Compact (portable) electric oven choice
My kitchen and adjoining room are unventilated and baking in the gas oven makes them miserable in the warmer months, June-September. So I'm looking at compact electric ovens suitable for baking one loaf at a time, something I can move to another room, or even the porch.
The Anova gets a lot of mention on TFL, but is pretty pricey for seasonal use.
This Panasonic model looks intriguing, the HomeChef NUSC180B:
https://shop.panasonic.com/kitchen-and-home/microwaves-and-multi-ovens/multi-ovens/nu-sc180b
https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-HomeChef-Convection-Airfryer-Interior/dp/B09TTXN558
Looks like a versatile baker with steam option, proofer, with interior dims large enough for a standard 5 x 9 loaf pan.
What do you think?
Anyone have experience with this model?
There are several products on the market to keep dough from being pulled up into the KA head. Don't know if this one will work with yours (I don't own a KA) but if not a search will probably find one that does. https://kneadace.com/products/dough-hook-shield
Dave
Using an air fryer instead of an oven to make bread.
If you are interested, here are the links:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/70805/20220704-instant-vortex-air-fryer-burger-buns-and-more
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/70216/20220317-air-fryer-ukrainian-palyanitsa
P.P.S.
Improved bakes
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/72442/20230601-improved-air-fryer-bake
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/72493/20230617-simple-air-fryer-100-wholespelt-bread-clas
Yippee
P.S.
The air fryer can accommodate two 250g pans,👇👇👇 which are equivalent to one 9x4x4 loaf, I believe.
$11.03$6.03new user | 250g/450g/750g/900g/1000g Toast Molds Aluminum Alloy Non-stick Coating Toast Boxes Bread Loaf Pan Cake Mold with Lid Bakewarehttps://a.aliexpress.com/_mrjp5xq
I'll look into that.
Those are very interesting results, Yippee. Perhaps I should put gadget lust aside, look for something more simple/basic, and adapt as needed. We have an excellent "kitchen thrift shop" tied to a non-profit in town, I'll see what they have tomorrow.
Yesterday I went down to our local non-profit kitchen thrift shop and asked if they had any large-ish compact ovens. She took me into the back room and pointed to a large Euro-Pro convection oven on the top shelf.
It has a 1 cu ft chamber. She let me test it with an oven temp gauge. The convection fan is toast (pun intended), sounds like a jet engine when turned on. But the regular bake mode worked fine, held 400ºF with ease, so I got it. I'll experiment with this before leaping into something more expensive.
I am not familiar with that oven, but on many convection ovens, there is a metal shield in front of the fan. If the shield gets pushed back, or a fan blade gets misaligned, the blade will hit the shield when convection is on and make a horrible sound. I have had some success in the past with removing the shield ( with the oven unplugged ) then looking at the rear of the shield and the fan to see if there are any marks from the blade scraping the shield - if so, a little tweaking normally fixes it.
I looked at the fan, see pic. The shield on this one is a screen cover. There are no vents on the oven walls. I'm guessing this thing draws air up into the center and pushes it out over/thru the heater elements (or is it the opposite?). Seems like a weak system (circa 2006).
The noise on this one is the fan motor bearings screaming "oil me, please!" :)
It appears the prior owner mostly used this with the rotisserie. It's quite clean otherwise.
For the record, the oven model is a Euro-Pro JO287 "Jet Convection Oven". No doubt because it sounds like a jet engine in operation! :)
Last night I removed the outer shell to examine the fan. The fan blade is driven by a motor attached to the right side panel via a belt. The fan blade sits in a simple sleeve bearing assembly, so I removed the pully wheels and lubricated the bushing using silicone grease, pushing some of it down into the gap. It is definitely smoother now but still quite noisy. The main problem is the thin, flimsy metal panel it is attached to resonates like crazy. No surprise there. It might help further to dampen that surface but it would have to be with high-temp material, which I have some of. But we'll see if the oven performance warrants it first.
With the shell back on, I ran some quick tests to see how accurate the temperature control is, and how much temp swing there was. I tested at 300, 350, and 400ºF control setting using two oven temp gauges, one is damped i.e. slow-responding, the other quite fast, plus a small black metal angle bracket which I read with an infrared thermometer as a reality check. On average, the center-oven temps are about 25ºF less than temp control setting. Typical swing cycle was, the temps would rise up to or just below the set temp, then fall 45-50º and rise again. So about a + and - 25º swing. From what I've read, this is pretty typical.
And not bad performance, considering that the oven's temperature control is not a thermocouple that senses the oven temps. It's a simple bimetallic strip arrangement attached to the temp control itself. So it is actually monitoring temps in the cavity next to the oven. It also suggests the possibilty to raise the oven temps simply by insulating the panel next to the control cavity.
I'll bake something in it this weekend and see if its worth tweaking.
Maiden voyage of making bread outside of a bread machiine. Yesterday I baked a loaf out on the porch, mixed/kneaded using my just-repaired KitchenAid mixer and baked in the Euro-Pro oven, using an evolving recipe I've made numerous times in my Panasonic bread machines as a great "daily bread". It basically has equal amounts (by volume) of AP flour, WW flour, and wheat bran. 45 minute autolyse for the flours.
I set the oven for normal (not convection) bake mode and 410ºF, which would put average temp in the 365-375 range. Heeding advice I've gleaned from TFL, I spritzed a little water on the top and covered it with an inverted loaf pan for the first 22 minutes, lowered the temp a little, and then removed the lid pan. After 10 minutes it was obvious that, due to the strong upper heater elements, the top crust would burn if left as-is, so I covered it with an aluminum foil tent for the remainder.
Covering it was a good call. Looks great in the pan.
And outside too. After a 47 minute bake, interior temp measured 200.
Compared to the bread machine version, the overall color is a bit darker (a little higher temps plus steel vs. aluminum breadpan?) Crumb and taste is very good on both, with a slight nod to the oven-made version. But I'd be happy with either one.
The main difference is how little manual intervention is required when the bread maker does it. This oven version is obviously entirely manual. For the BM version, except for managing the autolyse and final shaping/pulling the paddle before the last rise, everything is automatic and unattended.
For now, I'm pleased enough with how well this electric oven works that I'll continue working with it. Thanks to Yippee for the nudge.
👍👍👍
Yippee
P.S.
If your oven is large enough to accommodate a Dutch oven, heat the Dutch oven and its lid on the stovetop. Once heated, load the dough into the Dutch oven, and then transfer the Dutch oven, with the lid on, into the preheated oven to bake crusty bread.
That oven only has 5" between the lowest rack position and the upper heating elements. How do you manage that?
I manage.
It would be more helpful if you explained how you do it.
I just cook one thing at a time in it. Since it only comes with one rack, I still get plenty of use from it. Like making not snacks & for baking up to four pieces of chicken legs or breasts. Usually, I can get by baking only one pie, one loaf pan of bread, a small pan of cornbread, a tall square pan of Lasagna or a Shepard's Pie or a small whole chicken. it's only me, so I have no problem doing small things in it. It really serves me well!!!! It also helps in finishing a steak in the oven to get the inside cooked enough where it is still cooked juicy but not overcooked.
Dinner rolls..jpg
Dinner rolls..jpg
While baking, did you have to cover the top with foil or anything?
Just the lasagna & chicken when I don't want it to brown too quickly before it is done on the inside.