Before my trip to the Bosch showroom in Scottsdale, AZ last week (trip paid for by Bosch Appliances, but all thoughts are my own), I had no idea what convection ovens were or really what they did. I’ve always been a bit of a lame-o in the kitchen (She-who-must-call-her-sister-when-Rachael-Ray-says-an-acronym-She’s-never-heard-before-like-EVOO).
Normal ovens have a heating element, right? The broiler would heat from certain burners, while the bake setting would heat differently. The heating element can only really come from one, or maybe even 2 directions. A convection oven has fans that push the heat around the oven for a more even cooking experience. TRUE convection has the heating elements IN the fans so that it is able to heat faster, while still creating even heat throughout the oven. The Bosch convection ovens have some great technology and features built into them as well.
Fast Preheat will reduce the preheating time of an oven to about 7 minutes. I asked the person demonstrating the ovens why in the world would you NOT use the “fast preheat” button. It’s like I always say when re-formatting a hard drive…”why would I ever NOT click the quick format option?”. She told me that there were certain functions of the oven where you would not want to use the fast preheat setting. I’m just going to have to believe her on that. What is also great about the even-ness of convection cooking is that you can have 3 trays of food in the oven and all of them will cook evenly. We put in a salmon fillet, asparagus and chocolate chip cookies. All cooked perfectly, evenly and at the same time. The cookies didn’t even have the slightest fishy smell or taste!
Speed Convection almost made me fall to the ground and kiss the oven. As a super busy Mom, those German Engineers REALLY knew what they were doing when they created this nice little feature. We started out with a cold oven. They took a tray of frozen chicken nuggets (my children’s personal favorites would be the Dinosaur chicken nuggets, but these were just the regular kind). They set the Speed Convection to the time listed on the chicken nugget box (and temperature), and away it went. 15 minutes later we were enjoying cooked chicken nuggets! I know that when it’s getting close to lunch time, and I have forgotten to preheat the oven about 20 minutes prior, lunch isn’t going to be ready for a while, and I’ve got some cranky hungry kids on my hands. Bosch For The Win on that… seriously.
There is a meat probe, and some custom cooking options (like Pizza, Pie, Warm, etc) to take the guess work out of cooking, which is definitely helpful for someone like me. I couldn’t guess at cooking if my life depended on it. If there isn’t an exact recipe for me to follow, I’m toast, or burnt toast as the case may be.
Knowing all that I know about Bosch Appliances, of course there are going to be some “Green” features. The oven the EcoClean 2 hour self-clean cycle to make sure your oven is always looking it’s best. It is also, of course, EnergyStar rated.
Excuse me while I go try to bust our oven so my husband will approve the purchase of a new Bosch one…
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