Lg batch of dinner rolls nearly a failure with convection.

18 years ago

My friend had to bake 400 dinner rolls for her daughter's graduation, so I volunteered to help...After all, she has a 'cheapo' gas range and I have a nearly new convection dbl oven, so thought I was much better equipped to handle the job... She wanted me to use a specific, tried and true recipe of hers, so I visited her yesterday as she baked, so I could match her rolls in size and shape. (I would have tried a test batch, but the recipe calls for 2 qts of milk and 22 cups of flour!) She baked 2 or 3 racks at a time in her oven, switching pans once during the baking. They all came out beautifully and equally golden brown.

First of all, while I'm experienced in baking bread and other things, I haven't done many dinner rolls, and soon learned that forming perfectly round and smooth dinner rolls isn't as easy as it looks, even after doing about 180...but that's another issue. The one I want to discuss is the problems I had in baking. I was trying to use the multirack convection feature on my F&P ovens to do 3 pans of rolls at a time. I've been successful using that feature for breads and cookies, but the rolls on the edges and backs of the pans, especially the top one, browned much faster than the rest. I switched the pans around during baking and still didn't do a lot better, since the rolls in the middle were still not getting done while the outside ones were. Of course, then some were overdone, and none were as moist and nice as the ones she had baked.

Is convection, for some reason, OK for bread and cookies, but ill-advised for dinner rolls? Is it because this recipe used white flour, milk, and eggs, making them bake differently than my multigrain bread?

Thanks so much for your help. I was sad to offer my help, then end up with poor results....Not that kids high on the excitement of graduating will care too much about the rolls, thank goodness! :-)

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Comments (9)

triciae
18 years ago
While I love my convection oven, I don't use it for dinner rolls because of what you've just discovered. :(

I like to space dinner rolls so that as they raise the rolls touch each other. I like the soft edges on all except the outer rows. With convection, those outer rolls cook way too fast.

However, when I make hard rolls...those I like a bit crispier all the way around so I space them further apart on the baking tray. So, the circulating air browns them evenly.

That was a huge project. I'm sorry it didn't go as you'd expected & hoped. Like they say, "Experience is what we get when we don't get what we expected!". :)

Congrats to the graduate!

/tricia
shambo
18 years ago
Tricia, you hit on something that I don't always think of. There needs to be space around the baking objects for air movement when you use the convection feature. I guess that's why so many like the feature for cookies.

Rhome, I'm sorry things didn't go as you had expected. But your dilemma provided one of those teachable moments.
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rhome410
Original Author
18 years ago
I have usually done dinner rolls touching, but she was doing hers spaced to be individual, which made sense for a buffet situation, so I, of course, did the same. I could pretty much tell it was the convection/air movement causing the problem, but couldn't figure out why it was so uneven, when the point of convection is to provide even heat and browning. I guess I kept believing in what I thought should happen, even after it wasn't! (That's what happens when you end up baking way past bed time!) But, I will remember this for next time and not use convection for this type of project again. Thanks for answering.
lindac
18 years ago
I believe it was because you were trying to hurry the process and bake 3 trays at at ime....why bother? After all a pan of dinner rolls only takes 18 to 20 minutes to bake and if you do 2 pans per oven there is enough air circulating to allow all to brown evenly...if your pans aren't too big.
A couple of years back a friend an I made dozens and dozens of rolls for an event...I have 2 ovens and I put no more than 2 pans in each oven, took pretty much most of the day...but it worked well.
BTW...we cut costs by using evaporated milk.....not sure it wasn't better than "real" milk.
Linda C
triciae
18 years ago
With the oven Rhome has she should easily be able to bake off 3 racks at the same time, Linda. Even my Kenmore Elite handles 3 racks on convection.

/tricia
triciae
18 years ago
Didn't clarify what my mind was thinking...

Rhome can easily bake 3 racks of cookies or rolls that are spaced further apart than dinner rolls with convection. Her problem was the tighter spacing on the trays not the number of trays.

/t
rhome410
Original Author
18 years ago
I did change to doing 2 trays at one point. It wasn't a lot better. I didn't realize I should try that at the beginning, since the oven is supposed to be able to handle 3 trays at once, and my friend had done it fine with her 'lesser' oven.

I wasn't trying to hurry, but be as efficient as possible in baking the 10 or so pans, since it was almost 1 AM by the time they'd raised and were ready to start baking. If I'd believed it would have been detrimental to my whole project, I would have done it differently. Thanks!
alku05
18 years ago
Rhome, which setting were you using, TrueAero or AeroBake? I haven't tried dinner roles, but like you, have had a lot of success with 3 racks of cookies, and with 2 racks of danish pastry.

I wonder if the height of the rolls combined with the 3 pans blocked the air flow enough to create hot spots? Cookies are really small and flatten as they cook, so the air can flow around them pretty easily.
rhome410
Original Author
18 years ago
The rolls were spaced pretty much like cookies would be, so there should have been plenty of space around them, but Alku, you may have a point about height. I was using TrueAero for the multirack baking. I'm just glad I've had good luck with other things in the oven or I might be disappointed in it...Just have to try another approach with rolls next time.

Thanks again, everyone.

And the grad party tonight was quite lovely...Not ruined at all by the substandard rolls! ;-)

Lg batch of dinner rolls nearly a failure with convection.

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Lg batch of dinner rolls nearly a failure with convection.

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triciae

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