Baking with convection yields a rounded, taller cookie with a crisp exterior. Even heat created by the air circulating in convection yields the irresistible combination of crunchy and gooey – and some say it’s the secret to the perfect cookie. But, if you prefer a softer, chewy cookie, use Bake mode without convection.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (300 degrees F convection.) Line baking sheets with parchment paper and place equal two 2 1/2-tablespoon portions on the baking sheets 3 inches apart. Use either a cookie scoop or cut the frozen dough into rounds.
Oven Temperature
Generally, cookies are baked in a moderate oven — 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) — for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie. For chewy cookies, allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 3 to 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
The simple answer, yes, you can bake a cake in a convection oven. But it is far trickier than baking in a conventional oven. This is mostly because cake batters are light, and the circulation of hot air can flatten air bubbles and create a short, flat, and dense result.
Rest the Dough A secret baker’s trick is to rest your cookie dough in the fridge. You can rest it for at least an hour, which will evaporate some of the water and increase the sugar content, helping to keep your cookies chewy. The longer you allow your dough to rest in the fridge, the chewier your cookies will be.
What is the difference between baking and convection baking?
A regular bake setting is fairly straightforward. The heated air inside the oven surrounds the food and cooks it from the outside, in. By contrast, a convection bake vs regular bake setting uses a fan at the rear of the oven to circulate the heated air inside. It also utilizes an exhaust system to help expel moisture.
Sugar Satisfaction
And when it comes to making the perfect Sugar Cookie, bakers actually prefer convection ovens for that lightly crisp on the outside, soft and moist on the inside effect that turns a simple Sugar Cookie into a gourmet delight!
What should I use my convection oven for?
When to use convection. Convection cooking is ideal for foods that do better in a dry climate and where you want to encourage browning and crisping. So roasting meats, potatoes and vegetables are all ideal, and it’s great for reheating things like fried chicken or baking pizza.
What can you bake in a convection oven?
The answer is simple: You can cook just about anything in a convection oven, and while learning to use one certainly isn’t a big deal, the results you get—evenly cooked cookies, crisp pastry, and juicy, well-browned meats (including that Thanksgiving turkey)—are.
Lining a baking sheet when making cookies: Not only will the parchment help cookies bake more evenly, the non-stick quality also helps prevent them from cracking or breaking when lifting them off the sheet. Decorating home-baked goods: Parchment paper makes the perfect wrapper for baked goods.
Is convection or conventional oven better?
Energy efficiency: Food cooked in a convection oven will cook about twenty-five percent faster than when you cook it in a conventional oven, thanks to the constant hot airflow. A traditional oven also takes longer to preheat.
Do you have to preheat a convection oven?
Yes, all convection ovens need to be preheated. In some modes, more than one element is used during preheat, which can cause the food to burn. The oven will indicate when it has finished a preheat cycle. You should always start with a hot oven or a hot pan.
Basically, cookies made with butter spread more and are flatter and crisper if baked long enough. However, they are more flavorful than cookies made with shortening. Cookies made with shortening bake up taller and are more tender, but aren’t as flavorful.
Sugars, like fats liquefy in the oven. White sugar will make your cookies crispier while brown sugar contains more moisture and will result in a softer and more chewy cookie. Most chocolate chip cookie recipes call for both sugars.
The most common cause is using a different flour than usual, such as cake flour, and measuring flour with too heavy a hand. Using larger eggs than called for can make cookies cakey, as will the addition of milk or more milk or other liquids than specified.
When should you not use convection oven?
Don’t use convection for cooking cakes, quick breads, custards, or soufflés.
Should I use convection for cupcakes?
Bake. Convection bake (lower fan speed, so you don’t end up blowing cookies across the pan, or putting tilted “hats” on your cupcakes)
Can you use convection oven to bake brownies?
Baking brownies in a convection oven is very similar to baking brownies in a standard oven. Heat the brownies to 300 degrees instead of 325 because the convection process is more energy efficient than the standard method.
As a general rule of thumb, you should refrigerate cookie dough for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. More than that and you won’t see a noticeable difference in the final product, says Haught Brown.
“When your dough is refrigerated, the butter hardens. So when you bake them, they spread less and hold their shape better,” adds Epperson. “Which means a better likelihood of a soft, chewy cookie in the center.” So chilling the dough before baking means fluffier cookies with better consistency.
Cookies prepared with lots of eggs have a greater tendency to stick. Try using no-stick cooking spray or parchment paper. The amount of fat in the cookie dough affects how easily the baked cookies can be removed from the sheet. Follow recipe directions, and lightly spray cookie sheets with no-stick cooking spray.
Can you bake muffins in a convection oven?
It’s better to use the oven without the convection option on when baking quick breads, wet muffin batters, cakes, cupcakes, sandwich breads, and sweet yeast baking. “The convection fan has a tendency to dry the tops of some things,” says Reid.
So one way to get the best of both: Use half butter and half shortening. By the way “butter” here is butter. Real butter, not margarine. And “shortening” here is Crisco baking sticks.
When baking with oil instead of butter in your recipes, keep in mind that some cookies just won’t work as they’re supposed to without a solid fat. Try replacing just half the butter with oil, which still cuts your saturated fats but retains much of the cookies’ original texture.
Brown sugar, meanwhile, is dense and compacts easily, creating fewer air pockets during creaming—that means that there’s less opportunity to entrap gas, creating cookies that rise less and spread more. With less moisture escaping via steam, they also stay moist and chewy.
Dark Brown Sugar: Light brown sugar and dark brown sugar are interchangeable in most recipes. Though either works in this chocolate chip cookie recipe, I love using dark brown sugar for extra flavor because it holds a little more molasses.
The role of vanilla in sweet baked goods is like the role of salt on the savory side: it enhances all the other flavors in the recipe. Without it, cookies and cakes tend to taste flat and bland. Forget to add the vanilla once, and you’ll probably never do it again!
They go from soft to hard because they start to dry out, and it begins as soon as you pull them from the oven. (Yikes.) Whatever moisture is left in the cookies is always in a state of evaporation. At the same time, the sugars and starches are solidifying.
Most cookies have top crusts that remain relatively soft and flexible as the cookies set during baking. However, if the top surface dries out before the cookie is finished spreading and rising, it hardens, cracks, and pulls apart, producing an attractive crinkly, cracked exterior.
Yolks, where all of the fat is in an egg, increase richness, tenderness and flavor. Therefore, if you put an extra egg, you will get a chewier cookie. I do it all the time. If you put less, you will get a more crumbly cookie.
Using lower-moisture sugar (granulated) and fat (vegetable shortening), plus a longer, slower bake than normal, produces light, crunchy cookies. That said, using a combination of butter and vegetable shortening (as in the original recipe), or even using all butter, will make an acceptably crunchy chocolate chip cookie.
Should I use convection bake for biscuits?
In American baked goods, convection should never be used unless a recipe specifically calls for it. In a home oven, the hot, dry air accelerates crust formation in cakes, cookies, and biscuits which is generally counterproductive to desired rise.
What type of oven do professional bakers use?
Convection ovens are one of the most common pieces of commercial bakery equipment. They do a great job of quickly and evenly baking a variety of products, from bread loaves to cookies to cakes, pies, and brownies. Their use of internal fans to circulate the air creates even browning and repeatable results.
Is it better to bake cupcakes in convection or regular oven?
Depending on what you are cooking, both ovens can be beneficial, but for baking, it is convection that comes out the winner. Because convection ovens circulate heat, they work best for baking because they envelop the entire surface of the cookies or cake.
Is it best to bake cakes in fan or conventional oven?
When using ovens with both fan-forced and conventional settings, it is best to use conventional when you are baking long and slow (like for cakes) and fan-forced for fast cooking at high temperatures.
How do you adjust baking time for a convection oven?
There are two simple ways to adapt any recipe written for a regular oven to work for a convection oven: either reduce the temperature by about 25 degrees, or cut the cooking time by 25 percent, says our assistant food editor Riley Wofford.
How long should I bake a cake in a convection oven?
The temperature for baking a cheese cake in convection oven is very important. If the recipe calls for 350 degrees Fahrenheit for baking your cheesecake, then you should take it down to 225 degrees Fahrenheit. Instead of an hour in cook time, just cook for 30-40 minutes.
Do you bake brownies on the top or bottom rack?
The middle rack of the oven is the perfect place where air circulates, heat sources are evenly distributed, and tops and bottoms won’t burn or brown too quickly. It’s the perfect place for cakes, cookies and brownies to stay and bake.
Water vapor escaping from the dough in combination with the carbon dioxide released by our baking soda is ultimately what makes our cookies light and airy.
Popping your dough in the fridge allows the fats to cool. As a result, the cookies will expand more slowly, holding onto their texture. If you skip the chilling step, you’re more likely to wind up with flat, sad disks instead of lovely, chewy cookies.
Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in the cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread. In addition, the sugar in the dough gradually absorbs liquid.
Let it sit for long enough—the famous Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookie, published in the New York Times, mandates a rest of at least 24 hours and up to 72—and the starches and proteins in the flour begin to break down, leading to more browning and caramelization.
Most of the time, cookies need to cool for around five to ten minutes before they can be moved and consumed. But it’s not as much of a cut and dry answer as you may think.
Place one baking sheet at a time onto center rack of preheated 350 degree F oven. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, still have pale tops, and are soft in the center, about 8 to 10 minutes. (Do not overbake! They will firm up more during cooling.)
What side of parchment paper goes up?
There is no right or wrong side to parchment paper, so either side can be used. For the best baking results, use a fresh sheet of parchment paper for each pan of cookies.
As a general rule, you can bake cookies without a cookie sheet by using any tray, dish, or bakeware that could be used in the oven. You can use a regular cake pan, glass pan, pizza tray, or disposable aluminum foil tray.
Yes, you can use parchment paper instead of shortening when baking cookies. Simply tear off a piece of parchment paper to fit on the baking surface of the baking sheet. Place cookies on the parchment paper and bake as directed.