Disappointing, Partly

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I took the time, and energy to make a beautiful lemon curd, using fresh lemons, lemon zest, good butter, and a pinch of salt. After combining the ingredients with a whisk, until silky smooth, in a thick glass bowl, I placed the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. As glass is an insulator, I knew that the surface touched by the steam would heat slowly, insuring a perfectly thickened lemon curd. It took 30 minutes of constant stirring and the curd is perfet. I strained out the zest through a fine mesh sieve., and let it cool.

The plan was to use purchased puff pastry cups to bake, the fill. i followed the box directions, even checking the 5 minutes before the directed baking time. The tops were dark brown, almost burnt. The rest of the shells were golden. I'm disappointed in that oven. Set at 425' F., it cycles between 400 and 450 to maintain an average temp.

Ah well, I just will discard the tops and simply fill the shells with lemon curd, maybe with a bit of Chantilly cream on top.

Seeeeya; Chif Longwind of the North

 

[sadie33]

glad the lemon curd came out good after all that work. My oven drives me crazy. I got it a year ago. My oven does the same thing. I think they try to make them more "efficient". It will heat up then almost go off just to heat up again. It has a convect bake, but it's not really any faster than the regular bake. drives me crazy. Everything cooks well enough, but longer than my old oven. I do like the stove top though, it has a giant burner that's great for canning. My other oven didn't have a very big burner so that took longer. Oh well.

 

[blissful]

Is this a gas stove/oven or an electric stove/oven? (or oven separate)
I have a gas stove/oven and the oven was taking a long time to heat up and it became irregular. I timed it from turning on to being preheated and it was over 20 minutes. It should be more like 4-6 minutes. So I changed out the igniter. It's not an expensive part, and not very complicated to replace. Now it's back to where it preheats in 5 minutes.
The other thing that can go wrong is the thermostat. You might google the brand/model and the trouble and see if replacing it might make a difference to get a more even heating.
There is also a valve that turns on the gas when the igniter is hot enough and if that valve gets sticky, you might be able to clean it up or replace it but I don't know enough about that to do that on my own oven.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I repaired/replaced the hot surface igniter in my gas oven, back in Michigan. It was no big deal. The oven available to me in my son's home is a stand alone electric. I will now simply cookev everything 25' cooler than the normal cooking temp. I hope that works for me.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[taxlady]

Chief, my electric oven runs a good 25°F hot on the high side of it's up and down to maintain the temperature. I have learned to only lower the temperature for things that are actually likely to burn or brown too quickly. Lots of foods, stews are a good example, don't suffer from the big swings in temperature and if you lower the temperature, all that will happen is that it will take longer to cook it.