Baking in my new GE Toaster Oven!

[dragnlaw]

Pre-heat still means to heat prior to the actual cooking, whether it's a toaster oven, regular oven, convection oven, deep fryer even!
You have it right, preheat your oven and then put in your food.

What are you going to cook first?

 

[trudilu]

Pre-heat still means to heat prior to the actual cooking, whether it's a toaster oven, regular oven, convection oven, deep fryer even!
You have it right, preheat your oven and then put in your food.

What are you going to cook first?

So pre-heat it first, then put the tray in to cook? What about 'pizza' which has its own category - it also requires preheating, but I put the pizza in the toaster oven from the start and waited about 10 minutes.

What I'm first trying is the shrimp tempura (to bake). There are 5 in the pack - that's why I wanted to know if I should pre-heat it first. If it does a good job of baking - then I'll be happy with the purchase!

 

[trudilu]

I have another question about baking tempura shrimp. The box doesn't have instructions for a toaster oven. In an oven, it requires me to preheat the oven to 450° -- then I cook 10 minutes on each side. Comes out perfect.

Does it bake faster in the 'toaster oven'?

 

[GotGarlic]

Preheating means heating the oven before cooking, no matter what the item is. In order to cook correctly, the heat in the oven has to be at temperature when the food goes in. Otherwise, it doesn't get the blast of heat that makes bread rise and turn brown, pizza to blister, fats to fry, etc. Always preheat any oven before putting food in to cook.

 

[GotGarlic]

I have another question about baking tempura shrimp. The box doesn't have instructions for a toaster oven. In an oven, it requires me to preheat the oven to 450° -- then I cook 10 minutes on each side. Comes out perfect.

Does it bake faster in the 'toaster oven'?

It can bake faster because the heat is in a smaller space. You might need to watch it and adjust.

 

[taxlady]

I have another question about 'baking' - now that I have my silcone mats, etc. The recipe calls for 'preheating' to 450° - then bake on each side for 10 minutes. Pretty straightfoward for an oven.

When the toaster oven is 'preheating' - should the food already be in the toaster oven? Or - is it put in when the 'preheating phase is done? In the oven, when I preheat - the food is not yet in the oven. I only put it in once it has 'preheated' - my oven beeps and tells me when to put in the food.

Anyone?

If it says, "then bake ...", I would say that you preheat the oven and once it is at temperature, then put it in. That's almost always what is meant unless something specifies that you should start it in a cold oven. I mean, it's only preheating if you do it "pre-baking", isn't it?

 

[dragnlaw]

Being pizza, with a different setting, doesn't change the fact you pre=heat.
Note: Any recipe that needs you to put your food into a cold oven will specifically tell you that, because they are assuming for all other recipes you will pre-heat. This is the normal way of cooking.
I don't find that my toaster oven cooks any faster, but it does pre-heat faster. I usually only pre-heat about 3-5 minutes.
I also find the higher the heat it actually might take longer. But baking (usually at a lower heat) takes about the same.

 

[dragnlaw]

Think about the logistics of the food and your oven. (and I am NOT a scientist or anything like that, but, to me, it is common sense)

As GG explains, specifically look at the "fats to fry".
Your tempura shrimp - if you were to be making them from scratch, you would be coating raw shrimp in a batter and then 'deep frying' in HOT oil to get a crispy coating and perfectly cooked shrimp. I
f you put your frozen tempura shrimp into a cold oven - they start to heat up along with the oven.
What's happening? These are frozen foods that are "slowly" heating up. Therefore they are defrosting on the outside and that coating is getting soggy - yech!
As the oven get hotter, the rest of the food starts to defrost, adding to the moisture of the coating (which you want crispy).
By the timer showing the food should be cooked, you probably have a soggy coating on top of defrosted but uncooked centre.
double yech.

Hope this helps and is not more confusing...

And enjoy those shrimp - I love them!

 

[trudilu]

Being pizza, with a different setting, doesn't change the fact you pre=heat.
Note: Any recipe that needs you to put your food into a cold oven will specifically tell you that, because they are assuming for all other recipes you will pre-heat. This is the normal way of cooking.
I don't find that my toaster oven cooks any faster, but it does pre-heat faster. I usually only pre-heat about 3-5 minutes.
I also find the higher the heat it actually might take longer. But baking (usually at a lower heat) takes about the same.

I got it. And I just learned, that I still have to bake about 10 minutes on each side - it does not bake any faster than my normal oven. They came out perfectly, btw.

 

[trudilu]

Just want everyone to know that the shrimp came out perfectly...better than the oven!

 

[dragnlaw]

That's GREAT! No, you're right, they don't really bake any faster.

Unless you look at that you're saving time with the pre-heating! My big oven would take a good 30 minutes to reach temperature, using power for all that time to get there.
That's one very good reason I really like my toaster oven.

edit: now I have to go defrost some shrimp....

 

[trudilu]

Now that I have been cooking with the Toaster Oven - mostly just some breads, Shrimp Tempura and a small frozen pizza....I have a question about my toaster oven when baking~

Shrimp Tempura: The directions say for 'oven'
1) preheat at 400 degrees.
2) Place shrimp in oven and bake 10 minutes on each side.

It's simple in the oven, but here is what happens with the toaster oven. I preheat as instructed. Then I put the Shrimp Tempura in to 'bake'....(it still says bake). What happens in, the oven automatically shuts off after 5 minutes - and I don't know why. If I go by my clock I have to get up after 5 minutes to restart again - for another 5 minutes!! Why does it automatically shut off after this time.

There is no way to adjust the time after preheating....they come out pretty good - the difference being that the inside of the tempura - the shrimp doesn't bake as well as the oven does. That's OK, because I like it both ways.

Mainly why does the toaster oven shut off after 5 minutes when baking.

 

[Andy M.]

When you first start setting the oven to BAKE, isn't there an option to set the number of minutes for the bake? You should be able to set the baking time before you press START. Then the oven begins preheating then you add the food and it counts down the preset time.

 

[dragnlaw]

In my toaster oven there is an automatic timer set when you start it. (think it is 30 minutes) I start preheating about 5 minutes before I actually want to put in the foods. Depending on how long the particular food needs to bake/roast I adjust the timer up and down.
Now here's where it get tricky! LOL - took me ages to figure it out.
the timer and temperature are both the same button. So... I turn on the oven (it is now in Oven mode) raise the temperature to what I need (ex. 350)
When I put the food in, I push the same button that adjusted the heat level again and it shows me how many minutes it will go for. (ex. 25 minutes) If I need more I use the same buttons for time - either up or down.

Hope this helps?

 

[Andy M.]

When you first start setting the oven to BAKE, isn't there an option to set the number of minutes for the bake?

 

[GinnyPNW]

Here's a link to the manual - GE Quartz Convection Toaster Oven - Check out the instructions on page 8 for the Pizza (since you cook that)...maybe that will help figure out the other stuff too.

 

[dragnlaw]

Well done, Ginny. Almost the same as mine! Well not quite, but close. Those knobs have dual functions.

 

[trudilu]

When you first start setting the oven to BAKE, isn't there an option to set the number of minutes for the bake?

Yes - in the very beginning their is. But once it's starts baking - after preheating - I can't change that number. So I set it to baking, 400 degrees. And the baking is set to 30 minutes. When it is finished 'preheating' I put the shrimp in the oven to cook; once I do that - I cannot change the minutes of how long I want it to actually bake on each side. It seems no matter what I set it to - it just shuts off after 5 minutes.

I can't change the # of minutes when it starts baking. I have to do that at the beginning. I know it's confusing, but next time I'll take a picture...

 

[trudilu]

Well done, Ginny. Almost the same as mine! Well not quite, but close. Those knobs have dual functions.

I get it that the bottom know has dual functions; but I still cannot change the minutes once it starts baking.

 

[Andy M.]

If your intention is to cook the food 10 minutes on each side, why don't you set the timer at the beginning to 20 minutes? Then put the food in when the preheating is done and, after 10 minutes of cooking, turn the food over and let it continue to cook on the second side for 10 minutes.