ANOTHER cookery disaster

charlies_mum

Well, I thought I would try the banana muffins, put them into the oven and as I have a fan oven, reduced the cooking time down to 20 minutes, and they were still burned

On recipes, it just says reduce the cooking time if using a fan assisted oven, but doesn't say by how much

Does anyone know what I should reduce the time to - I am beginning to feel like Wendy Craig in Butterflies

Uniscots97

Hi, I take it yours is a fan assisted oven? How old is the oven? I've noticed the temperature in my oven is slightly higher than it reads now that its older. Normally for cooking something for 20 minutes in a normal oven I'd only cook it for 17 in a fan assisted oven, and for 40 minutes in a fan oven I'd cook it for 34 minutes. If I'm making something for the first time (and I'm trying to get the right timing) I check things half way through. Only just so I can check their progress and then if I find it need less time in my oven than the recipe suggests, i note it down.


If its cakes you're cooking a large clean sewing needle (darning needle is perfect), push this into centre of your cake and pull it out, if it comes out clean your cake is done and if it comes out with batter on it give the cakes another few minutes.

shell2001

I amended the temperature, drop it down 10 degrees - seems to work for me.

charlies_mum

HI,

Thanks for the help. My oven is about 8 years old and I haven't always had this problem, but never thought it could get hotter with age !

reverie

I think the answer is to just check things, I remember reading somewhere that you don't actually make things sink if you only open the oven briefly, it's the banging the door shut, so just close it gently. Not sure this is true or not, but I don't seem to suffer much sinking in my baking. I mostly forget to time things and just check on them, partly because our oven is ancient and seems to get up to whatever temperature it fancies that day.

PS. I loved that TV programme.

~~H~~_4

charlies_mum wrote: »

Well, I thought I would try the banana muffins, put them into the oven and as I have a fan oven, reduced the cooking time down to 20 minutes, and they were still burned

On recipes, it just says reduce the cooking time if using a fan assisted oven, but doesn't say by how much

Does anyone know what I should reduce the time to - I am beginning to feel like Wendy Craig in Butterflies

Mines a fan assisted oven. I reduce the temperature by 20 degrees when baking cakes, as well as reducing the time.

Fen_2

Have you tried making a tall collar of foil to go around the baking tin, as you would do for a cake ( You will probably need good quality thick foil to make this work around a shallow rectangle, but you can always re-use the foil)? That might help with the scorching. You could also do it around roasting pans etc to give joints of meat a chance to cook before burning.
Or you could try putting things in a bain-marie.

lil_me

It;s the thermostats that can usually play up with age, hence getting hotter, like the others said reducing it a little might help.