Baking for Dummies #3: The Oven

 The Oven

Hello everyone, and welcome to the third post of Baking for Dummies! So far, we have gone over some basic information such as how to measure ingredients and how to simply read a recipe. In baking, the last piece of vital information to have before you get started is how to use your kitchen appliances. To explain these, I will be splitting them into separate blog posts so you can refer back to the specific ones you need without having to scroll through one long post (you’re welcome). Without further ado, lets dive into what I believe is the most important appliance – your oven!

 

In the baking world, the oven is the most used appliance, with almost every recipe using the oven to cook something. More common recipes such as cookies, cakes, cupcakes, brownies, etc all use an oven in order to fully cook the baked item so it is safe to eat. In other words, it is essential for a baker to know how to properly use an oven. There are a variety of oven designs these days, so your home oven may look extremely different than an oven in a bakery, or even look different to the oven your neighbor has. Nevertheless, each oven, no matter the design, works the same and has the same basic controls.

 

Basic controls on every oven includes: 

• A screen that tells the time of day (and will show a timer when you set one)
• A knob or button that you can choose what the oven to do (bake, broil, etc)
• A knob or button to determine temperature (usually 150-500)
• Other knobs or buttons that control the burners on top of the oven (aka the stove) 
• We will go over the stove, how to use it, and what it is used for in a separate post

In most cases, you will only use the oven around 250-400 degree range (it is rare to go above or below that), and the baking option on the knob/button is what is majorly used when using the oven. Hopefully this is obvious, but when you use the oven, use mitts! The oven can get hot very quickly, so when you are putting or taking out baked items, use mitts to safely remove your baked good. In addition, the trays in ovens are moveable, so depending on how many you have it is usually smart to move them based on what you are baking. For example, cakes need more room than cookies, so try to move the racks to where the cake has more room away from the top.

We will continue to cover baking appliances in the next few blog posts, so hang in there! Happy baking everyone!