A convection oven is an appliance that you can use in both industrial and home kitchens. It uses fans for replacing cold air with hot air and hence does cooking.
Due to the technology these appliances have, they are often costly than conventional ovens, though prices might vary.
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Are you shopping for an oven that will allow you to have the golden and crispy food in less time?
Then the convection oven is the best option. Not all food items go well with this kind of cooking.
Because of this, here is what a convection oven is good for:
Roast
Preparing a roast of any kind of meat or veggies in this oven leads to a juicy dish.
Additionally, hot air will cause the food’s skin to brown and get crispy and appealing.
You will get these results more even and fast.
Stews
For any food items that require a simmer, it is best to go for choice for a convection oven.
This oven transfers a homogeneous kind of heat, which helps make cooking even and fast.
Dehydration
This oven operates very similar or better than a dehydrator.
Since its convection cycle and fan speed up any food’s process of dehydration, the best result is got if it gets tested using fresh nuts, veggies, or fruits.
Can I Bake In A Convection Oven?
No matter if you are a newbie or professional baker; you most likely have questions about baking in a convection oven, especially when it comes to baking cakes.
A convection oven cooks differently from convectional types.
This makes them perfect for cooking specific food items over others.
For this reason, most people question whether one can use convection models for baking a cake.
Convection is an ideal cooking method you can use to cook foods like pizza, chicken, fruits or vegetables, and bread.
But while it is not a perfect appliance to bake a cake, it will make the best biscuits, cookies, or scones.
But remember the fan that is installed in the oven’s back area should be turned off if you are cooking thin bread dough, wet butter, quick bread, or layers.
Additionally, food items baked in this oven sometimes retain lots of moisture so that it may alter the preferred consistency of the crumb.
Using A Convection Oven To Make Cakes
These ovens are not all bad. If you are using this oven for traditional baking, you will get benefits like:
- Uniformly cooked products
- Flakier, crispier crusts
- Adequate space for several cakes
If you want to try baking with convection, there are some easy steps to follow:
- Before removing the cake, ensure to look at it ten minutes before the original recipe’s end time. The reason being, convection types cook quickly than standard ovens.
- For the best circulation of heat between two or more trays/pans, you should leave a space of two inches between and do not use aluminum foil to cover the pans.
- Preheat the appliance and minimize the temperatures by 25 degrees. For huge cakes, minimize it by 5 degrees or 10 degrees.
How To Keep From Overcooking Your Cakes
A convection oven’s temperature often runs hotter than a conventional one, so it is good to adjust the oven’s temperature accordingly.
The best thing is to lower the temperature to about 25 degrees than what the actual recipe requires.
You should check your cakes ten minutes before the actual timer goes off. This way, you will have an idea of where it is at in the process.
Never check on it regularly as opening the door of the oven every time will spoil even the prefect of cakes.
Baking Dessert Recipes, Pastries And Dough Using A Convection Oven
You most likely become annoyed when your recipes are a disaster, so there are some things you might do to stop this from occurring:
- It would be best if you used aluminum foil if the dough/cake still burns the top layer.
- If you want even dough, you should lower the temperature. You will get a good brownness level while still getting a center that is perfectly cooked.
- It would help if you used the same bakeware when you are baking with all racks. You will be able to get a more doneness level by baking with the same size and material.
- You can prevent doughs or cakes from burning on top by lowering the heat and checking ten minutes before your recipe should be done.
- Never use containers intended for a microwave as they can burn with convection heat.
When using a convection oven to bake, select between many kinds of bakeware, which include glass; you do not require special cookware.
Consider using glass, aluminum, or non-stick dishes, the same way you can with a standard oven.
When using a convection oven for baking, the temperature is one of the essential things you should monitor.
While this might look like an easy task, you will also have to adjust the temperature based on your food’s consistency.
You should bake cookies and bread dough at 180 to 220 degrees Celsius while you should bake cake batters, cupcakes, or brownies at 140 to 160 degrees Celsius.
If you want to bake a cake, the best you can try in this type of ovens are chocolate chip cake, rocky road cake, sponge cake, coconut cake, and chocolate fudge cake.
Modes Of Convection Ovens
The ovens usually feature convection and convection bake modes.
The convection mode will produce heat from the back and circulate heat using a specialized fan. This is perfect for batters and doughs like puff pastries, cookies, scones.
The bake mode is ideal for denser doughs like cakes, heavy batter (banana bread), bread, and pies.
When you are baking dough in this appliance, specific dough products can cook better than others.
Is the dough fluffy or dense? Is it flat? The denser it is, the better it can prepare food items of a convection model.
With as convection, it is easy to know if the dough will cook properly by looking for air bubbles. Since there is even heat circulation, it tends to flatten out any air bubbles.
For this reason, you should stick with doughs do not have much air in them.