Humbled by a Toaster Oven: Read the Instructions

April 29, 2010

quick easy beer breadThe Basic Skills of Cooking: It’s Simple but Follow Directions

Last week I was humbled by a toaster oven!.  I think of myself as a pretty good cook, but every now and then we all need a “comeuppance” as my Grandma would say!

It all started when I needed to show our SRVP’s how versatile Beer Bread really can be.  We just had a meeting where I handed out the “21 Ways to Make Beer Bread” sheet, and now I really wanted to prove that no one should leave a party with just one box.

So I went to the store and bought ingredients to make 5 different varieties –sweet and savory.  I happened to be in the Hampton Inn where they generously let me their convection oven in the kitchen so I could make them all at once.  Well, convection ovens cook differently, of course.  Faster, but not quite so thoroughly, and I was making so many at once……

After rotating them around, I finally got them the crust looking toasty brown, but they still looked a little wobbly and didn’t sound right.  So I figured I bake a fresh one in a small aluminum pan at work the next morning in the toaster oven.  I whipped it up (Yummy with chocolate chips)  and went to do a few things.  I just about burned the building down!.

My bread was in too small a pan, so it rose into the coils and burned! And SMELLLED! And looked AWFUL! Then I went to cut the loaves from the night before – the crust was like leather and the inside was still a little soggy.  So I salvaged what I could and ….

This week I got a new large size toaster/convection oven. I have some new bread samples to try on my desk so I got to work.  I am now on the 5th loaf

  • the first was a small aluminum pan that rose, but looked like pudding in the middle
  • the second was on convection and was almost as burned as the one that rose into the coils (and I accidentally left it on for hours!)
  • the third was a slight dark brown with a crust that tasted like more leather

 

So I bought a real loaf pan….

  • left it on convection, turned down the temperature and it was edible (in fact Chris Johnson, our meeting planner ate almost the whole loaf!)
  • I’m on number 5 now  – and I ‘ll photograph it shortly.

 

The moral of the story:

         1.  Read the instructions – they were actually tested

         2. Use the right equipment – if it says 9×5 metal pan, they mean it

         3.    Never leave your oven untended

         4.    Learn how your own oven works, some tend hot or cold

          5.   Expect Disasters – they are part of cooking and make you better

Success at Least! I mean Last!quick easy toaster oven beer bread

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Filed under: Cooking Tips, Kitchen Tips, Uncategorized

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4 Comments Leave a Comment

  • 1. Humbled by a Toaster Oven&hellip  |  April 29, 2010 at 4:19 am

    [...] The Basic Skills of Cooking: It’s Simple but Follow Directions Last week I was humbled by a toaster oven!. I think of myself as a pretty good cook, but. View full post on toaster oven – Google Blog Search [...]

  • 2. Humbled by a Toaster Oven&hellip  |  May 1, 2010 at 12:33 am

    [...] So I figured I bake a fresh one in a small aluminum pan at work the next morning in the toaster oven. I whipped it up (Yummy with chocolate chips) and went to do a few things. I just about burned the building down! … View full post on toaster oven – Google Blog Search [...]

  • 3. TomPier  |  May 8, 2010 at 1:54 pm

    great post as usual!

  • 4. Knife Skills – A co&hellip  |  May 27, 2010 at 4:05 am

    [...] reminded me of some of the fundamentals.  I wrote before about how I was humbled by a toaster oven, reminding me to follow directions.  The cooking class reminded me that my knives are probably my [...]

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