7 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Convection Oven

Baking breads, cookies, and other sweets in convection ovens is quite a bit different than using your conventional oven.  If you’re using a convection oven for the first time or you need a little refresher, here are some tips for using your commercial convection oven for baked goods.

• If you’ve got a tiny convection oven, you’re going to have a slightly faster cook time than the larger ones.  Don’t be shy about checking on your items a little before they’re supposed to be done to see if it jumped the gun.
• Remember that your convection oven cooks differently than a standard radiant-heat oven.  With the internal fans, the temperature is even throughout the oven so you can lower the temperature on printed recipes by at least 25 degrees.
• If you’re still experiencing overbrowning because of a dark pan, or you’re using glass dishes, it’s safe to lower that temperature by a further five or more degrees to even the color.
• Make sure that your pans are clean and the same in order to get the same type of cook on all of your racks.  There is a dramatic difference between a metal pan and a glass casserole dish.
• Don’t overstuff the oven with items.  The oven that you’re using moves heat around by using fans.  If the hot air isn’t able to get to a certain area, that area doesn’t cook as well.
• Before you start using your convection oven, make sure that the interior is entirely preheated.  What this does is stabilize the cooking temperature and make sure that you get an even cook all around.
• When you’re using a convection oven, the rack level you use is much more important. Read the user manual to find out the proper positioning or consult with another chef.

Your commercial convection oven can do some amazing things if you allow it to.  While it fails on places that you need an uneven cook (if you need, say, a really crispy crust for example) it excels everywhere else.

Thanks go out to James on Flickr for the Creative Commons use of the picture.