The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

baguette even-browning issue

Pablo's picture
Pablo

baguette even-browning issue

I wonder if anyone else has this problem.

When I bake baguettes on the stone, when they're done, the sides and ends of the baguettes that are closest to the edges of the stone are nicely browned, like the tops, the sides of the baguettes that are not near the edge are not nearly as browned.  In other words, if I bake 4 baguettes at a time, the outer 2 sides of the 2 furthest out baguettes will be browned, while the inner sides of those 2 and both sides of the innermost 2 baguettes will not be nearly as browned.

I suppose if I were using a convection oven this effect would be minimized or eliminated, but I'm not.  My solution has been to bake an initial 10 - 15 minutes on the stone and then yank the stone out from under them and leave them on the rack for the rest of the baking time.  It works, but I don't hear anyone else doing a similar routine.  I'm curious if this is an issue for anyone else.

:-Paul

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Pablo, I use convection and have seen the same results as you are having...the reason I would say is because there is more than one loaf sitting side by side...the more loaves the less the sides seem to brown...sort of like having a pan of rolls lined up side by side they tend to get less browning on the sides...I would think because the temperature tends to be cooler there because of the insulation resulting from the loaves/rolls sitting close together and also there is less circulation of the heat.  Try pushing them farther apart or baking fewer loaves together this might help.  I also bake them longer and rotate them to help the browning!  This is only my observation! 

Sylvia

nbicomputers's picture
nbicomputers

rotation is the key i forgot that he was baking and where it is but the back home bakery posted a video that showed the perfect what to rotat pans in the oven loves are the same.

i was lucky to have rotating shelf deck ovens so that did most of the work but i also worked with a stationary deck blogett oven and that one required constant attention as well as the american oven i worked with.

rotate inside to outside and left to right  you might also have to rotate 90 degrees as well to gent an even brown crust just how much work you will have to do dependes on how even and level your oven is.

xaipete's picture
xaipete

I tried to bake four at once, once and got similar results. They bake so fast, so I find there is no need to crowd the oven. I just bake two at a time and rotate about half way through. I would never consider removing the stone--it would be difficult, take heat out of your oven, where are you going to set it down?, ....

--Pamela

Pablo's picture
Pablo

Hi Pamela,

Actually I remove both the pan of rocks that I use for steam and the stone.  Given the shape of my oven I bake the baguettes crosswise and when I remove the stone I give it a 1/4 turn and then yank it out, leaving the baguettes on the rack.  At this point I'm also turning down the heat a bit so the oven does heat back up to temperature pretty quickly.  I have a folded towel that I put on the counter next to the stove to receive the pan and the stone.

My problem with cycling is that I like the oven to be very hot when I first put the baguettes in.  I haven't figured a convenient way to work out proofing in shifts to come out right while reusing the oven. 

:-Paul