Oh pshaw, on Fri 13 Oct 2006 11:12:06p, Bob (this one) meant to say...

> Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>> Oh pshaw, on Fri 13 Oct 2006 02:25:20p, Frank103 meant to say...
>>
>>> Can a convection oven bake cakes, breads, cookies etc. as well as a
>>> regular oven? I've tried baking a few things in a toaster oven and was
>>> pleased with the results other than being limited in size. I was
>>> wondering about convection ovens and if someone can recommend a brand.
>>> Thanks in advance. Frank
>>
>> Personally, I found convection cooking more useful for roasting meats.
>> Cakes and pies were guenerally underdooked on the inside by the time
>> the exterior was brown. Cookies, OTOH, were superior in a convection
>> oven.
>>
>> Best choice? A convection oven in which the feature can be turned off.
>
> My experience differs. I reduce temperatures in my
> convection oven 50 degrees from what recipes call for. I
> bake all sorts of things in mine, including roasts, pies,
> cakes, breads, cookies, potatoes, casseroles, etc...
>
> But not souffles. Even the little vibration from a
> convection oven keeps them from rising like a conventional
> oven permits.
>
> Pastorio
>

Then perhaps I'm doing something wrong. I've had a countertop Farberware
convection oven, a GE range with convection oven, and an Amana range with
convection oven. In the latter two, the convection function could be
turned off. Each had a somewhat different configuration, but all had
dedicated concealed heating elements for the convection fans. The
Farberware's fan was located in the top of the oven, the GE and Amana both
had fans in the rear oven wall. In all cases, when using convection, pie
crusts overbrowned or burned before the filling was done and the tops of
cakes (tradtional butter layer cakes) were very overbrowned before the cake
had sufficiently baked inside. I tried different rack levels and
temperature reduction by both 25 and 50 degrees. Not sure what else I
could have done.

Having said that, the convection mode made absolutely the best roasted
meats and perfectly baked multiple sheets of cookies. Yeast breads were of
moderate success.

--
Wayne Boatwright
__________________________________________________

This is precisely the sort of thing that people
who like this sort of thing will like.