Hit me up with your combi-oven bakes!

[Emmie]

Not really a baking disaster as such, more an equipment issue!

I've been really quiet on the forum for some months now and it's all because of my oven. We'd had ongoing issues with the temperature not being quite right, differences between what the oven was saying and what a thermometer was saying. It's under warranty, so we had people out to look at it, they said door might not be closing properly, this dragged on for MONTHS - I mean since this time last year.

Then shortly after my last post on here a few months ago, our oven door literally fell off in my hand when I opened it. Bear in mind it was on at 200C, I have a toddler and my husband wasn't home, plus it was still attached by one hinge so I couldn't even carry it out to the garden. It would have been funny if it wasn't so dangerous! I managed to prop it closed and there it stayed as we went back and forth with the various companies involved in fixing it until last Friday when they came round, told us the hinge had sheared (obviously), took the door off and left.

So I still have no oven (cooking dinners has been...a challenge) but quite frankly I'm fed up of not baking now. I have a little combi-oven that, until recently, I'd only ever used as a microwave. But it can also work as a fan oven and grill. Obviously I'm not going to be attempting puff pastry in the thing but I'd like recommendations for bakes that turn out pretty well in this kind of oven. I'm also due to be making my little girl's birthday cake in 4 weeks' time and it looks like I'm going to have to use that oven too so if anyone has any tips for adapting to a smaller oven, I'd be very grateful. I've missed the baking and there are only so many Welshcakes you can make before you want to pop something in the oven like normal!

 

[PaddyL]

We were without a full size oven for several months and I had to resort to baking in a convection toaster oven, a challenge to put it mildly. I was able to make muffins, six at a time, and cookies, but bread was difficult. It always scorched on the bottom and a few times, it rose too high and hit the upper elements and stuck; getting it out was tricky! But it's not impossible to bake in a small, counter top oven. Give it a whirl. You'll be glad you did. It's odd, but the oven door falling off happened to me too.