Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Per Jenny :
Be more adventurous regarding cookies--you are totally right; Harold hated store bought; Allie sucks junk down like a crackhead.

Nancy,
It do get hot. One day,decent lashes; next day, stubs. Keeps em guessing, lol. I forgot, burnt rings on neck--hoop earrings!

I have been baking with a convection oven since back in the 70's, when they first became available for home use, and, while I love them for yeast breads, as well as crispy cookies and many pastries, I have found that cakes, and also quick breads, do not bake as well in them. And the original booklet that came with the old oven suggested reducing the heat for yeast breads 50º, but it does not really recommend using it for cakes, and if you decide to, to reduce the heat even further, and I think I have figured out why.

It seems to me that when I would bake a quick bread (basically the same as a cake), the center would always puff up, and the sides would be very shallow, almost to the point of not rising at all, in a shallow pan bread such as corn bread. It seems that the crust would form so quickly at those higher temps. that it would not rise up evenly - the sides would just stay where they were, and the center would rise. Reducing the temp. down to as low as 275º would produce better quickbreads, with a more even rise - only a slight hump in the middle - but why bother? The non-convection oven still baked them better, so I just stopped trying them in the convection oven.

Another odd recipe that did not do as well in the convection for me was a bar cookie I have been making forever, and has a confectioners sugar/water glaze over it when taken from the oven. When baked in the convection oven, the glaze was absorbed into the surface of the sheet, rather than forming the glaze. Seems that the surface of the batter developed pores, due to the quicker baking, instead of sealing up, as it normally does.

Dave

Hi,

I am about to receive a gift of a counter top convection oven that has been recommended by Cook's Illustrated. I am anxious to see if it includes any advertising for Cook's Country, ATK or CI. What do you think?

Tim

Manna.

I think that CI's implied lack of commercial ties is suspect in quite a few ways. I try not to be too cynical, but, it is hard to not see those CI inserts as influence. Of course, I don't know the deal, but the lack of transparency on increases the appearance of bias.