheesecakes or large custards.

I put the arc into the back of the oven on a shelf positioned near the middle of the oven.

This deflects the air from the fan in the back of the oven from blowing directly on the unset cheesecake.

I just bought a pieceof aluminum and took it to a metal shop and had them "hem" the edge- they have a machine that turns the edge down all the way around and crimps it so there is no sharp edge. It didn't cost much and comes in very handy in many applications.

Once you get used to a convection oven you will not want to go back to a radiant oven.

My oven will hold 7 full size sheet pans for things like cookies that do not rise a lot and each level bakes evenly all at the same time, there is no need to rotate from top to bottom and etc.

(It actually would have 10 levels but the bottom three are taken up by a steam injection device - I do a lot of bread-baking and steaming for the first couple of minutes gives the best crust.

[nightscotsman]

andiesenji is probably right about the time/temperature issue with convection ovens, but not all convection ovens behave the same way. We bake all our creme brulees in a convection and I've never seen the fans blow ripples in the surface. The production crew does cheesecakes in them too, and I don't think they have any problems. We do have to rotate cookies to get them to bake evenly, though. Can't remember the brand of oven we're using. You may have to do a little experimenting.

And we also bake our scones in the frozen state every morning.

[celenes]

I have also been baking with a convention oven since last November. Done plenty of cheesecake, cakes and cookies no problems with the fan that I am aware of. To be honest I don't really know how to turn the fan off so since I've had no problems I figure leave it alone.

My oven is a double and I love it. Now that I understand the temperature and time stuff I've produced much better stuff than what my gas oven was doing.

Good luck.

P.S. So far the health inspectors haven't come after me. I live next door to our city council president too and he knows I bake from my home. I did the research tough to see what I might be up against and the state told me as long as I label my product properly I was in good shape. We have a decent website that give you all the label parameters and explains baking product from home etc.

[Malawry]

Sometimes I bake big batches of bar cookies in half-sheet pans at work, where I lack a convection oven. I usually lower the temperature and bake them for a longer time, checking them frequently, to ensure that the center is baked through before the outer parts are overcooked. I've been okay just by keeping a close eye on them but then I don't bake any testy things like cheesecakes--my oven is way too uneven, and I just know I won't be able to keep on top of it adequately.

[SweetCaroline]

I have a commercial oven at home (Blodgett) and one at work (I think an Imperial?) and I usually reduce the temp by 25 degrees and shorten the baking time by a look-see. Can you tell me why you decided, after reading the thread on freezing cheesecakes, that freezing cheesecakes was something you didn't want to do?

[CanadianBakin']

Sweet Caroline - Thanks for asking about that. I guess I only followed the cheesecake one for the first few replies which didn't suggest freezing but only refridgerating. I'm glad I went back to read it now. Looks like freezing is fine.

Andisenji - is there a chart to tell me what the internal temperatures for different items should be? I will have a couple weeks to use the oven before the shop opens so there'll be time to experiment. The oven will have a 2-stage fan so I don't think we'll have a problem with the cheesecakes rippling.

It's good to hear that scones are fine baking from the frozen state. Do I leave the temp the same and just bake a bit longer or should I increase the temp as well?

Thanks so much for all your input. I really appreciate having a forum available to get answers to my questions.

[simdelish]

Once you bake with convection,you'll never go back

just a few more suggestions...

My cheesecakes do fine in convection, I just keep on the lower fan speed (I have hi-lo-no). I assume because this is a new place, the oven is new, or at least shiny and clean. At work, I must share my ovens with the kitchen, so I have to keep a close eye on their cleanliness. After few hundred pounds of bones have been roasted, the oven will blow black burn specks on cheesecakes or things like key lime pies/lemon tarts. I have to get the dishwashers to clean them out every two weeks or so.

Also, I found that if I turn off the fan entirely, I get practically NO HEAT -- nothing will bake! Each oven is different, so experiment with yours.

And lastly, when you are baking cookies on parchment, or a batch of something that only fills half a sheet, make sure to weight down the corners, or the paper will blow, making your items misshapen. Good luck!

[SweetCaroline]

re: And lastly, when you are baking cookies on parchment, or a batch of something that only fills half a sheet, make sure to weight down the corners, or the paper will blow, making your items misshapen. Good luck!

I hate it when that happens!