[brooksms]

I've been testing cookie recipes for months now and am finally going to rent a commercial kitchen hourly! Tomorrow night I'm allowed free time to figure out the ovens. They have two regular ovens and double stacked convection. The baking time has been difficult to narrow down because I'm making xl thick levain-style cookies. A minute or two makes a huge difference! I need to get it just right so the center isn't super raw but the outside doesn't get too dry. At home I've been using an electric oven at 380 F for 18 minutes. If you think convection is best for this, what's a good starting point for adjusting time/temp? 355 F for 13.5 mins would be 25% less of each which is the generic recommendation I've read. What about fan speed if that's an option? What happens when baking more than one pan at a time? I'm panicking a little here lol! :emoji_sweat_smile:

 

[brooksms]

Oops, not 25% less. 25 degrees less and 25% less time.

 

[brooksms]

In my experience, commercial ovens work better, the fuller they are. However, each oven is different, and requires just jumping in. You can always add time, but you can't take it away. Undershoot your times to get a better idea of how the oven bakes (hotspots, cold spots). If the oven has a fan delay feature, or an off switch for the fan, use it! the oven bakes the cookies and the fan browns them, use that to get your dough baked, then the fan to add the touch of brown.

I'll have to see what features this oven has! I only saw it briefly so I'm not sure what the options are yet. I thought the fan helps them cook evenly. No? That's an interesting idea though since the cookies are so large. If I'm able to, maybe the edges will dry out less. I assumed the option would just be low or high fan. Too many variables to test!

 

[brooksms]

In my experience, commercial ovens work better, the fuller they are. However, each oven is different, and requires just jumping in. You can always add time, but you can't take it away. Undershoot your times to get a better idea of how the oven bakes (hotspots, cold spots). If the oven has a fan delay feature, or an off switch for the fan, use it! the oven bakes the cookies and the fan browns them, use that to get your dough baked, then the fan to add the touch of brown.

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. It's too bad there was not an option to turn the fan off. 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 oven just difficult?

 

[brooksms]

Once you figure out the oven the other recipes you want to bake will be easier to bake.

I would suggest a small investment in an over thermometer to start.

Thankfully I brought an oven thermometer! The knob on the oven is so far off I would've never figured it out lol.