The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Baguette peel

agmss15's picture
agmss15

Baguette peel

Hi 

I have a design quandary. My sister and I have a small business making wooden kitchen utensils including peels. However we make very limited numbers of labor intensive items like peels. We had a lovely repeat customer come in to our workshop recently to commission a baguette peels for his son’s large wood fired oven. His son makes several hundred loaves a week. 

So now I need to come up with a design prototype and am looking for words of wisdom from this community of bakers. I looked about online a bit.

I was thinking a blade maybe 25” long and perhaps beveled on the side rather than the front? How wide would you go? We were asked to make the handle a bit heavier than our usual design. Maybe 3 foot long or a bit longer. My experience is if the handle is too long it gets in my way. That said my oven is much smaller and I make mostly pizza and maybe 4-6 loaves at a time. And so far I haven’t done proper baguettes. 

Any suggestions appreciated

Amanda

kendalm's picture
kendalm

Here's a good video showing a metal design that sounds like the dimensions you have in mind. He loads 5 baguettes at a time - I love this couple - he's a bit of a nutter with maybe a few screws loose but his videos are great and this might help give an idea of loading multiple baguettes - go to around the 6 minute mark - https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=33s&v=GSfcG5lrO94

albacore's picture
albacore

As an aside from the peel design, he sure makes shaping those baggies look easy!

Lance

tgrayson's picture
tgrayson

I think a peel should be just narrower than the width of the oven interior, or you won't be able to use it for some breads. The oven is only about 18" deep, so the blade doesn't need to be any longer than that.

3 ft for a handle is too long...people probably want it counter-balanced, so something heavy on the end of the handle might help.

agmss15's picture
agmss15

This oven is huge. 5’ by 5’ interior. I will ask about the opening size. I think we are going to make a longer handle which we can shorten to whatever length works best. 

Thank you for your suggestions!