Showerthought: A customer's simple question about my baguettes made me rethink my whole process

A regular at my shop in Spokane asked me last week why my baguettes were always so soft on the bottom, even though the crust looked perfect. I realized my oven's bottom heating element had been failing for months, and I was just baking everything on the middle rack to compensate. Has anyone else had to adjust their baking position for a faulty oven, and what was your fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

eric_price2mo ago

Remember my old oven that only heated on one side. Ended up rotating every loaf halfway through like I was cooking on a campfire. The fix was just buying a new oven after the third repair bill.

charles3262mo ago

Sounds like you just found a better way to bake. If the crust is perfect and people are buying them, maybe the soft bottom is a feature now. Not every equipment quirk needs a major fix, sometimes it's just how your bread turns out. Eric's story about buying a new oven feels like overkill unless you're swimming in cash.

charliep791mo ago

Agree with Charles, just roll with it. Eric's oven story is a whole different level of broken.