Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2025-06-09 Origin: Site
There are plenty of different types of commercial gas or electricity bakery oven on the market, but bakers don't use commercial convection ovens for everything baking primarily because the forced air circulation, while beneficial for many tasks, can negatively impact specific baked goods that rely on precise moisture levels, delicate structures, or controlled rise.
Excessive Drying & Crust Formation:
Problem: The constant stream of hot, moving air accelerates evaporation. This is great for crispy roasts or puff pastry, but disastrous for items where a tender, moist crumb is essential.
Examples: Cakes (especially light ones like angel food or chiffon), muffins, quick breads (like banana bread), and soft cookies can become dry, tough, or develop an overly thick, hard crust before the inside is fully cooked. Bread crusts can become excessively thick and hard too quickly.
Disruption of Delicate Structures:
Problem: The force of the moving air can physically disturb items that need to set gently without disturbance.
Examples:
Soufflés: Can collapse or rise unevenly.
Custards & Flans: Can develop a "skin" or crack on the surface prematurely.
Light Meringues & Macarons: Can cook unevenly, develop feet incorrectly, or become lopsided.
Decorated Items: Intricate piped designs (like on cookies or cakes) can be blown out of shape before they set.
Uneven Spread & Browning:
Problem: While convection promotes even heat distribution, the constant airflow can cause items to spread or brown unevenly in unexpected ways. But if gas bakery oven, it may not has these problem.
Examples:
Cookies: Can spread too much and too quickly, becoming thin and lacy around the edges while the center might still be underdone. Browning can be uneven.
Pastries: Delicate pastries relying on precise butter melting and steam release (like laminated doughs - croissants, puff pastry) can set their structure too quickly before achieving maximum rise ("oven spring") if the airflow is too aggressive.
Recipe Conversion Challenges:
Problem: Most traditional baking recipes are developed and tested for conventional ovens. Using convection requires adjustments (typically lowering the temperature by 15-25°F / 10-15°C and often reducing cooking time by 10-25%).
Complexity: This conversion isn't always linear or foolproof, especially for intricate recipes. It introduces an extra variable and potential for error, which professional bakers working at scale often prefer to avoid for consistency. It requires experimentation and experience
Specific Needs for Steam:
Problem: Many bread bakers rely heavily on injecting steam into the oven during the initial baking phase. This keeps the dough surface flexible for optimal oven spring and creates a desirable glossy, crisp crust (like on baguettes or artisan loaves).
Challenge: The constant airflow in a convection oven makes it much harder to maintain the necessary humid environment. The moving air rapidly dissipates steam, often negating its benefits. Dedicated deck ovens or conventional ovens with good steam injection are preferred for this reason.
When Bakers Do Love Convection:
Roasting: Even browning and faster cooking for meats and vegetables.
Multiple Sheet Pans: Excellent for even cooking when baking multiple trays of cookies, biscuits, or roasting vegetables simultaneously.
Puff Pastry & Pie Crusts: Promotes flaky layers and crispness.
Casseroles & Gratins: Helps achieve a nicely browned top.
Drying/Dehydrating: Very efficient.
Certain Breads & Rolls: Can work well for free-form loaves or rolls where a thicker crust is desired, if steam management is handled well.
