Sunday, January 11, 2015

Working out the kinks

Here's what my bread looked like just five minutes after I put it in the oven:

Granted, it's my fault for not waiting until the oven was preheated.  Because apparently my new, wonderful, amazing double oven has heating elements on both the top and bottom...on both ovens.

I'm assuming that during the pre-heating period, both the top and bottom elements are used in order to get the oven up to temperature more quickly.  So I guess that from now on I'll have to actually wait to put stuff in there until after the pre-heating period.  Which is going to be tough as I'm not exactly the most patient person in the world.

So I waited for the pre-heating cycle to finish then popped the breads back in with a tinfoil cover over them.  I wasn't going to let a little charred bread discourage me from having this for breakfast:
Don't kid yourself, that wasn't the only piece I had.
I've also noticed that my cookies, quiche and bread sticks are cooking faster.  I put an oven thermometer in there to see if the temps jived, but it was actually showing almost ten degrees cooler than what the oven digital display said.  Maybe it has something to do with the size of the oven cavity?  The older stove's single-oven cavity was larger so I'm wondering if the new smaller size is causing the heating differences.  I'm not yet sure if there's some way to adjust this, or if I just have to remember to keep things 10 degrees cooler when I cook / bake things.

So I'm still working out the kinks, but I'm still pretty darned pleased with my new oven.

Now if we could just get the counter tops and back splash finished.........

9 comments:

  1. Your owners manual will tell you how to adjust the heat settings. I always use a thermometer in my ovens because what it says it is is not what it actually is. Also when the beep goes off to indicate that it is preheated,......it lies. Only my top oven has top and bottom heating elements that come on during preheat. Bottom oven only the bottom element preheats. Top is just broiler. I preheat oven at least 30 min before putting bread in to bake and check my thermometer. This is only critical with bread....anything else doesn't matter, except maybe for cake and cookies.

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  2. Although I've never had anything but a gas stove, I always operate with an oven thermometer in the (my one and only -- I'm so behind the times!) oven. I wonder if your new ovens will automatically adjust themselves once the heating elements get used to being . . . heated? (Or is that silly?)

    What's with the one small pat of butter on your bread? Don't you know our bodies neeeed natural fats? (Spoken by a person who has been accused of having a little bread with her butter.)

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  3. Tewshooz, I'm horrid with the pre-heat. Even with breads, I usually just toss 'em in as it's preheating...well, that's what I USED to do with the old oven, guess not so much anymore.

    MamaPea, that pat of butter is about an inch thick.

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  4. Carolyn,

    We have an oven from the 60's and we depend solely on an oven thermometer we place inside the oven.

    It will take sometime to get used to your new oven. In the end, you'll be very happy with this entire stove/oven. Congratulations again!

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  5. When we started using our new oven, we too had burned items. It was actually cooking a bit hotter, but much faster than then very old oven too. I still have to can some jelly to try that process out too. I haven't canned anything since I got it.

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  6. I have no doubt that you will soon get the hang of your new oven. I like a little char on my bread actually.

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  7. Makes me glad SM fixed my old, cheap-ass stove. I don't use a thermometer in the oven but I've got my times down pretty good over the years.

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  8. Holey Moley! What fuels those ovens - lava?? There's always a learning curve when breaking in new appliances (or visa versa, as the case may be). Crust is over-rated anyway - the soft, chewy insides are what I miss. Along with the giant wads of butter.

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  9. Next time call me for breakfast!! lol. I don't care about a little bit of burnt bread. hehehe

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