Convection oven for homemade micro bakery

[maxitaborelli]

Hello! I am in need too buy a convection oven for my micro bakery. This is a homemade micro bakery startup. I make croissants and puff pastries. Would like to know any advice in makes or specific ovens that are good for this bakings. I live in USA, please need advice in models and makes. Thank!!

 

[Norcalbaker59]

This is not the way to buy an oven for a business.

if you don’t know what type of oven to buy, you’re not ready to open your own business.

Have you tested your recipes in commercial ovens? if not, I guarantee your recipes will not work in any commercial oven you buy. The reason is your recipes are formulated for home use. Home ovens and commercial ovens are operate differently.

To test your recipes in a commercial kitchen, research commercial kitchen rentals in your area. Look for a kitchen that has bakery ovens: deck oven, convection oven, revolving tray oven.

You can also try Baking training centers. The artisan baking center where I take classes will rent their kitchen to professional bakers looking to open their businesses.

A convection oven isn’t necessarily the right oven for laminated dough products.

You need to test your specific products in a variety of commercial ovens to decide what your needs are in an oven. You can’t just jump on some forum and ask people to tell you what to buy.

 

[maxitaborelli]

I need a convection oven with 4-5 racks for baking puf pastries from home. That’s all I need and that’s what I am asking. Makes and models that other tryed before. The places you wrote will not have small ovens that an be operated from home, so your suggestions are not good for me.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

I need a convection oven with 4-5 racks for baking puf pastries from home. That’s all I need and that’s what I am asking. Makes and models that other tryed before. The places you wrote will not have small ovens that an be operated from home, so your suggestions are not good for me.

it sounds like you have never been in a commercial rental kitchen.


a commercial kitchen is going to have a convention oven, and most likely it’s going to be an oven with four or five racks. Very few rental commercial kitchens are going to be set up for full bakery production because they are not bakeries. Most of the commercial rental kitchens are actually set up for caterers.
Plus full scale bakery ovens are very expensive running $80k and up. They’re going to have smaller versions ovens.


what’s going to happen is you will end up buying an convection oven without ever trying one. You will throw a batch after batch of product in the oven. It’s all going fail because a convection oven does not bake like your home oven.

then your going to jump back on the forum to ask why everything failed. it all comes down to not knowing how to use convection and formulating your recipes for the oven.

The other thing you need to research is the power, wiring, ventilation, and insulation for commercial ovens in your home kitchen. you need to find out from your county what the building code requires for insulation and you need to find out what the various models require. Also the flooring requirements.

you also need to find out whether or not the manufacture(s) you are interested in will void the warranty if you install the oven in your home kitchen. These ovens are not designed for home use. For that reason most manufacturers will void the warranty if the oven is installed in a residential kitchen. Some will honor the warranty, but only if there is a professional installation.

also make sure you purchase the oven from a supplier that will take the oven back without a significant restock fee on an exchange in the event the oven does not work out for you. Most will charge a 20% or higher restock fee.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Here’s an actual kitchen. i’ve been in this kitchen many times.


This is the main Bakery training kitchen.
full scale bakery ovens

this is in the second kitchen. There’s an array of small ovens like this. This is a small deck oven. It’s on a counter and slightly larger that a built-in home wall oven. In fact there is a built-in wall oven right next to this one. I cropped the photo because there’s people in the photograph and I don’t want to post people without their permission. And there’s lots of kitchens throughout the US like this.

 

[Linus]

This toaster oven may be too small for you, but it's just right for me!! It's great for baking rolls, yeast breads, quick breads, cookies & small casseroles!

 

[retired baker]

Get a 120v half size counter top convection, it will do what you want very nicely.
You didn't indicate your budget, this one is $995.
If your budget is higher take a look at blodgett half size convection.

Cadco OV-013 Compact Half Size Convection Oven with Manual Controls, 120-Volt/1450-Watt, Stainless/Black​

 

[Linus]

This one is good enough for me!!

 

[Insideoutcookie]

it sounds like you have never been in a commercial rental kitchen.


a commercial kitchen is going to have a convention oven, and most likely it’s going to be an oven with four or five racks. Very few rental commercial kitchens are going to be set up for full bakery production because they are not bakeries. Most of the commercial rental kitchens are actually set up for caterers.
Plus full scale bakery ovens are very expensive running $80k and up. They’re going to have smaller versions ovens.


what’s going to happen is you will end up buying an convection oven without ever trying one. You will throw a batch after batch of product in the oven. It’s all going fail because a convection oven does not bake like your home oven.

then your going to jump back on the forum to ask why everything failed. it all comes down to not knowing how to use convection and formulating your recipes for the oven.

The other thing you need to research is the power, wiring, ventilation, and insulation for commercial ovens in your home kitchen. you need to find out from your county what the building code requires for insulation and you need to find out what the various models require. Also the flooring requirements.

you also need to find out whether or not the manufacture(s) you are interested in will void the warranty if you install the oven in your home kitchen. These ovens are not designed for home use. For that reason most manufacturers will void the warranty if the oven is installed in a residential kitchen. Some will honor the warranty, but only if there is a professional installation.

also make sure you purchase the oven from a supplier that will take the oven back without a significant restock fee on an exchange in the event the oven does not work out for you. Most will charge a 20% or higher restock fee.

I just got bakery space that has a a full size convection oven and it is unbelievably aggressive compared to my previous. You mentioned formulations specific to convection, what does that look like? I get significantly less spread (doing cookies here) so I could easily add liquid or fat content to compensate, but everything is ruined on top before I'm at internal temp. What do you think is best as far as formulation changes? I've tried running half the cycle without the fan but it does not heat without the fan