Convection ovens cook food faster than conventional ovens. To cook in a convection oven, follow this easy formula: reduce the temperature by 25 degrees or reduce the cooking time by 25%. Some ovens today even offer convection conversion, eliminating any guesswork!
This causes the heat inside the oven to be drier and more evenly distributed, so dishes cooked with convection will cook about 25 percent faster than those on your oven's conventional bake setting. In addition to saving time, this makes convection cooking slightly more energy-efficient.
When using a convection oven instead of a conventional oven, set the temperature 25 degree lower than usual, and reduce the cooking time by 25 percent. Discover the nuances of cooking in a convection oven with help from a professional chef in this free video on cooking techniques.
If you set the oven to convection bake at 350 degrees F it will run at 350. If your recipe calls for 350 degrees F for say, a roast, you'll need to lower the temp to 325 degrees F to compensate for the air racing around in the oven.
When you are using a convection oven, you would need to adjust the recipes. If you don't adjust the recipe correctly, you can end up with burnt or overcooked food. Baked foods such as bread, cookies, and cakes are most susceptible to this.
It's often recommended to use a conventional oven when baking cakes. The blown air of convection ovens may help cause lopsided results in foods like cake, souffles, custards and flans, while conventional ovens are often better at helping baked goods retain the moisture necessary in many recipes.
A convection oven cooks by blowing hot air all around the food with a fan with a vent allowing the air to escape. If the foil blocks or gets too close to the fan or vent, the foil could get so hot that it ends up catching fire.
Because hot air is blowing directly onto food instead of just surrounding it, food cooks about 25% faster in a convection oven.
Dependeing on the recipe and the size pan, baking at 325 can add 10 minutes or even double the baking time.
If you bake two sheets of cookies in a convection oven there is no need to rotate the pans from the top rack to the bottom rack like you would need to do in a conventional oven. However, if you're cooking only one thing, it's still best to have it on the center rack in the middle of the oven.
BUT, because convection ovens are fan assisted, your cakes will bake a lot faster (which has it's own risks), so to prevent cakes from baking too quickly, you want to reduce the baking temperature by about 15-20 degrees C, which is why I recommend using a baking temperature of 160C when using a fan assisted oven.
Absolutely! I do this all the time. The thing to watch out for is that you're going to get quicker browning at a higher temperature.
There are a few possible reasons why an oven isn't distributing heat evenly, including restricted airflow, improper oven calibration, overcrowded racks, a broken heating element, a malfunctioning temperature sensor or simple user error like opening the oven door too often during the baking process.
Some recipes will suggest regular bake or convection, but as a general rule, don't use the convection setting for delicate desserts and pastries such as custards, souffle, chiffon and angel food cakes, to name a few.
The first option is decreasing the time by about 25 percent (multiplying the time in minutes by 0.75) while retaining the temperature set forth by the recipe for a conventional oven. The second option is to reduce the temperature by 25 degrees and abide by the cook time in the recipe for a conventional oven.
Not Ideal for Convection
Delicate bakes like custards, flans, and soufflés may get disrupted by the circulating air. The debate over bread baking in convection ovens is still unresolved. While some advocate for its even browning, others argue it dries out the bread's interior.
Some of Dawn's favorite baking tips:
Bake your cakes at 325° not 350°. This will allow your cake to rise more. Don't grease the sides of your baking pan. Greasing the sides of the pan will not allow your cake to climb the edges of the pan and grow tall.
When roasting meat and poultry, set the oven temperature to 325°F (163°C) or higher. Explore the charts below to learn how to get great results every time you cook.
Roast in a 325° or 350° (depending on size of bird; see below) oven until thermometer registers 160°. If turkey is unstuffed, tip slightly to drain juices from body cavity into pan. Transfer turkey to a platter.
Additionally, convection ovens tend to be more expensive than traditional ovens, which may not be feasible for some budgets. The fan motor may also require more energy, leading to higher electricity bills. The cons of convection cooking may include a learning curve, recipe adjustment, and higher cost.
Quick breads, muffins, and cupcakes: The smaller surfaces of these items can be blown sideways during convection baking, making for uneven tops. A conventional bake setting allows the tops to remain still.
All three types of ovens can be used to roast a delicious, moist turkey as long as the temperature of the turkey is carefully monitored. So, although a convection oven will cook faster, even a bake oven will work if the turkey is cooked to a safe internal temperature of 165 degrees.
'Yes, parchment paper most definitely can burn in the oven and can even catch fire if you are not careful,' warns Kristen Wood, a cookbook author, recipe developer, and creator of MOON and spoon and yum.
The convection can also dry out the inside of these recipes, such as bread, cake, souffl, flan, or other baked goods so you want to steer clear of that setting if you want your final product to be nice and moist.
Aluminum foil can cause scratching of the oven's enamel surfaces, and can also melt when contacting hot surfaces or elements, potentially causing cosmetic or permanent functional damage to elements or surfaces.