Hi guys,
Maybe you can help. I've been baking my boules in my home oven, 2 at a time with excellent results in the Lodge combo cookers.
This has been perfect for baking two or four loaves, but now I find myself having to bake upwards of 10 loaves a few times a week (not a bad problem to have). Luckily, I have a commissary kitchen at my disposal, but the only issue is they only have Alto-Shaam Combi Ovens.
Can anyone recommend or suggest how to get the perfect loaf in these guys?
In the attached picture is of my first attempt with these ovens. (All were baked on baking sheets) Far left two were baked at 400 degrees with 15mins of steam then finished without steam for roughly 30-35 mins. The next two were done the exact same way but at 450 degrees, and the final two (far right) were baked at 485 degrees (max temp for these ovens) with a pan of water left in the base of the oven (unless I'm doing something wrong, I don't believe you can steam at this temp) for the first 15 mins then finished at 450 degrees.
Normally I get an incredible oven spring and a decent ear on the loaves, but the first two attempts the rose maybe only 75%, no ear action, and the bottom of the loaves were still quite soft when finished. The last two on the right got to the right height but blew out the bottom instead of where they had been scored.
My next attempt will be with a pizza stone or quarry tiles. Hopefully one of you has some ideas.
Thanks!!
Replies
Have you tried double checking the oven temp? In my own experience i can tell you that oven temps are not always that accurate. At 350*f my oven runs exact but at 500*f it runs nearly 520*f. I burned a ton of loaves when i moved into this house and started using the oven here, Until I bough an oven thermomenter and made adjustments to hit target temps.