Mini Gingerbread Whoopie Pies Pix - AR Setup Help Needed

jfm0830

This afternoon I made a trial run for a dessert I want to make for Christmas. It was a trial run for the recipe, Mini Ginger Whoopie Pies from the King Arthur Flour website and a trial for the setup for baking on my new Adjustable Rig. This is my second cook using the AR, which I used for the first time to cook my Thanksgiving turkey to great success. I am already a huge fan of the AR's potential, but I realize I  have much to learn. This cook was not without some issues so I am going to ask for some Eggspert advice on what I may have down wrong or better yet, what I can do differently next time. 

The setup I used was Oval Pizza Stone at Level  3, Oval Sliding Grid at Level 4.5 and the Sliding D Grid on the Rig Extender. This recipe wanted no more than 12 cookies per sheet pan and since it made 72 pies that meant 6 pans worth of cookies. So I wanted to try to get 2 trays on at a time, I preheated the Egg and stabilized it at 375 dome temp for an hour while I did the prep. I wanted to get the dome temp and the grate level temps close. The problem was the bottoms of the gingerbread cookies finished much faster than the tops, I did change the vertical positions of the two trays, but neglected to rotate them too. There was a difference between the front and back of the tray. But the main problem was the tops of the cookies were not done and the bottoms were starting to burn. Any advice you might have for me would be appreciated. I was wondering:

-Is trying to bake two trays of cookies something I should even be attempting on the AR?

-Should I have used two stones directly under the pans instead of 1 stone at Level 3?

The setup: Oval Pizza Stone at Level 3, Sliding Oval Grid at Level 4.5 and the Sliding D Grid on the Rig Extender

OK onto the pix:

The ingredients for the cookies were: White Whole Wheat  Flour, buttermilk, light brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, molasses. softened butter, allspice, powdered ginger, crystalized ginger and an egg. The filling used: Confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, softened butter and softened cream cheese.

The flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder & the spices are whisked together.

The softened butter & egg are beaten in.

The molasses & brown sugar are beaten in.

The buttermilk & crystalized ginger are mixed in & the batter is done.

A small cookie scoop was used to dole out uniform portions. I need some more practice doing this as I had trouble getting even sided portions and getting the dough out of the scoop.

This is only the second time I've used my new lights to cook by and the new cabinets which give me a nice large work surface. The white square is a piece of Corian which protects the marble counter top if I need to pull out the AR when it is hot.

The first two pans of cookies are on the Egg at 375 dome temp. This was the temp called for if using the oven.

About 16 minutes later & the first round of cookies are done. The tops are just barely set and the bottoms are close to burned.

You can see the issues with the overcooked bottoms. Additionally you can see I had an issue with uneven cooking. Since the was my first time using the AR for baking, I did not rotate the trays 180 degrees midway through. Fortunately with the strong flavors of the gingerbread cookies I could not taste the burnt bottoms.

The filling used: Confectioners sugar, softened butter, softened cream cheese & vanilla extract.

The finished whoopee pies had great flavor & as I mentioned the strong flavors masked the well done bottoms. The consistency of the cookies was spot on so I know I didn't cook the cookies too long. Something about my setup is causing the bottoms to cook too fast.

Any ideas for how to improve on these results would be appreciated. I want to make these for Christmas, but I would like them without the well done bottoms.

Jim

Brisket_Fanatic

Were both trays burning or only the bottom tray? Best guess is your getting to much heat off the stone so you may need to bake 1 pan at a time or somehow get a water tray on the bottom to separate the heat a little better. Either way I would eat them for sure as they look great.

jtippers

I agree with BF... You mentioned in your post that you didn't rotate the racks. I would try that next time.

Austin Egghead

When I bake pies on the egg I use the Woo and put the round stone in bottom of woo one pie at felt level and one on the swing grate, even then I still have to rotate the pies up down and 180 turn to keep crust from over cooking.  

On the next batch try rotating tray up down and 180.  

caliking

would it make any difference to put some kind of heat shield in place?

E.g.:

Empty tray with an air gap on the stone 

Extra parchment under the cookies 

Wire rack in the pans then parchement, then cookies 

Foil under the bottom tray to reflect heat back to the stone? 

I'm not much of a baker so just throwing some ideas out. Rotating up/down/180 sounds like the easiest thing to do first.

jfm0830

Thanks for the replies and suggestions.

I may have misspoken. I changed the levels of the trays midway through, but I did not turn them 180° when I interchanged their positions. All of the bottoms were at least slightly overdone, with some of them being more than slightly.

It seemed like the front, particularly the front of the lower tray, was getting more heat than the back. This is the opposite of what I would've expected. When I use the platesetter it seems like there's a hot spot in the back of the Egg not in the front. I don't know for sure if both trays were burning, because by changing levels midway through to try and assure even cooking I managed to burn the bottoms of both trays.

As for a separation between the stone and the tray: I thought I had it with the stone being on level 3 and the tray being on level 4.5 -a separation of an inch and a half.

I know I could just do one tray at a time on the platesetter legs down, with some copper shims under my sheet pan. But the goal here was to try and do more than one tray at a time so I would not have to be out there all afternoon doing 6 trays. This is why I was trying out the Adjustable Rig for this.

Oh and no worries: all whoopie pies will be consumed regardless of their bottom condition. As I mentioned the strong gingerbread flavor masked any "extra color" that the bottoms had.

Jim

Austin Egghead

Jim, you might try a silpat mat or try the baking sheets that have a air layer I think T-Fal and WearEver makes them.  

I go with a silpat mat because they have many practical uses in the kitchen.

SkinnyV

Great looking treat, as always.

cajunrph

No advice, but that makes me want to go find some sweets as I watch da Bears smoke the Cowboys on MNF. Those look good. 

cajunrph

No advice, but that makes me want to go find some sweets as I watch da Bears smoke the Cowboys on MNF. Those look good. 

jfm0830

Austin Egghead said:

Jim, you might try a silpat mat or try the baking sheets that have a air layer I think T-Fal and WearEver makes them.  

I go with a silpat mat because they have many practical uses in the kitchen.

Thanks for looking and thanks for the additional comments. I was wondering: I have wire mesh cooling racks that fit inside one of those one quarter sheet pans. What about using one of those and putting the parchment paper on top of that? Would that do what you're trying to accomplish here? TX

Austin Egghead

jfm0830 said:

Austin Egghead said:

Jim, you might try a silpat mat or try the baking sheets that have a air layer I think T-Fal and WearEver makes them.  

I go with a silpat mat because they have many practical uses in the kitchen.

Thanks for looking and thanks for the additional comments. I was wondering: I have wire mesh cooling racks that fit inside one of those one quarter sheet pans. What about using one of those and putting the parchment paper on top of that? Would that do what you're trying to accomplish here? TX

That should work. You are just trying to get an air layer between the pan and the dough. In fact, I do just that when I bake pies at Eggfest.