Ovens.. Bah!
So today I ran a little basic bread course for some chaps at the church my wife goes to - all went well as usual, but being somewhat out of my own kitchen had to rely on the ovens in the church... Now, I've cooked there before and used the ovens, but I hadn't quite appreciated just what these ovens were...
So most 'fan' ovens I've used in the UK have the fan at the back with a circular element round the fan. A lot also have an element at the top for grilling (US: broiling).
These ovens have a covered element on the bottom and an exposed element on the top. No element round the fan - so it's a fan assist oven.
Guess who didn't quite realise this and put some loaves on the top rack which then rose into the element.
I can see why people might want to use a DO in these type of ovens to act as a blast shield!
The bread was actually fine - this was a bog-standard 63% yeasted bread with white bread flour. Just a little closer to toasthood than might be expected. Ah well! Lesson learned and the next time I run a course there I'll know better.
At least the other breads & hot X buns came out just fine!
-Gordon
i have a fan (convection) oven with a covered element on the bottom, a circular element around the fan at the back and the broil element on the top. My oven had been acting very erratically for months in spite of a few service calls. It would not maintain the heat in bake but it would get up to temperature when pre-heating. So I was doing the shutting off the oven and turning it back on to keep it up the heat. I forgot though that the broil element comes on during pre-heat and when I took off the lid to the Dutch ovens, I totally burned the top of my loaves. I ended up cooking a lot of loaves on convection since that did work to maintain the temperature. It was by fluke that I discovered that the bottom or bake element didn't work and once hubby replaced it, the oven is working fine again. The bottom element was completely burned through in one spot but we couldn't see it as it was under the floor of the oven. You are lucky you were able to rescue your loaves, mine ended up the garbage.
...you can sell them at a premium. :)
Hi everyone, first post here!
I'm pulling my hair out over the oven situation! My breadmaker on 'French' programme does me proud with my ingredients so I know everything is ok on that front but when I put my loaves in my oven all goes to hell! I tried a friend's oven - bog-standard cheap oven and the loaf was fine but with all the options on my blessed oven i'm fed up. It is a UK Neff model - all whizz bang (expensive!) etc... I phoned Neff and she asked me why I hadn't bought their 'bread' oven! Erm.... that's hardly a solution. Anyway, the oven was here when I moved in and I'm not replacing it. She suggested the bottom element with fan option programme with temperature that goes up to 270 degrees. The temperature shows it has reached this heat but the loaf spreads and doesn't get the spring. They are still edible with nice crumb distribution etc... but just disappointed. Anyone know how I can tell if there is something wrong with the oven?
thank you. :)