Okay - so I've been making cakes in my "small" 22" wallmount oven for about 6 years now! I finally broke down last week after saving my "cake profits" for the past few months and bought a new oven/stove that has a convection fan in it. Says it cooks 30% faster. Any hints or experience from anyone on this? Do the cakes come out just as good tasting and moist? I asked the salesman, but you know he only wanted to sell me the oven - so now I'm asking the experts!!!
All my ovens have a 'convection' or regular 'bake'. For my cakes I still use the regular bake. Convection is mostly when I'm doing meats, etc. Yes, convection is great, but just like everything, for a certain purpose. I used to do cookies with it, but went back to regular. My microwave oven has a convection and in that I make cookies. Try what works best for you.
Personally for baking I prefer the old fashioned conventional oven. Convections if not used properly tend to dry things out. They definitely cook things faster and, as we are all led to believe, they do not cook everything evenly. I have used numerous different commercial convections and have yet to find 1 I would be happy to do all my baking in.
As far as 30% faster goes don't take it to heart. When I do have to bake cakes at work I set the temp to 300 and turn the fan on the lowest setting (we can't shut them right off) and they turn out ok but I do have to rotate the pans (hotel pans) (mind you I have 8 pans in the oven)to have them brown evenly as almost every oven I have ever used has hotter parts than other parts. It's all trial and error but they can be your friend especially if you have a new 1
They do work good for most meats but watch what temp you use. Marinated chicken for example(teriyaki or sweet and spicey Thai etc) ones which contain sugar tend to brown really fast before being cooked. Learning the dif temp settings for different products is the key. Avg 30-50 degrees lower than a recipe states. Sometimes I even go lower depending what it is I am cooking
Thanks, Cheftaz - I have a new countertop oven with convection and I've been trying to learn how to adjust baking times and temps also. Last night I baked a pan of crtewcent rolls in it, kept the temp at 375, buty they were done in 8 minutes, not 15 minutes. I liked that. Appreciate your advice - haven't tried a cake in there yet. PAT
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