Get to Know Your Home Oven for Better Baking Results

Getting to know and understand your oven is really important if you want the absolute best baking results. In todays post we’re going to look at ovens through the lens of home bakers. People who love baking cakes and desserts. I want to share a kind of mini crash course on ovens. Their settings, when to use them, how to make sure your oven temp is accurate and all the ways you can make sure your oven is doing the best thing it can do for your bake so you can get incredible results!

Hey team, Nick here! I recently bought a new oven. Exciting, I know. They don’t come cheap so I did a bunch of research before I made the purchase to make sure what I got was exactly right for me. I came from having a 90cm oven which after 4 years of using just stopped working. I had an oven repair person come out and check it, the parts aren’t made anymore. Perfect excuse to get a new oven.

I’m not about bells and whistles. I needed five things ticked off. Simplicity, practically, quality, performance and reliability. I went into the store 3 dozen times with all my trays and agonized before I chose the oven I liked.

Today’s post isn’t about my new oven. It’s going to be about all the new things I learned about ovens. The way ovens work and the mini crash course I gave myself on getting the best out of a home oven. This post will be for everyone. No matter which brand you have.

Crash Course: Getting To Know Your Oven

I’m going to go more in depth on these 5 things in this post, but here’s 5 things you need to know to understand your oven better.

1. Figure out what type of oven you have – It’s going to help you determine how you might need to adjust baking times, rack placement inside your oven or even baking times.
2. Figure out what temperature your oven is – do this using an external oven thermometer. I go more into this in the next section!
3. Use the right rack position – Believe it or not, not everything should be baked in the middle rack of your oven. For example, things that need a gentle heat are better off being baked on the lowest rack of your oven.
4. Preheat your oven properly – Some ovens preheat quickly; some need 30 minutes to preheat. An oven thermometer will tell you when it’s properly preheated. Some ovens will beep when they’re done preheating.
5. Pay attention to how your oven bakes – Some ovens have heat spots and will brown things on one side. So turn your bakes around to brown evenly.

Does it matter which brand oven you have?

It kind of does, but also not really. I’m not about to list my favorite brands or tell you to run out and buy a new one. Up until recently, I didn’t even have a choice. I baked with whatever oven I had, and most of them weren’t great. But I still made it work.

What matters more is that you get to know the oven you’ve got. Every oven has its flaws. Once you figure out what those are, you can work around them. Which brings me to the very first thing you need to check.

The most important thing to ask your oven

Do you run hot or cold? Seriously though, if you turn the dial and your oven goes higher in temperature than what you set it at or lower, you’re in trouble. Too low and your cakes won’t be fluffy, macarons can burn on too high a temp, and the center of your desserts can stay raw. Every oven is different, so it’s worth checking where yours sits.

The simple fix is an oven thermometer! I use an oven thermometer to figure it out. Just set your oven to 100C / 210F, place the thermometer on the middle rack, and preheat for 20 to 30 minutes. If it reads higher or lower than what you set, you’ll know how much to adjust the temperature going forward.

How to fix oven hot spots

Some ovens just bake unevenly. You’ll notice one side of your tray browns faster than the other. I tested mine by sprinkling panko breadcrumbs on a tray and baking them until golden. The darker patches showed me exactly where the hot spots were. Once you know where yours are, you can just rotate your trays to help everything bake more evenly.

Where you should place your oven rack

Most of the time, I bake on the middle rack because it gives the most even heat. If you go too high, your cake might rise too quickly, dome in the center, or even hit the top of your oven. Good recipes will tell you exactly where to place the rack, but if they don’t, middle is usually your safest bet.

Different oven types and how to use them

The two main ovens out there are gas and electric, although electric is much more common because it’s easier and more reliable to bake with. Especially desserts.

Electric Ovens.

An electric oven has two main heat settings.

• Conventional uses top and bottom elements to create a static, gentle heat. It’s ideal for bakes that need a stable environment like cakes, custards or macarons. Just keep an eye out for uneven browning and rotate if needed.
• Convection uses a fan to circulate hot air, which speeds up baking and gives a more even color. It’s great for things like muffins or bread, but can dry out cakes or make them rise unevenly if your oven runs too strong.

Tip: Fan-forced ovens run hotter. If a recipe doesn’t list both temps, just reduce the fan setting by 20C / 68F. I always include both in my recipes to make it easier.

Gas and Steam

Then there’s gas ovens and steam ovens. I haven’t used either, but in my research I discovered this!

• Gas ovens heat from the bottom, which can cause the base of your bakes to brown too much. They often have uneven heat, so rotating your trays helps. I recommend baking slightly above the middle rack and working quickly when you open the door because gas ovens lose heat fast.
• Steam ovens have their place. They’re good for steaming and for some bread recipes that need moisture to form a golden crust. But I wouldn’t go out of my way to get one. Most are small inside and you can get the same effect by placing a tray of water in your oven.

4 Oven settings home bakers need to know about

Most ovens have about 5 settings, some have way more. Here’s the ones a home baker needs to know about. Check your maula if you have one to see which icons are for the settings you need to use!

• Bake (conventional) – Use the top and bottom elements for gently, even heat. Great for layer cakes, custards like my Fresh lemon Tart or my French Macarons.
• Fan bake (convection)- A fan circulates hot air around the oven for a more even heat. Great for my Banana chocolate chip muffins, chocolate chip overload cookies and my Slow Roasted Greek Lamb!
• Grill (broil) – Typically used for toasting things. Melting cheese or browning things. I don’t use this setting very often for desserts.
• Bottom heat only – Great for browning the bottom of a pie. Just be careful with this setting because it can burn things real quick.

When to preheat your oven

It depends on your oven, what you’re baking, and the temperature you’re aiming for. Higher temps need at least 30 minutes, sometimes up to an hour. Fan settings heat up faster than conventional ones. To stay on the safe side, give your oven 30 minutes to preheat before baking. And to make things easier, use an oven thermometer so you know exactly when it’s ready.

Tip: My last tip is to make sure you maintain your oven. Make sure you clean it, keep an eye on any quirks that may be suddenly happening. It’ll ensure you get the best out of your bakes! That’s what it’s all about!

My tips for buying a new oven

I had a wish list

• Basic oven – I’m sick of manufacturers packing appliances with stupid gimmicks that get in the way of usability. What ever happened to just making something that’s practical and turns on quickly. I’m not talking about heating up quickly but I saw an $11,000 oven that had a touch screen you could only see if you bent down and even then you had to press it multiple times for it to register. I don’t want my oven to have preset recipes. I just want to be able to set it quickly, turn on and perform well. Also, as someone who uses their oven a lot, I don’t want to get annoyed every time I have to turn it on. Don’t go for what looks flashy, often times its not easy to use.
• Quality build – European built ovens are known for being good quality. That’s what I wanted to spend my money on.
• Good heat distribution – Super important! I wanted something with even heat distribution. Again, go for what’s good quality, don’t get features you’ll likely never use. An oven just needs to be a couple things, not everything at once. You don’t need a steam oven, it’s easy to steam on the stove or create steam in the oven using a tray filled with water.
• Size – I was told multiple times that the best ovens were the 60cm ones. They are large enough to do most things in but small enough to preheat quickly and also reheat quickly when the oven door is opened. I went into my store multiple times with my half sheet baking trays and none of them would fit in the 60cm ones. I took a risk on the 76cm one and it paid off. My trays fit and it has 6 levels. The oven I had before was 90cm and those ovens work ok but because the door is so large and the cavity is so big, the heat isn’t great in them.
• I wanted to reach high temperatures – my 90cm oven only went up to 250 (in theory). If it got hotter than 200C it would just switch off. That’s because it wasn’t a good oven. The new oven needed to go above 250 and stay there. The new one goes up to 280 and doesn’t turn off.
• Telescopic rails – This was a must have for me but to be honest I don’t use them often. I specifically won’t use them when I’m baking pizza because I have the baking steel on the shelf and I do not want that thing moving around because of how heavy it is. I’m scared it’ll fall and break the glass on the door. Also, because we built new cabinetry so the oven could be at eye level, I can easily see what’s going on in the oven and I don’t need the shelves to slide out.
• Digital thermometer – I don’t know why this isn’t in more ovens and only in newer ovens. The technology has been around for so long. Dials with numbers are fine, but I was sick of guessing which temperature I was setting my dial on and if it was actually correct (hence the oven thermometer inside the oven). A digital dial that I can set on the display means I know that’s what I’ve asked my oven to set the temperature at.

That was my wish list. Amazingly, one oven had all of them.

The story of my new oven

I’ve never owned a new oven before. Well, I have. The oven in out home was installed by the builder who cut corners any way he could. It lasted 4 years. I called the oven repair man and he told me the part needed to repair it was going to be hard to get because it wasn’t a brand name oven. I was getting super funky results from it the months leading to it conking it so I was started to mentally rev myself up for a pretty big purchase.

Frankly, I was excited for it. I am very careful with how I spend my money, but I don’t compromise on kitchen stuff. I always make sure, within reason, that I buy something that’s built to last.

I actually compiled a list of all the told and equipment I use and love which you can check out. I swear by those products and the post isn’t sponsored. It’s stuff I genuinely like using and like the quality of.

Can I just say, off the bat, in my research for ovens (which led to this post) there are a lot of really bad ovens out there. Theres nothing that annoys me more than appliances packed with gimmicks. I recently bought a larger fridge because we have a toddler who lives on berries. I mean at this point we should open up a farm. It would be cheaper. And the amount of fridges with absolute crap packed into them. What happened to just making a good quality fridge? I ended up buying a fisher and Paykel because it was exactly what I wanted, decent quality (knock on wood) and it had no touch screen or idiotic glass that you knock on for the inside to light up. I’m looking at you Samsung and LG.

Anyway… back to the oven…

I ended up going to out local appliance store where I bought the fridge and I looked at ovens for about 2 months. At some points I was in there multiple times a week. I wanted to make sure my trays fit in there. A 60cm oven was out of the question. And I’d since learned 90cm ovens are so wide they aren’t very good at heat distribution and they lose heat by a lot when you open their large doors.

I was umming and erring about a 76cm oven. The problem was I’d heard the best oven size was a 60cm oven. They’re super accurate with heat distribution and they heat up quickly when you open and close the door. But a 60cm oven wasn’t an option for me. Everyone single one I put my half sheet baking trays into was too small.

I ended up taking a huge risk for the 76cm but I’m glad I did. I’ve never had an oven that gives me results as good as this oven. It’s really easy to use. It has physical buttons, not stupid touch screens.

I saw an $11,000 oven by the same brand that had a touch screen that you could only use if you bent down and even then you had to touch the damn thing a million times for it to register. 11,000!!!! Jesus.

I don’t like fancy features. I just wanted something that was super accurate, had a didigtal temperature dial (I’m sick of turning a dial with number markers and having to guess if I set it right) and I wanted to bascialy elelminate my oven as being the cause of a recipe not working in my recipe testing.

BINGO!

I’m glad to say I got it. We decided to build new cabinetry for it. Shoutout to James from Noarc. I wanted it to be at eye height. I use my oven a lot so I didn’t want to keep bending over all day to use it.

I walk past that oven every single day with gratitude. I’ve never walked past it or looked at it and taken it for granted. I consider myself very lucky that I get to have a job that allows me to follow my passion and to be able to have an oven like this one.

I literally just stand in front of it some days, turn the light on the inside and stare at it. Nothing to bake. I just never get sick of looking at it.

Which oven did I buy?

I’m not going to mention the brand because frankly, their marketing team are not good people. Plus, I don’t do sponsored blog posts! You’ll be able to tell from the size of the oven and the photos which one it is.

Found this deep dive helpful? Let me know!

If you learned something new about your oven or picked up a few tips, drop a comment below. It helps others find the post and keeps the baking community growing. And if you’re putting these tips to use, tag me on Instagram so I can see what you’re baking.