5 ways you’re going wrong with your oven
When you watch Heel Holland Bakt, it all looks so easy. Those bakers pull one masterpiece after another out of their little ovens – occasionally with a baking disaster, but that’s exactly what makes the show so much fun. So why doesn’t it work as well at home? There’s a good chance it’s your oven, or rather: mistakes you’re making with your oven.
You’d love to bake golden-brown cakes, crisp tray bakes, crunchy cookies and light soufflés. But no matter what you do, everything comes out of your oven just slightly off. Before you put that oven on Marktplaats or take it to the thrift store, read these five tips. Because maybe it’s not your oven, but… you.
Preheat the oven
Many people don’t preheat the oven. While your oven is preheating, your apple pie can heat up too, right? No, that’s not how it works. Simply wait until your oven beeps or flashes to let you know it has reached the right temperature, and only then slide in your cake.
Door open, door closed
The contestants on Heel Holland Bakt hang around the oven door like hawks, taking a quick look each time to see whether their cookies are already brown and baked through. A tip from the pros: don’t do that. Every time you open the door, warm air escapes, lowering the oven temperature. As a result, your baking will probably take longer to finish. Cakes and soufflés can even collapse because of all that oven-door flapping – and is that what you want?
Black in front, raw in back
Does your pie or cake bake unevenly? Is one side burnt while the other isn’t cooked through? Most ovens aren’t equally hot everywhere; certain spots and corners are hotter than others. You’ll notice it immediately when baking a tray bake: which areas brown faster than others? The solution: halfway through baking your quiche (or other bake), rotate it once. If you’re making something like cream puffs or soufflés, you’d better buy a new oven, because those should not be disturbed halfway through baking.
Put everything in the middle
The idea is to bake everything exactly in the middle of the oven. So if you have a tray of cookies, place it on the rack exactly halfway up the oven. If you’re baking a cake, place the rack slightly lower so that the cake tin is once again positioned right in the centre.
Measure, measure, measure
Not every oven is the same, and the temperature shown by the oven controls doesn’t necessarily have to be accurate. You notice this after working with the same oven for a while: the baking time is always a little longer than stated in the recipe, or the colour isn’t quite right. Want to know exactly what you’re dealing with? Buy an oven thermometer. And don’t blindly trust recipes, because those baking times are always an approximation. If the recipe says half an hour in the oven, check the scene of the crime after twenty minutes.
Also read:
- Come into the oven with us: culinary school in seven lessons
- 10 bread terms every home baker should know
- Research proves it: cake therapy reduces stress
