Convection baking can result in brown or crispy dishes, which can be ideal for certain meats and pastries. It can also help evenly bake multiple dishes at once or layered pasta dishes. Conventional baking, on the other hand, is a slower process best used for unsolidified foods, like batter or dough.
Most recipes for cakes, cookies and other desserts are best made without the convection mode. The convection fan is too drying for these delicate baked goods.
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.
For making pizza, convection mode is generally the better choice. Here's why: Convection mode uses a fan to circulate hot air around the pizza, ensuring even cooking. It helps achieve a crisp crust and evenly melted cheese, especially if you're using a stone or steel to bake the pizza.
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.
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!
Turkey cooked in a convection oven should be roasted at 325°F. If using a dark roasting pan or oven-roasting bag, reduce the heat to 300°F. The following general roasting times and temperatures are suggested for various-sized stuffed and unstuffed whole turkeys, breasts, and dark meat.
As you are rolling out and topping your first pizza, switch your oven to broil. Right before you launch, swtich your oven back to bake or convection bake 500F. The idea is to get your Steel even hotter than 500 F for this thin crust bake. It really helps crisp up that bottom.
When you use convection settings, there are a few things to keep in mind. Because convection is more efficient at cooking food, it's usually recommended to reduce the oven temperature by 25°F when you use the convection setting.
But convection ovens do a great job with bread– the bread browns easier and rises higher when the convection fan is blowing.
I prefer to cook this lasagna on convection bake since it is prepared in a very tall pan. It cooks more evenly.
If you are looking for a foolproof method for roasting chicken breasts, look no further; convection is the key to juicy, flavorful meat.
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.
COOKIES AND BROWNIES
Convection baking can help produce a more even bake on cookies across multiple racks and can allow you to bake two sheets at once. If you opt for a conventional oven, it's recommended to only bake one sheet at a time for the best results.
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.
Baking brownies in a convection oven is very similar to baking brownies in a standard oven. There are a couple of major differences, however. Heat the brownies to 300 degrees instead of 325 since the convection process is more energy efficient than the standard method.
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.
The Convection Bake setting will have a lower fan speed, which is good for longer, drier recipes, whereas the Convection Roast setting has a higher fan speed, and is perfect for crisping the outsides of meat or vegetables.
To bake multiple racks of pizza, Convection Mode would provide the best results. For a single pizza: Use Bake Mode for standard pizza. For crisper bottom on a single pizza, use Convection Bake Mode.
The convection setting also works best if you use low-sided pans or rimless baking sheets, especially when baking cookies or roasting vegetables. This allows for better air circulation around the food and helps crispy foods become even crisper.
A baking stone, or pizza stone, is a large piece of thick, ceramic tile that sits on the rack of your oven. By preheating the stone along with the oven to a high temperature—think in the 450°F to 500°F range—it picks up and retains a ton of heat that provides exceptional browning for your bottom crust.
Convection Bake or Convection Roast Mode
For best results, pizza is best baked on the lowest oven rack closest to the bottom heating element so before heating the oven arrange the oven racks and place a baking stone or baking steel on the rack.
Adjust Recipes for Convection Cooking or Baking
For example, if your recipe instructs you to bake at 350°F for 60 minutes, you'll convert this to 325°F and begin checking at 45 minutes.
Oven-Roasted Turkey
We recommend starting the turkey in a 425 degree oven for 30-45 minutes before tenting the pan with foil and lowering the temperature to 350 degrees until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees when inserted into the thickest part of the bird.
If a special sauce or marinade is used, baste the turkey during the last hour of cooking. There is also no need to cover the turkey with foil because you want the turkey to sear and reach a golden brown color.