OT convection education

No, Jennifer. Let me enlighten you on that one. Julia Child, my hero, mentioned in one of her books that the 'let rise in a warm, draft-free place' was bunk. It is. As a matter of certain fact, bread that rises slowly instead of that unattainable 80° tastes even better and is fine, fine. I put my bread to rise at maybe 8 a.m. It might be ready to bake at 2 p.m. or 7 p.m. No matter. The quality of the bread will suffer no ill effects. If you're on a schedule, this won't do at all - but if you don't particularly care you can create very grand bread whatever the kitchen temperature or season happens to be. The new oven has 3 racks. Do I dare attempt three cookie sheets at once? Polly

I will second the shout out for convection ovens. We have one on the stove that we installed in our current house. My wife ignored it for years, which you can do by not switching it on, and recently I goaded her to give it a try, as every book on baking seemed to rave about them. Well she is now a convert. Baking is enhanced, or so she seems to think, and as the official Quality Control and Taste supervisor, for all cookies and short-breads, that come out of that sucker, I can attest to it's superior abilities. Cooking times are shortened and control of temperatures are much enhanced. If you don't want to use it, for whatever reason, then you just don't switch it on. Simple enough, and you have it there if you feel the need to avail yourself of it's features. Win-Win.

Baking cookies faster should be great. One of the favorites here calls for twenty minutes of baking time and the recipe makes more than 100. The whole production just seems to go on forever. As to leaving the oven on for more than 12 hours - yes, that sounds dangerous. I've never thought putting food in the oven and setting it to cook hours later was really safe either. The new oven can also dehydrate. What's that good for? Tomatoes, maybe? Polly

"Roberta" I do love my convection oven. Modern ones usually have a choice,

"Polly Esther"> wrote>

I remember seeing your stove in one of your pictures, John, and that sure is a beauty. It's good of you to volunteer for the chore of 'official Quality Control and Taste supervisor'. A dirty job but somebody's got to do it. =) Polly

"John" I will second the shout out for convection ovens. We have one on the stove that we installed in our current house. My wife ignored it for years, which you can do by not switching it on, and recently I goaded her to give it a try, as every book on baking seemed to rave about them. Well she is now a convert. Baking is enhanced, or so she seems to think, and as the official Quality Control and Taste supervisor, for all cookies and short-breads, that come out of that sucker, I can attest to it's superior abilities. Cooking times are shortened and control of temperatures are much enhanced. If you don't want to use it, for whatever reason, then you just don't switch it on. Simple enough, and you have it there if you feel the need to avail yourself of it's features. Win-Win.

I have sacrificed my slim, trim, youthful figure in the official position that I hold. It is a tough job, but I felt it necessary as I don't want any product to go out with a less than a stellar reputation. Just doing my part for the betterment of mankind.

John

Could you dehydrate gator jerky? Good luck with the new machine. I know nothing about convection so hopefully you can share with us after you are an expert. Happy Baking! Taria

Polly Esther wrote:

Taria!!!!! Who would do away with all our bad docs? NO!!!! No gator jerky allowed!!!! Now, bad doc jerky....hmmmm....it's a thought!

DW

Sorry. I'll go have another coffee and think on it some more. LOL Taria

Dreamweaver wrote:

I totally agree with you. A longer slow rise makes the bread (or pizza dough or what have you) taste so much better.

As for the dehydrator....herbs are great to dry. Sometimes what grows in the yard or comes from the grocery is too much to use before spoilage so dry the excess. We also dry tons of fruits - pineapple is a favorite but cherries, apricots and apples get the treatment quite often. My dad loves to make jerky but we mostly love to just eat what he makes :-)

marcella

The kitchen temp has been really too too cold for any kind of baking - pastry making OK - anything else though - nope! I have had more failures this year than ever before - just not up to my standards at all, at all, at all. My Mum used to make a bread bap that was otherwordly - somewhere her notes exist but I haven't found them yet - we still talk about her bread in the family and I would definitely like to recreate it. I have mould allergies and I have to take care of the yeast aroma - otherwise I am in trouble - hence, my tried and true method of breadmaking will have to suffice. It is definitely time that my old recipe for hot cross buns be taken out of mothballs! My oven does have a bread proofing setting that I could use but I do like to watch the action under the lights on top of the stove. For years, I changed the 60watts for 100's in the kitchen exhaust during the winter season just for the heat factor - it is a cold room when the wind direction hits that side of the building - they were perfect for bread rising too.

As for buying yeast these days, there was a choice of three in Walmart yesterday: regular, fast-rise, or bread machine (in jars). I used to just buy a large scoop from one of the bulk shops and keep it until needed - 1tblsp=3D1packet of yeast. It was certainly a lot cheaper to buy the bulk version.

The Sabbath mode cuts out all the bells and chimes automatically for that day of the week. As for dehydrating, I have found that the butter section in the door of my fridge does a fantastic job of drying herbs over a short measure of time. I have a bunch of mint in there now that is ready for crushing into a jar and a rather large bunch of parsley will go in next - no time spent by me with the microwave any more doing the job.

The oven > No, Jennifer. =A0Let me enlighten you on that one. =A0Julia Child, my her= o,

Just when you have time, go play at

and probably some other online baking resources. They just might have some wonderful stuff that would help you - especially in the yeast section. I believe (and the facts won't affect my opinion) that the stuff our Wally sells has been stored for years in a hot train car for months or years. Polly

"jennellh" My Mum used to make a bread bap that was otherwordly - somewhere her notes exist but I haven't found them yet - we still talk about her bread in the family and I would definitely like to recreate it. I have mould allergies and I have to take care of the yeast aroma - otherwise I am in trouble - hence, my tried and true method of breadmaking will have to suffice. It is definitely time that my old recipe for hot cross buns be taken out of mothballs! As for buying yeast these days, there was a choice of three in Walmart yesterday: regular, fast-rise, or bread machine (in jars). I used to just buy a large scoop from one of the bulk shops and keep it until needed - 1tblsp=1packet of yeast. It was certainly a lot cheaper to buy the bulk version. . .

Hush, Taria. Gators are an endangered species. ( but we know who's Endangered). Polly

"Taria" > Could you dehydrate gator jerky?

Howdy!

gator jerky

Baking cookies faster should be great. One of the favorites here calls for

Polly, both convections we've had come with three racks, so you'll save some cookie-baking time there, with 3 sheets at once, instead of two, and no need to shift them around, either.

I have used the lowest heat to dry fruit leathers, candied peel, prune plums, and plum tomatoes.

Lee