# Best type of commerical oven for baking cookies (that will allow expansion to bake other things in t



## crieta (Jun 19, 2015)

Hey All!

I'm trying to figure out what would be a good cost-friendly oven to bake cookies. I don't personally know a lot about what to look for or the ins & outs of choosing a good one. I do know we're probably not wanting a countertop type.

From what I've read, there seems to be maybe 3 different types of ovens outside of a regular oven? Convection, Deck & Rotary Rack? And I'm also seeing there's an issue of humidity & ventilation depending on whether it's gas or electric. Any help or direction would be appreciated  It seems like a Gas Convection Oven with some type of Steam Injector might fit our needs. Does that sound right?

We're possibly going to be expanding from cookies to cakes & pastries at some point so something with flexibility would be good.

Thanks so much!/img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif


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## jolie4686 (Jun 16, 2010)

We have gas convection ovens and i love them! The temperature runs a little high but i can fit 10 trays of cookies in them and i never have uneven baking on the trays. These are the kind we have, i just googled them till i found the right ones. I have no idea what price range you are looking for but i would suggest these.

http://www.kirbysupply.com/Equipment/Cooking_Equipment/Garland/Convection_Ovens/MCO-GS-20.htm


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## crieta (Jun 19, 2015)

Thank you, Jolie4686! I appreciate the input!!! /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif


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## jolie4686 (Jun 16, 2010)

No problem good luck finding an oven to fit your needs!


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

About every 6 mths a similar post comes up, and my response is pretty much the same.

So here goes....

There basically two types of "convection" ovens. The first is the plain-jane N. American Blodgett/ Baker's Pride/Vulcan ovens, the second type are the ultra-expensive Euro ovens like Rational, which are normally called "Combi" Ovens. For this post I will refer to Convection ovens and Combi ovens.

There are two types of convections, gas, and electric. With gas ovens you have the gas burners enclosed in a box on the bottom, called a "fire box". The fan sucks up the heat through the back wall and pumps it out in the middle of the oven. With Electric, the heating elements are arranged around the fan. Many municipalities will allow electric ovens to be installed with a hood or ventilation, as this oven produces neither exhaust or grease-laden vapours--which is why you see 'lectric convections in many supermarket bake-offs. But each municipality is different. You will need a hood and ventilation for gas convections.

There are two laws you have to acknowledge, the first is that heat always rises. What this means is that a gas convection oven will always be hotter in the upper 1/3 of the chamber. The second is that the fan always rotates clockwise, thus the right hand side of the oven will get more hot air blown at it than the left. The combis are much more intelligent with the fan blowing one way for 5 mins, then stopping, then reversing direction for 5 mins, then stopping and reversing direction again.

So, with a gas convection your top r/h side side will always be hotter, items will bake faster and take on colour faster. Same with the electric.

The convection has only one temperature zone, there is no way to adjust bottom heat or top heat, and many ovens DO NOT have a damper-- as simple vent you can open or close-- to control the humidity to some extent in the oven. Some do, but not many.

I have never seen a convection oven with true steam.

What "Real/Genuine" baker's ovens have, is a steam generator-- a separate box that takes water and electricity and *pumps *steam into the oven with the touch of a button.

What many convections have (as an additional factory option) is a squirt gun--a $30 solenoid valve that squirts water at the squirrel cage fan in the oven. The fan flings tiny droplets of water over the oven walls. The heat from the oven converts the water to steam. HOWEVER this lowers your oven temp by as much as 100 degrees and it takes the oven about 10 mins to "catch up" to the set temperature you had it at in the first place. The steam is good for bread and buns, but I have never in my career used steam for cookies.

You will always have to rotate baking trays in a convection, and every time you open the door, you blast out your heated air, making your kitchen all nice and toasty, and make your oven work harder to catch up. It is suicidal to bake meringues, small eclairs or cream puffs or lemon meringue pie in a convection, and if you bake on paper, the fan will lift the corners of the paper and shove the items into the center of the pan, baking everything into a blob. Batters like muffins and cakes will be lopsided on account of the fan blowing in one direction.

Don't get me wrong, convections are great workhorses for kitchen use, and they are pretty darn good for bread. For baking and pastries there are better options available, and the best, in my opinion, is a deck oven.

A deck oven has separate controls for top and bottom heat. Thus, if you want a deep-dish quiche with a dark gold bottom crust and pale gold top crust, you can set different "zones" for top and bottom heat. For cookies you can use a gentle heat setting but still at 360F overall temp, and decks come with dampers to adjust the humidity in the oven. The doors on decks are not as large as convections, so when you open a door, you don't have the fan pumping out heat.

You won't find deck ovens at restaurant eqpt. suppliers. You have to go to bakery eqpt dealers. A rest. eqpt. dealer will try to sell you a convection first, and if you insist on a deck, will try to sell you a pizza oven--which is only good at temps _*above*_ 475F and pretty much useless for pastry work. You need to check out bakery eqpt. dealers.

Hope you find this information usefull....


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## tippa (Oct 27, 2015)

Foodpump, your information was invaluable to my interest, so thank you! One thing you didnt quite compare was the difference in performance btween deck ovens (your choice) and good Combi Ovens?
Do deck ovens have steam?
The reason I'm asking is because Moffatt/Bakbar Turbofan Combi ovens with steam are cheaper generally than deck ovens and seem to tick more of the boxes for pastry cooking...
Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I'm sure we will all benefit


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## tippa (Oct 27, 2015)

Drool...
http://www.graysonline.com/lot/0003...s-oven-complete-with-steam-injection-glass-do


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