How do you bake in the heat? I can hardly stand to cook outside in our "summer kitchen" . . .

M

mistral

Well-known member
that we have on our patio so that we don't heat up the house. We use a camp stove converted to propane and an electric crock-pot.

I have baked, but in the evening and even with the whole-house fan on, it is a trial, especially if I don't want to stay up late baking when it is cooler with the fan on. . .

How do you do it without running the air conditioner to H*** and gone? smileys/wink.gif

 
Same here - when I'm in the house, I feel no pain. Now, when I leave the house, that's another story

 
I have been working out my slow cooker this summer.

Baked ziti, enchiladas, pulled pork, several new chicken dishes, even a loaf of bread!

 
You know, I don't remember the ovens from several years ago blowing hot air into the kitchen the way

the one I have now does. Did they have a different venting system or less fan power? This one has a fan that starts the minute I turn it on and really heats up the kitchen while vigorously blowing hot air out the front vent. I don't remember that happening before. The fan makes a lot more noise, too.

 
The user notes I saw about this (sparked my interest too) indicated the loaf doesn't brown. Doesn't

sound particularly appealing unless it's a Boston Brown Bread or something that works with steaming.

Everything I've learned about bread is it needs a good hot oven so you get that ever elusive "oven spring" which only seems to occur when a wet glob of dough is hit with 400 degrees or so. Also, helps form a distinctive crust.

 
Steve, I solved that with 2 minutes under the broiler. It wasn't long enough to heat the house but

still gave a nice crust. The recipe I used was my standard 4 cups of flour italian bread. I had a picture of it on my laptop (RIP...it gave it's all) but I think I posted it on FB so should be able to find it.

 
Mine never did, until the most recent one. It vents through the center top,

between the two back burners. It even had a cap like the other 4 burners. I end up using it as a 5th cooking spot when I have the oven on. It's great for melting butter or warming things while everything else cooks.

I do have to point it out to others on the rare occasion someone else is cooking, though, as it can heat up the pan handles.

Now that I'm thinking about it - my old oven vented out of the top rear, going across the top of the stove, but it didn't blow out, just had the openings to vent.

 
Aha, the fan may be the difference. Perhaps the older ovens didn't have the fan. I can see you

have an advantage with the vent at the top where it can be used so handily. Unfortunately, my oven is a wall oven and all it does is vigorously and loudly blow hot air out the front. Perhaps next winter I'll appreciate that.

 
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