USING THE FAN OVEN
The Fan Oven
The air inside the oven is heated by the element around the fan situated behind the back panel. The fan draws air from the oven, the element heats the air which is circulated into the oven via the top, base and sides of the back panel. The advantages of cooking with this function are: Faster Preheating Because 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 charts or remember to reduce temperatures by about 2025°C for your own recipes which use conventional cooking. Even Heating for Baking The fan oven has uniform heating on all runner 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 that the lower one. This is quite usual. There is no mixing of flavours between dishes (see Fig. 7). The oven is supplied with two anti-tip shelves. IMPORTANT: The anti-tip oven shelves must be positoned as shown in Fig. 6.
HINTS AND TIPS
Runner positions are not critical, but make sure the shelves are evenly spread. 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. A shelf may be placed on the floor of the oven. Place dishes on a shelf in this position rather than on the oven base, to allow air circulation around the food. 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 by 10°C if necessary. Remember to reduce temperatures by about 20-25°C for your own conventional recipes.
