The Fan Oven
The air inside the oven is heated by the element around the fan situated behind the back panel. The fan circulates hot air to maintain an even temperature inside the oven. The advantage of cooking with this function is energy saving through: Faster Preheating As the fan oven quickly reaches temperature, it is not usually necessary to preheat the oven although you may find that you need to allow an extra 5-7 minutes on cooking times. For recipes which require higher temperatures, best results are achieved if the oven is preheated first, e.g. bread, pastries, scones, souffles, etc. Lower Temperatures Fan oven cooking generally requires lower temperatures than conventional cooking. Follow the temperatures recommended in the cooking chart. Remember to reduce temperatures by about 20-25°C for your own recipes which use conventional cooking. Even Heating for Baking The fan oven has uniform heating on all shelf positions. This means that batches of the same food can be cooked in the oven at the same time. However, the top shelf may brown slightly quicker than the lower one. This is quite usual. There is no mixing of flavours between dishes. -
Hints and Tips
Shelf positions are not critical, but make sure the shelves are evenly spaced. When cooking more than one dish in the fan oven, place dishes centrally on the shelves rather than several dishes on one shelf. When the oven is full, you may need to allow slightly longer cooking time. When the oven is full of the same food, e.g. equal trays of small cakes or equal size victoria sandwich cakes, then they will be cooked in the same time and removed from the oven together. When different sizes of trays or types of food, e.g. biscuits and cakes are cooked, they will not necessarily be ready together. The fan oven can be used to heat foods through without thawing first, e.g. fruit tarts, mince pies, sausage rolls, and other small pastry items. Use a temperature of 190-200°C and allow 20-40 minutes (depending on the quantity of food in the oven). The use of too high temperatures can cause uneven browning. Check with the recommendations for oven temperatures given in the cooking charts, but be prepared to adjust the temperature, if necessary. Remember to reduce temperatures by about 20-25°C for your own conventional recipes. When roasting do use the trivet in the meat tin. Fat and meat juices will drain into the meat tin below and can be used to make gravy. The trivet also prevents splashes of fat from soiling the oven interior. The meat tin should not be placed on a heated hotplate as this may cause the enamel to crack.
How to use the Fan Oven
1. Turn the oven function control knob to . 2. Turn the thermostat control to the required temperature. -
Things to note
� � � The oven light will come on when the oven function control knob is set. The oven fan will operate continually during cooking. The thermostat control light will remain on until the correct temperature is reached. It will then cycle on and off to show the temperature is being maintained.
The cooling fan
During cooking the cooling fan will operate continually. It may run on after the oven is switched off to keep the controls cool. This is quite normal. NOTE The action of the cooling fan will depend on how long the oven has been used and at what temperature. It may not switch in at all at lower temperature settings nor run on where the oven has only been used for a short time.
