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Anyone Aganist Baking In Convection Oven?

post #1 of 8
4/29/07 at 4:47pm
Thread Starter 
Does it take away from taste and texture?
Is it a No No?!
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post #2 of 8
4/29/07 at 7:40pm
I have a double wall oven. The top one you can click to convection or regular. On this one, I very rarely choose the regular setting I always go for the convect.. My bottom oven is just a regular type oven..

When I need lots of cake and use both ovens at once, any cake that has been baked in the top oven on convect will turn out darker than the cake that has baked in the regular oven.. But.. the cake also bakes up much nicer in the convection oven..

The cake color really doesn't make that much difference to me ( I just fix it with a bit of simple syrup anyway) and I honestly don't think I'd ever go back to just a regular type oven now.. Everything is just too quick and easy with convection...
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post #3 of 8
4/29/07 at 8:20pm
It really all depends on what I am baking. I use the convec. for quick breads, cakes, roasting meats, cookies, and other baking that does not stay in the oven for a long time. I find that it cooks very well, though I do need to rotate it because as the batter peaks the fan will push it to one side and there will be little "noses". Also temperatures need to be set about 10-25 degrees lower and cooking times are shortned.

The things I do not use convec for are slow baking cakes and breads like pound cake in loaf pans, coffee cakes.

I also do not use convec when baking custards, or pies, or other delicate items.
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post #4 of 8
5/16/07 at 12:10pm
pies do so much better in convection ovens though..anything with a pastry crust gets nicely done in convection ovens.

I just won't do any of my cheesecakes in them, but I have a convection oven that can also be used for making breads if I ever find the attachment..it has some type of hose for steaming..lol

But, I love my convection oven..even like doing my cookies in them!
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post #5 of 8
5/29/07 at 3:34pm
I have a microwave which is also a grill and convection oven. So since i now make that no knead bread all the time, and had also to make someone's birthday cake and both were ready at the same time, i tried to do the bread in the microwave set to convection oven.
BLA!
It was horrible
It never made sense to me to cook with hot air. I don;t like hot air house heaters, radiators give better heat, and i definitely don;t like hot air cooking. It didn;t heat the cast iron casserole well enough, and it didn;t cook the bread well at all, it came out pale and rubbery, no crust.

I usually do most of my roasting on the floor of the oven to take advantage of the direct heat from below, for instance to roast potatoes, which become nice and browned and crispy. A convection oven only dries them up, but doesn't get them nearly as crispy.
I vote thumbs down.
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post #6 of 8
5/30/07 at 6:25am
I've been cooking with a convection oven for 23+ years. My first experience was with a Caloric oven (which had the option to cook in a regular oven, convection and microwave). Yes, you could use the microwave in combination with both the regular oven feature and the convection feature.

My current oven is a GE and also has the option to cook with either the regular or convection options.

I used convection for most of my baked goods and I do rotate the items about half the way thru but find the texture, color and cooking time ehnanced by convection. Generally use standard oven feature for roasting although have used convection roast feature to "speed along" the Thanksgiving turkey.

(Both the Caloric and GE were natural (not bottled) gas.)
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post #7 of 8
5/30/07 at 10:17am
Siduri, did you adjust the time and temps on your convection oven?
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post #8 of 8
5/30/07 at 10:35pm
The problem always mentioned is that you need lower temp and less time. The problem with the bread was that the temp was obviously not hot enough. But bread doesn;t cook well in warm air, it cooks better with a hot brick oven, therefore radiant heat source, not warm air. I think also it wasn;t able to heat the pot well enough. Maybe i just don;t have the experience with it, but i see no reason to try. I'll stick to it for simple things like cooking some casserole dish that doesn';t require the browning you can get from direct heat, and stick to my gas oven to cook with.
I guess one of the reasons i can;t get used to these ovens is that most of my dishes (roasts, etc) are cooked on the actual floor of the oven. I like teh heat to get directly onto the pan, so the bottom crusts. I use very high heat. I get really good results that way, nicely browned roasts and potatoes, for example, and cooking with hot air seems just one step beyond boiling. bla.
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