The Fresh Loaf

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New oven burns the tops of my loaves

Crustydelite's picture
Crustydelite

New oven burns the tops of my loaves

I've been baking sourdoughs using dutch ovens for about 5 years now. I recently replaced my old electric oven with a new LG electric oven model LREL6323S, When I use conventional bake it burns the tops of my loaves with the upper heating element. I called them and they said that their oven uses both top and bottom heating elements to improve the uniformity of the heat. I disagree with them there. The upper element is exposed, therefore the heat is radiation heat rather than conduction/convection heat. They also say there is no turning off this feature. 

I'm looking for a standard electric home oven. There must be a way to bake where the broiler element does not come on. I'd like to spend no more than 1000 USD. It would be nice to get more than a basic bottom-of-the-line oven. Thanks.

Ilya Flyamer's picture
Ilya Flyamer

You can try just inserting a baking sheet above your bread/DO when starting the bake, it'll block off the top radiant heat.

Crustydelite's picture
Crustydelite

Good idea, but unfortunately this would take up too much vertical space. I cook with loaves at 2 levels.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

when in convection mode?  (Yes, it does.).  Maybe the oven is just too hot during the bake or heat is not under the bread while baking. Instructions suggest baking pan as close to the middle of the oven as possible so heat circulates under as well.  Also use dark pans as they heat up more.  Aluminum foil wrapped over the lid of the DO?

LG is a Korean company and I always found it interesting that in their country's history they developed ovens for heating rooms (central floor heating like the Romans) but never had a highly developed bread culture.  

The breads listed in the instruction table for placement of oven racks is for biscuits and muffins (a recent popular S Korean hobby.)  Hardly a sandwich loaf or sourdough loaf.  I had trouble finding a decent oven for bread baking in S Korea.  My mini oven had steam and convection but my biggest problem was getting heat under the loaf during baking and staying away from a nasty top coil or oven light.  (Check to see if there is a bottom heating coil either exposed or under the floor of the oven. If coil don't cover floor as this will block heat.)

Placing a dark broiler pan upside down on the very bottom of the cold oven floor helped a lot. This would heat up and radiate to the bread baking a shelf space above it.  Maybe with this bigger oven, baking two notches on position 3 would work out.  Try to center the entire finished loaf in the middle of the oven.  Use dark baking pans and surfaces.  Use the DO.  You will have to experiment a little.  If there is no improvement, I would return the oven asap and get the kind of oven you want.  Be sure to read the instructions on bread placement/baking in the ovens you are considering.

loaflove's picture
loaflove

What kind of a mini oven do you have, Mini Oven?

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

The wall unit is a standard European size oven, 220~240V Amana under the Perfek line. Small compared to US standard sized range oven. 

Mini oven is a table top portable that gets moved from kitchen to outside, 220~240V 50Hz 1380W.  Silver Crest SGB 1380 A1 electrical Oven.  Eleven years old. Interior bottom black with matt silver sides inside and out.  Fan on/off switch, hidden bottom coil, exposed top coil. Top heat or bottom heat or both. Timer up to 60 min.  100~230°C  oven room 8" High x 11.5" Wide x 11" deep. 

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/152972/Silvercrest-Sgb-1380-A1.html#manual

RichieRich's picture
RichieRich
Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

functions.  An updated version with more crome look around the knobs.  I save the packing and put the oven away during the winter months but with Covid and just three of us, it has become more practical than heating up the biger oven.  Practically 5 minutes preheat time.  I love this little oven.  

It does get rather hot under the oven. Mine stands on stone but on wood, I slip a large ceramic tile or very large cutting board under the oven to protect wood table top. 

loaflove's picture
loaflove

Interesting.  Looks like it's available in Europe only

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

with the voltage... 220 V instead of 110 V

Portus's picture
Portus

I see interesting possibilities, MO.  Do you use your table top for hearth loaves?  If so, how - baking stone (or equivalent) with steam, or Lekue basket, or ...?

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

No room for a stone, risen dough on baking tray or use a bread pan on a rack.   Nothing fancy.  Oven traps in a good deal of steam just by being small.

Portus's picture
Portus

Thank you, MO, and yes - have not done much out of the ordinary baking in recent months.  That said, a posting a week or so ago about Kimmicher caught my fancy so I am trying out a few recipes - very tasty, particularly when freshly baked and eaten in chunks with pastrami, cheese and gherkins!  Joe

loaflove's picture
loaflove

Mini Oven.  I've toyed with the idea of putting the dough directly in the countertop oven since it's small and can trap steam.  I would throw in a few ice cubes maybe.  Then I don't have to handle a hot DO , trying to cram it in at the right angle to make it fit.  What do you think? I don't think I'm brave enough to try.  Only because I hate wasting food if it turns out badly

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

"No guts, no glory."   You'll never know until you try it.   I would bake a loaf a kilo or less but forget the ice cubes or preheating any pots.  If worried about the loaf expanding sideways, use paper clips or staples (count them and remove all after the bake) on corners of the parchment. Try also placing parchment late in a form for final rise and then moving parchment and dough to baking sheet in the mini oven.  A round cake pan might be good for round loaves.   Might have to trim parchment high edges to prevent burning. Lower temps to 220°C and toggel upper and lower heat if need be.  Many of these small ovens warn about the use of loose foil covers so check your instruction book.  

I do preheat the baking tray upside down (after initial preheat) for easy loading and removal of rolls stuck to baking parchment.  A heavy piece of cardboard is a peel.  

Portus's picture
Portus

I eventually took the plunge and purchased a Taurus Horizon 30 table top oven - https://taurus-home.com/producto/horizon-30-ver-v/.  Motivating this was a nod to COP26 😊, as our normal oven volume is 3cft compared to 1cft for the Taurus – more than sufficient for Darby and Joan, and a great savings in “time to hot”.

These are the results from my test bake of a 750g Hamelman’s Pain Au Levain:

 

My set-up was to place a 304*304*3mm 3CR12 stainless steel plate on top of the roasting pan to diffuse the heat of the bottom two exposed elements; inspection with a laser thermometer revealed no hot spots.  I allowed about 15 minutes for the oven to reach/stabilize at 230oC before spritzing the top and loading the loaf on parchment, and baking for 15 minutes; I then covered the loaf top with foil, which I removed after 10 minutes, and reduced the temperature to 180oC for the final 5-10 minutes.  I created additional steam by pouring ½C boiling water into the roasting pan at outset, which simmered away during the first 15 minutes.

I tested temperature with an oven thermometer, and the range is pretty consistent.  One curiosity is that the temperature dropped by ~15 degrees when using the fan; I have (mistakenly?) understood that it is more usual for oven temperatures to rise when fan-assisted.  Limitations are a top temperature of only 230oC, and no option to turn off the top two exposed elements – but neither was fatal to its use.  

Verdict on the loaf – oven spring of 80mm, crust ear a bit charred (not unusual and adds to the flavour!), the base slightly light in colour (but not under-baked), and a nice crumb, so overall a very satisfactory bake, and ditto verdict for the Taurus, a very satisfactory purchase.

PS – It only takes about 25 minutes from turning the oven on to take my par-baked Boabsa baguettes from frozen to fully baked, just in time for breakfast!

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Turn down the temp just a wee bit.  "Burnty crusts"  :)

Portus's picture
Portus

Thank you, MO.  Certainly worth a try as I stumble my way through this learning curve ;-)

Crustydelite's picture
Crustydelite

This was a 30 inch freestanding oven.

Crustydelite's picture
Crustydelite

I was not using convection bake, just regular bake. I also need to bake on 2 levels for capacity/throughput. I am hoping oven will be picked up soon.