# Cheesecakes in Convection?



## taptapper (Dec 23, 2006)

Hello All

We have had good success selling cheesecakes that we've made in electric ovens in a catering kitchen. We are now interested in increasing our production by using the big ovens in a different room.

My question: can you make cheesecake in those big convection ovens that spin a rack? I'm sorry, I don't know what they are called. You roll a rack (holding full sheet pans) into the oven, and when you start it the oven lifts the rack and spins it while it's baking.

We use a 1" waterbath in the standard ovens, but I guess that's out of the questions for the spinners. For our recipe the settling period while it's cooling is crucial to the final texture; will the spinning change the final product? We have made carrot cake in the spinners and they came out perfectly, I'm just concerned about the spinning for cheesecakes. 

We cound run a test, but then we'd be paying $150+ just in room rent to make a couple cakes, so I'm trying to find out if it's worth a try before we make the commitment. I'd appreciate any advice on large-scale cheesecake production.

TIA
--Pat


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

Pat,
The rotary oven can be used for cheese cake if a couple of things are in place. There is almost always variable fan speeds. You will need to use the low or off setting. You don't necessarily have to omitt the h20. Most of the American ovens will usually jolt into the spin cycle which makes it hard to add the water. You can use collars so as not to create a tsunami and keep the waves to a minimum. You can also tape down the spin button and get the rack spinning with the door open before putting in the water. This is a little tricky and you need to be careful. If you have all your water on hand it can be done in a timely fashion and you won't lose to much temp. This won't work if your formula need a quick kick when starting.
Someone might pop on and suggest the steam button. I'm opposed to that.
Your biggest problem is that there is really no way to tell if you will have succdess untill you try it. Maybe run a carrot formula and put in a few cheese cake to see what happens.
The settling/cooling at the end can usually be done the same way as with your regular oven. If the rotary has steam for bread you may want to open the damper to remove steam before leaving the door ajar.
If you think this will reduce time and monies, I think it's worth a try.
If you have specific question on the oven, please don't hesitate to PM, I've played with alot of the from American Baxters to Pavillion Fr.
Good luck
Panini


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## shaloop (Aug 16, 2005)

I just started using a commercial kitchen to make desserts to sell to local restaurants/coffee shops. My first baking day was Monday and I have a "new" used half size Hobart Convection oven. Almost all of the cheesecakes that I baked in it were a flop. I ended up using the regular (standard home type) oven but of course it took longer as it doesn't hold as much. I need to learn how to use the convection oven. The fan blows pretty hard and can't be turned off. I bake in a waterbath. The water evaporates very quickly. Any tips?


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## even stephen (Oct 10, 2005)

Cheesecakes in the altosham not water bath, overnight.
They rock and they are always perfect. Anybody else
do it. Also the most moist spongecakes I have seen.
No brushing with liquore or simple syrup. I am a novice 
though. What do you think


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

Yes they come out perfect, the cheesecakes.


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## shaloop (Aug 16, 2005)

I don't have an altosham. Only a convection oven with a very strong fan that can't be turned off. Any hope for me?


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## chefpeon (Jun 14, 2006)

Well, shaloop, that's all I have at work now, myself......(really strong fan, too)
In fact, I plan on baking some cheesecakes tomorrow. I plan on putting them in a waterbath and baking at about 275 (convection). I'm sure they'll be fine....but I'll let you know how it goes......


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## shaloop (Aug 16, 2005)

Will you cover them with anything? How long do they cook? I'd love to hear how it turns out and any resulting tips you come up with.


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## taptapper (Dec 23, 2006)

What's an altosham? And you cook them overnight?? 8 hours?


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## frayedknot (Dec 17, 2006)

Pat, I use a "big oven" every day (cept today I am off :smoking: ) and I would have to agree with Pan. The spinning is a tough thing... When I am baking quiche, egg or coconut custard it is always a trick to hope the jerky start does not spill the contents over the side. Messing up sheet pans and the burnt look on the crust is less than acceptable to me, (but the boss does not care:crazy: ) Maybe just a little less batter in the cheese cakes would help out here. 

Pan, I can not imagine placing a sheet pan full of quiches in the oven while the rack is spinning...recipe for disaster...for me. I use a cookie rack and then place a sheet pan directly on top of the product to deflect the "wind" and then remove when they are set and the tops can brown. 

Best of luck


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

Pan, I can not imagine placing a sheet pan full of quiches in the oven while the rack is spinning...recipe for disaster...for me. I use a cookie rack and then place a sheet pan directly on top of the product to deflect the "wind" and then remove when they are set and the tops can brown. 



knot,
I would never try that either. I may have been confusing in my post. The rack with the filled cakes are already on sheet pans with collars in the oven. With the door open, I hold or tape the lever that starts the spin. This is when I add the water. I don't think I would be able to fill quiche this way.
pan


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## frayedknot (Dec 17, 2006)

Pan, thanks for the clarification. I read almost everyone of your posts... your "speriance" speaks volumes... and I like your thinking alot.. just was wondering "how he do dat"  and trying to figger out how the master teaches THAT... 

Thanx again and thanks for all your posts I for one appreciate your input and time spent on this forum.


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## chefpeon (Jun 14, 2006)

Baking in a waterbath in a spinning Baxter....hmmmmmm. 
I used to bake a lot of stuff in a Baxter (spinning convection oven), but I can't recall I did cheesecakes in it......I don't think I did. I also had "regular" convection ovens, and I'm pretty sure I used those for the cheesecake......it's all so fuzzy now. (It's been 10 years since that job...yikes.) However I do recall that sudden "jerk" that would happen upon the start of closing the oven door and the spin......I did creme brulees in there, and I had to make sure that the brulees were in at least a 2 inch deep hotel pan, and that the waterbath only went about a 1/4 inch up the sides of the cups.....otherwise the water would splash up over the tops of the brulee cups. It worked out ok actually.
So I imagine that if you bake your cheesecakes in a waterbath in a spinning convection oven, you would place your cheesecakes in a two inch deep hotel pan on a sheet pan, load the sheet pans into the oven, pour your water into the hotel pans, not more than a 1/4 to a half inch deep. 
There would be initial "wave action" upon the beginning of the spin, but not enough to get into the cheesecake. The height of the hotel pan would be enough to stop the water from splashing down onto the cheesecakes below it........yes?

Ok.....shaloop.....I baked off my cheesecakes today!
I set my oven at 250. I was going to do 275, but my experience with that oven so far has been that it runs hot, so I figured to err on the side of lower temp. I placed my cheesecakes on a sheet pan in the oven, then poured my water into the sheet pan so the water came up about a 1/2 inch up the sides of the pan. Closed doors.....hoped for the best. 
After an hour I checked them......they were looking great! All I had to do was watch my water level, as the oven evaporates the water pretty quickly. I refilled my sheet pans once during the bake. It took nearly two hours for them to bake, and they came out great! No discoloration, cracking or waves in the surface from the fan. Note: I did place the pans of cheesecakes on the lower two shelves, below the level of the fan, which is in the back of the oven, right in the center.

So....I had zero problem with it. I'm no longer scared. Hope you won't be either!


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## shaloop (Aug 16, 2005)

Thanks Anne! I'm going to be trying again Monday. You've given me hope!


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## shaloop (Aug 16, 2005)

I tried again today. I baked two cheesecakes. Same batter divided into two pans. 250 degrees. Water bath. One cheesecake covered tightly with foil, one not covered. The uncovered one appeared done in 1 hour. The covered one took two hours to seem done. After cooling, the uncovered one looked great. The one that had been covered had developed a crack. I'm thinking I may have overbaked the covered one, leading to the crack. But, it really didn't look done. Also, the crack didn't appear until about a half hour after removing from the oven, while cooling on the counter. Final analysis tomorrow after chilling overnight and cutting.


Well, the texture of the cheesecakes is off. I've been using this recipe for years. They should be dense and creamy. These (baked yesterday) are somewhat "fluffy"? They aren't "smooth". I sliced them today but the slices broke when trying to remove them. They are too soft. I even had trouble slicing them. I want to cry. I was supposed to deliver samples to a few business today but there's no way I'm delivering these. I guess I"ll be using the regular oven and just doing 4 at a time until I can figure out what to do.


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## mariachi_chef (Feb 4, 2007)

O.K, here's what I do. I make a Chevre Cheesecake in a 10-inch springform pan, wrapped in foil, placed in a hot water bath for 45 minutes in a convection oven at 325 degrees. It comes out perfect every time. Good luck.


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## taptapper (Dec 23, 2006)

Everyone, thanks for the wonderful info! I will be running a test bake the week after Easter. I'll let you know how it goes.

--Pat


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## rat (Mar 2, 2006)

To make it in a convection you can also lose the waterbath with the reduced tempratures, we cook ours at 235 degrees, a 10 inch cheesecake takes about 40 minutes to reach in internal temp of 157 degrees which is what we cook them too. We finish them with the oven door slightly open with the cool down fan running, they come out fine never a problem. For a nice color on the top start them at 350 or so until you get the color you like then set the oven on cool down to get to 235 degrees go from there.
Honestly, I am lazy and couldn't be bothered with the whole foil and waterbath thing, if i showed you the springform pans I use you would understand.


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## heavymetal chef (Jul 31, 2006)

At wark what we do is bake all of our custards and cheesecakes in the convection oven at 200 F. It comes out perfect. We have a semi-difficult oven to work with because when either the top or bottom opens it stops the rotation and it jerks (thats why I have the people who come fix the oven...lol). But our custards and cheesecake come out awsome in a matter of (for a 10'' cheesecake) 1 1/2 hours maybe shorter (depending on how many are in at a time).


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## heavymetal chef (Jul 31, 2006)

and no bath required


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## shaloop (Aug 16, 2005)

Thanks all. I tried again this week at a lower temperature (about 225) and they came out much better.


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## sonny's bakery (Oct 13, 2007)

:chef:Hi, I can give you all the knowhow for the best creamy cheesecake you may wish, just email me at [email protected]


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## sonny's bakery (Oct 13, 2007)

:chef::chef:Hi, I can give you all the knowhow for the best creamy cheesecake you may wish, just email me at [email protected]


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## shoemaker (Sep 20, 2007)

I've baked countless hundreds of cheesecakes (NY style) in the "spinning rack" type convection oven. We'd use 2" hotel pans to put the cakes and H2O in, and never had water slopping around, never had to cover cakes. I absolutely loved that oven (at my previous job) as it baked most everything quite nicely. 
These days, I'm limited to a standard convection oven (high/low fan), and I bake cheesecakes "satisfactorily" in it (although I don't like the results as much as non-convection and the "spinning" rack type). I cover the hotel pan with foil (vented) for 25 - 30 minutes, then remove foil and bake until done (occasionally having a crack or two, but the crack usually settles down into just being a line on the cake when cool, and the head chef and general manager are perfectly happy with the results, so....
I can't stand the oven I'm using at the moment, fwiw, but I make do. My favorite oven ever was a big old gas oven with 5 shelves that held 4 full sheets per shelf and turned like a ferris wheel. Had a steam attachment, made THE BEST "baked on the shelf" rye, french, and sourdough breads


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## pastrychica (Oct 16, 2007)

as for the rotating -yuk. I thought I had it back with the convection oven that seems to be on high or instant sahara mode. In that oven I cover tops of cheesecake pans with sheet pans and fill the lower rack with a deep pan of hot water. Perhaps with your roataing oven you could get some REALLY DEEP pans and fill them half way with hot water and place them on the lower racks of the speed rack so if they slosh they just slosh onto the floor of the oven and hopefully retain enough water to create a moist atmoshpere. Still not a waterbath, but the crazy place were I just started working bakes cheesecake on sheet pans with risers - no possible way to put them in a waterbath, so all I could do was put a waterpan in the oven with it. Mine did come out better when I added fruit puree to the batter, so play with a little more moisture a little more sugar to combat the inhospitable enviroment. GOOD LUCK.


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## shaloop (Aug 16, 2005)

Just an update. I finally figured it out. It's been more than 6 months and things are working out fine. I use the convection oven with only one fan speed which is full blast on 250 F. I put the cheesecakes in a 4" deep hotel pan and fill 1/2 way with water and then cover for the 1st hour and uncover the last 30 mins or so and they come out great, no cracks. Thanks for all the help.


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## sadie1 (Dec 7, 2007)

Hi..don't mean to hijack Shaloops thread, but I am trying to figure out exactly what type of ovens I want for a small bakery. I do only cheesecakes and cakes, and I THOUGHT I wanted a couple of double stack convection ovens, but I am getting conflicting opinions from both restaurant owners and equipment salesmen. Half say convection is what I need, the other half say I should never consider baking cakes and cheesecakes in a convection oven...I'm confused! Can anyone help me?


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## nycbaking (Mar 18, 2013)

What kind of Alto Shaam oven specifically do you use?


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