Why you NEED a Thermopen as a Baker

Using a thermopen is key to getting the perfect bake everytime!

Saturday morning at The Flour Barn Bakery is full of sweet smells and some fast-paced baking. Wanting everything to be fresh for our customers, we bake almost everything that morning before 8 am. That means we are baking around 400 rolls, 80 croissants, 200 danish and more for that morning’s crowd. That leaves very little time to be wasted in the morning. On top of the pressure of getting everything done in time, there is the larger pressure of making sure everything is baked to perfection. The Thermapen has been crucial in allowing us to know each treat is baked to its optimal internal temperature in an instant.

More than Intuition

After we opened the Flour Barn Bakery, we quickly realized that baking for others was very different than baking for yourself. With the pressure of true feedback and exposure to the community, we had a lot of pressure on our shoulders to make every product perfect. One of our biggest fears revolved around the doneness of our bakes. If they were underdone, it would be a doughy disaster; but if they were overdone, the products would be dry. This caused us to spend countless hours peering into the oven and relying on intuition to know when our baked goods were done perfectly.

To clarify, baker intuition does exist. Ellen always knew how to perfectly bake her cakes, my dad was getting very good at knowing the doneness of a roll just by the outside coloring. But this was not the most efficient or effective way. It took more time, energy and contemplation to rely on intuition bake after bake.

Then we discovered something that changed baking as we knew it…forever.

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The Miracle that is Internal Temperature

When you are cooking different meats, many of them include a safe internal temperature that you must reach to feel safe eating that particular kind. What many don’t know is that baked goods also have an optimal internal temperature.

You can use all the best ingredients, mix your ingredients just enough and follow the instructions to a tee. But if you overbake or underbake your treat, it will not be the best.

Your Guide to Internal Temperature

Below is a guide to the most common bakes and their internal temperatures. Some have ranges; the lower number will result in a moister bake and the higher will result in a more done bake. Pin it, share it and don’t forget it!

How to Use the Thermopen

One thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want to frequently open your oven when baking. This can drop the temperature of the oven and affect your bake. This is especially important when baking pastry.

When you think that your bake may be done, just open the oven and stick the probe into the center of your treat. Check the thickest part of your bake because that is the section that will take the longest to bake all the way through. Make sure that you don’t stick the probe to close to the pan, because it can give you an inaccurate read.

Remember that when testing breads with fillings that you are temp checking the bread section. The filling will be a different temperature and your temperature will be inaccurate.

How the Thermopen will Change your Baking

One issue I constantly ran into when home baking was over baking to make sure that I had no raw dough.

Before I worked at the Flour Barn full time, I actually sold bread to my neighbors at my apartment complex. I did this to make some extra money and to get more baking experience while in nursing school. This was the first time I had the stress of making sure the bread was perfect for others. The Thermapen was a crucial tool in knowing that each bake I was selling was not raw in the middle or too crispy.

My Sales Pitch for Thermopen

We have always used the Thermapen in the bakery. I have used other thermometers and I truly believe Thermopen is superior. Here are some of my favorite features.

• Easy to read: The Thermapen has a backlight that makes it easier to read. This may seem trivial but when you are in a hot oven, and sometimes there is steam or smoke, that backlight makes it so much simpler to read. It also has large print, so Kim doesn’t even need her reading glasses:)
• Reliable: I have trust in my Thermapen. I have used thermometers before that would give me one temperature in one area and then a dramatically different temp one cm over. At that point I would just remove the thermometer and rely on intuition. With the Thermapen I have never been let down. I trust it as much as any of my coworkers, maybe more.
• Waterproof!: This is specific to the Thermapen ONE. This comes in handy when you toss the pen into the sink to be washed forgetting that it is an electronic device. But maybe that is just a “me” problem.
• Last a long time: The battery life is insane. We have bought batteries one time at the bakery and we have been using two Thermapens for three years.

This is a Big Deal

I still cannot get over the power of internal temperature. Not only is it sad when your bread dough is raw inside or your brownies are goopy instead of gooey; it is also expensive to put the ingredients and time into a project and it not turn out in the final moments.

Imagine if they had this on The Great British Baking Show! No more raw pastry or over cooked “sponges”. I can just hear Paul coldly saying “that’s raw”. If you don’t know what I am taking about, then you need to watch The Great British Baking Show.

Have you ever baked using internal thermometers? Will you now? Make sure to hang onto our handy sheet with all our go-to baking temps! Click here to check out the amazing tool that is the Thermapen.