- Joined
- May 21, 2019
- Messages
- 248
- Reaction score
- 125
Greetings, fellow bakers,
I just started reading “Bakewise” by Shirley Corriher, and in her introduction she discusses ovens and baking. She says something very interesting: in the old days you could put dough or batter into a cold oven and turn it on and get a good rise—in fact, a really good rise. This because when making cakes and breads, it’s best to heat from the bottom, so that bread or cake rises before the heat on top is hot enough to create a crust and stop that rise. In old ovens, the heat came from the bottom only, and so this was possible. In modern ovens, however, heating comes from many directions, and so this can’t be done—turn on a modern oven and top, bottom and sides all heat to the desired temperature, not the bottom first and then, gradually, the top. Which is why she recommends using a baking stone in such ovens.
With me so far?
Here’s the thing...I own a refurbished old oven. One of those on legs put out from around 1910-1920. Yeah. It’s sweet. And yes, the heat in the oven comes from gas flames along the bottom. I haven’t tried it....but now I’m wondering what would happen if I put in, say, a pan of cold cake batter and turned on the oven to the required temperature. I imagine it would take longer to bake, but would the results be better? Before I waste a batch of cake batter...has anyone had experience baking this way? Putting in batter or dough into a cold oven rather than a preheated oven? I’m almost afraid to the baking gods will smite me if I try it, so ingrained in me is the rule to “preheat” the oven.
I just started reading “Bakewise” by Shirley Corriher, and in her introduction she discusses ovens and baking. She says something very interesting: in the old days you could put dough or batter into a cold oven and turn it on and get a good rise—in fact, a really good rise. This because when making cakes and breads, it’s best to heat from the bottom, so that bread or cake rises before the heat on top is hot enough to create a crust and stop that rise. In old ovens, the heat came from the bottom only, and so this was possible. In modern ovens, however, heating comes from many directions, and so this can’t be done—turn on a modern oven and top, bottom and sides all heat to the desired temperature, not the bottom first and then, gradually, the top. Which is why she recommends using a baking stone in such ovens.
With me so far?
Here’s the thing...I own a refurbished old oven. One of those on legs put out from around 1910-1920. Yeah. It’s sweet. And yes, the heat in the oven comes from gas flames along the bottom. I haven’t tried it....but now I’m wondering what would happen if I put in, say, a pan of cold cake batter and turned on the oven to the required temperature. I imagine it would take longer to bake, but would the results be better? Before I waste a batch of cake batter...has anyone had experience baking this way? Putting in batter or dough into a cold oven rather than a preheated oven? I’m almost afraid to the baking gods will smite me if I try it, so ingrained in me is the rule to “preheat” the oven.