I accidentally let it slip in front of the boss that I like to bake and now I'm stuck making the sourdough at the restaurant I work at, dog I've been here like a month, I don't want to be workshopping your bread recipe. bread's getting good though, but I hate baking in a combi steam oven.
like, it looks great, but the crumb is still too dense for my liking and doesn't really get the squishy soft texture I'm looking for. It's a slightly upscale buffet restaurant, and I really want guests to fill up on (good) bread so we can save on food costs and time refilling the actual dishes.
Does anyone have any tips for open baking in a combi oven?
We're doing like 8-10 loaves a day when it gets busy.
Right now I'm doing a blend of manitoba, rye and a semi wholegrain heritage grain with high protein, 72% hydration and a starter that doubles in 4-5 hours. 4 sets of stretch and fold after kneading it in the bread mixer for around 5 minutes, total bulk ferment is around 5 hours and then cold ferment in the walk-in overnight.
Baked with 100% steam at 230c for 15 minutes with no fan, then no steam, still no fan, at 210c for 20-25 minutes and then 240c for a bit for the colour.
I think this one had some uneven fermentation for some reason, and the oven spring was lacking, even with the nice ear that formed, crumb is good, but dense
this one was really nice, but it spread out a little too much because I had too high hydration, around 80% (the other ones in the batch looked a lot flatter)
I feel like the bottom rack of the smaller oven produces the best loaves, but I can't really justify only baking 3 loaves at a time when we only have 2 small ovens and 1 big and produce food for around 100-200 people on weekends
i wish i could help, but i am like bullshit dilettante level with bread compared to the pros. yours look fantastic to me, and i would have to retrain my way of thinking to work a combi. i am still putting like pans of water in my shitty conventional.
but, i am highly opinionated about bread, and one of the trends that irritates me is it seems like everybody wants to make the perfect boule to start because it's the boulangerie "peasant loaf". to me, this is like some "I'm Picasso" move of trying to draw the hands of the peasants. peasant foods are simple in design but mastered in process and execution over, usually, multiple lifetimes with parents passing down wisdom to children.
if i was running the restaurant i would shoot for ciabatta. it's smaller, so less waste, especially on the cock ups. it can be sliced for the table or ripped at the table to dip easy, and one can make pimp ass modest sandwiches with it. and it wouldn't be a restaurant, it would be a deli, and so help me god if you 👈 don't have your 🤚order🤏 figured out by time you get to the 🤌front of the line🤘, you're outta👈👆👉 here.
You're not wrong, Paulie, these goombas don't appreciate a proper working man's bread. We're also doing a basic focaccia to provide some variety, but it's baked in loaf tins so they get way too crispy. Trying to convince them to do it properly but I'm not about to take on even more tasks