Bottoms burning with my RV oven
I've been having a hard time getting my breads to come out right in my small RV oven. I've added a large (the entire bottom) 2" thick foot stone made of brick. I raised the rack to the next level so that it's as close to the top as I can get.
This oven is a little odd. It has one burner which is placed at nearly the midpoint of the oven with a thin piece of metal covering it. So, my rack is fairly close to the flame no matter what I do. There is no way to put anything under the flame, must cook above it.
I've pretty much given up on steaming (flame seems to go out when misting and no place to put a pan for steam) but I need to at least get this thing to cook more evenly. Unless I put the burner on really low, like 325, the bottom of my breads cook too fast.
This is happening both with breads baked on a cookie sheet and in a loaf pan. I've given up on a pizza stone, that made it even worse. Maybe just move outside to the gas grill?
Any ideas? Should I get a different type of pan until I can one day move back into my house? This is incedibly frustrating and effecting my efforts to progess in baking skills.
Maybe a sheet or two of aluminum foil would help too.
I think both ideas have merit and I'd try the both. Seems to me you need insulation to minimize the conduction so another thing to try would be using a metal wire open weave trivet on the back of a cookie sheet to raise the bread pan (I'd go the Pyrex route) above the high heat conduction layers. You might also want to try a moderately high heat at the start, then reduce the heat to something lower than you might use in a standard size oven (perhaps 375F) to finish the loaf. Even if it takes a bit longer to finish baking, as long as it doesn't burn you're ahead of the game.
Another thing to try would be to use several thicknesses of aluminum foil on the rack, between your inverted cookie sheet and the bread pan, to reduce the amount of direct heat the pan experiences from the oddly situated flame source.
Come to think of it, for a time I had foil on the rack for baking cookies because I didn't have a small enough pan. I think my burning problems may have coincided with removing the foil and I never put 2 and 2 together! Thanks for the ideas. Will make a cinnamon raisin bread tonight and see what happens.
Im also going to try some different pans per Mini's sggestions.
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They sell a donut shaped wok here and it reflects the gas underneath the pan through the middle and back onto the food with the use of a special lid. Among other food stuffs, they advertise using a ring of dough, covered, browning both bottom and on top from the reflected heat. Too expensive for only temporary. The idea would be to use a big bunt pan or metal jello mold with a large hole in the middle... if you get my drift.
I have a shiny spring form pan with a big hole that would work. Another idea would be to use a cheapie pie pan or fold aluminum foil around a shelf right where the heat attacts to deflect it more around the object in the middle. How about a shiny pan for the loaf? Dark pans absorb heat and make the problem worse. Try using reflective ones.
Mini