Convection Cooking

I was reminded of a conversation I had with my neighbor, Rhonda.  She had told me that she liked that I mentioned a little bit about convection cooking/baking and that she wasn't sure exactly how it worked.  I told her that I would do some research and maybe find out a little bit more, which I have.  Mind you this conversation was a week or two ago, but you know I'm lucky it only took me this long to remember it again. 

I found this info on about.com in the housewares section.  Very simple explanation:

"Convection cooking simply brings airflow into conventional cooking, and what a difference that makes. To illustrate, imagine a standard oven with three racks of dinner rolls, all the same size. You know the rolls on the bottom (closest to the heating element) will brown first - and quickly. Then you have to keep an eye on the top rack, because heat rises and those will burn if you aren't on your toes. The middle rack will take its sweet time.

But with convection cooking, an integrated fan circulates the hot air around and across the rolls, cooking them all evenly and all at the same time - and in less time than in a standard oven. Generally, convection cooking takes three-fourths the time of standard cooking, and, as a rule of thumb, at 25 degrees lower.

How does it work? A good convection oven will have three heating elements: top, bottom and rear, with a fan connected to the latter. As the oven pulls in outside air, it's heated immediately and circulated. With meats and poultry, that gives you amazingly even cooking and perfect browning while retaining the meat's moisture. The results are even better with baked goods, like our imaginary rolls. The airflow draws the moisture out of the breads, cakes and cookies, giving you even baking and delightful texture: flaky crusts, crisp pastries and light, fluffy croissants.

When buying a convection oven, look for that third heating element. If there are only two, you won't get the optimum results."

I agree with most of this article, but I would like to mention that convection is not right for all types of cooking.  When it comes to cakes, I have to defer to my mom who is an expert.  She has been doing cakes for as long as I can remember and had a bakery for 10 years.  When she was opening her bakery, she went and tested several types of ovens and found that convection really wasn't that beneficial to cake baking.  She found that the air circulation made the delicate crumb of the cakes too dry and affected how evenly they would rise.  For a cake baker/decorator, this is paramount.  So I would suggest for more delicate baking, not use the convection mode.

For cookies, though, it is a great way to bake.  During Christmas I am making cookies like crazy and this mode is gonna be a lifesaver!  I had this on my previous oven, but it never really worked right.  I believe that the convection technology has really improved in the last few years.  Imagine cooking three racks at a time and if you have a double oven, that's 6 racks!

You may have to rotate the racks midway during baking because the fan is usually placed in the back of the oven so that side may bake faster.  I found with cookies, it wasn't needed, but with the sandwich rolls I needed to.  Mind you the cookies were lower profile so they allowed more circulation. 

Just as with any baking, really pay attention to what's happening in your oven.  Make mental notes how things cook up and then you'll know what changes you need to make next time you bake something.  Another thing, try different modes on various food items.  Everyone is different so something I may not like, you may love.  Enjoy!