Dacor Range Cooking manual Baking Tips

Baking Tips

1.In all ovens, oven rack positions count up from the bottom, rack 1 is the bottom; rack 5 is the top. Adjust rack positions before you preheat the oven.

2.Oven temperatures range from 100˚- 555˚, and can be set at 5-degree increments.

3.Always allow the oven to preheat fully before adding food. For delicate baked items or multiple rack-baked items, it is best to allow for a longer preheat to help stabilize the oven temperatures.

4.Read through your recipe carefully and have your ingredients and equipment ready to go before you start.

5.Set oven to preheat while you are preparing the food. Some baked items that are high in butter, such as cookies, need to be refrigerated instead of room temperature for best results.

6.Keep in mind that the baking charts suggest the best cook time per food, but the time should be adjusted according to your personal tastes.

7.If using a recipe that requires a “cold oven start,” use the Delay Timed Feature. Using the Delay Timed feature will bypass using multiple elements for preheat. For further instructions, see Delay Timed information in the Use and Care Manual.

8.When converting original single- rack recipes to convection recipes, always reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees. Keep in mind that hot air is circulating around the food in addition to its normal radiant heat. Foods will brown a lot faster than in conventional ovens, therefore the temperature would need to be reduced.

9.In most cases, your time will also decrease when using convection in single rack baking. The larger and denser a food is, the more time savings you will see.

10.When baking more than one rack of food at a time, however, there is more cold mass going into the oven at once. Since the oven will take longer to recover temperature, there will be an increase in baking times for multiple rack cooking.

11.The rack positions, temperatures and times in the baking, roasting and broiling charts are recommended. Each recipe has many variables involved from ingredients to technique and the actual times and temperatures may vary because of this.

12.If using Dacor cookie sheets, it is recommended that they be used with the oven racks. Extra racks can be purchased through your dealer.

13.Develop a habit of looking through the oven door window instead of opening the door to check food. This will prevent heat from escaping. In more delicate foods or in multiracked food cooking, this could make a huge difference in the evenness of the baked goods. When the oven is completely full and every rack position is used, it has more mass. When heat is lost by opening the door, the element will come on to compensate for the loss. It will then take longer for the temperature to come back up to continue cooking the food.

14.Be familiar with your oven timers. These will help you keep an eye on your foods.

15.For best results, measure ingredients carefully and follow tested recipes. This is especially important in baked goods, which can be more temperamental than other foods.

16.When creaming butter and sugar, the butter needs to start at room temperature and should be creamy, not liquid or hard. Proper creaming will yield the best results for cookies and cakes. A proper creaming will be pale in color and appear light and fluffy.

17.Bakeware should not touch the side walls of the ovens or should not come in contact with each other. This will result in hot spots on the food.

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