My grandsons love it when I bake something for dessert, so when I came across a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie, I decided that sounded like a good treat for them. I mentioned it to them and they got excited, and were all ready to help me make it. But I was missing the main ingredient....the chocolate chips....so they had to wait until I got some.
I picked some up on my next trip to the store, and since the kids were coming back the next day, I decided to do some baking. I turned the oven on to preheat while I followed the recipe, but when I went to pop it in the oven there was no heat. My hubby checked the fuses, and then found the switch had burned out. He had replaced that once before, but this time there were no replacements to be found as the stove was 40 years old. The pie went into the freezer.
Well, I now have a new stove, with a self cleaning oven. It even has the convection feature. The boys will be back tonight for supper, so I took the pie out of the freezer last night to thaw, and popped it in the oven this morning at 5:30am. I thought I'd have it cooked before the hydro rates change. As there was still someone sleeping I decided to bake the usual way, as I don't know if the convection fan makes a noise or not, and really, I wanted to see if I actually needed it. I set the timer on the stove, and also set the timer for a couple of minutes earlier on my tablet, since I was planning to read on it elsewhere.
When the timer went off I was already back in the kitchen. I pushed the Stop button on the stove, but it kept beeping. It took several seconds for me to realize it was the tablet timer that was beeping. I shut that off, but figured I'd already disturbed the one remaining sleeping body in the house by then. Moments later the stove timer also went off. Why didn't the Stop button put an end to that, I wondered. I finally hit the Timer button and all was quiet again. You have to realize that I'm not used to these digital settings. My 40 year old stove had easy to use dials!
I checked the pie, by inserting a knife in the middle. If it comes out clean the pie is done. Theknife wasn't clean, but then, the pie was cold from being in the fridge overnight so it's logical that it would need a bit more time. I gave it another 5 minutes. Then another 5, and then 10, before I finally noticed that the oven indicator light was no longer lit. When I had pushed the Stop button, I had turned off the heat in the oven instead of the timer.
I removed the pie, preheated the oven and put the pie back in for a couple more tries. It finally was finally cooked by 7:50am, so I didn't save any electricity. It also made a mess of the oven. I'm not sure how as it didn't actually boil over, if you examine the crust. I expected the smoke detector to go off as the spills really smoked as they cooked onto the bottom of my nice new clean oven. Normally I use a pie ring when I'm baking fruit pies, but I wasn't expecting a mess this time. I opened the windows to let the smoke out and was very glad that the temperature had dropped dramatically since yesterday.
I asked a lot of questions about self cleaning ovens before I bought one. People said they don't find they have to actually turn on the self cleaner often, as they just wipe the stove out when there is a spill. Well, this spill will not simply wipe out. I tried that. I even tried the srubby side of a sponge and then a metal pot scrubber, but none of those cleaned up the mess. I'm wishing already it wasn't a self cleaning oven, as a little squirt of Easy Off would take care of that spill, no problem. I'm apparently going to be using the self cleaner a whole lot sooner than expected and probably a whole lot more often than the people I've been speaking to. Normally I'd be worried about baking this mess on even more with the dinner I have planned, but since the self cleaner is going to incinerate it anyway, I guess that's not a concern.
I guess I'll learn how to use this new fangled gadget sooner or later but I can't say that I'm off to a good start.
I picked some up on my next trip to the store, and since the kids were coming back the next day, I decided to do some baking. I turned the oven on to preheat while I followed the recipe, but when I went to pop it in the oven there was no heat. My hubby checked the fuses, and then found the switch had burned out. He had replaced that once before, but this time there were no replacements to be found as the stove was 40 years old. The pie went into the freezer.
Well, I now have a new stove, with a self cleaning oven. It even has the convection feature. The boys will be back tonight for supper, so I took the pie out of the freezer last night to thaw, and popped it in the oven this morning at 5:30am. I thought I'd have it cooked before the hydro rates change. As there was still someone sleeping I decided to bake the usual way, as I don't know if the convection fan makes a noise or not, and really, I wanted to see if I actually needed it. I set the timer on the stove, and also set the timer for a couple of minutes earlier on my tablet, since I was planning to read on it elsewhere.
When the timer went off I was already back in the kitchen. I pushed the Stop button on the stove, but it kept beeping. It took several seconds for me to realize it was the tablet timer that was beeping. I shut that off, but figured I'd already disturbed the one remaining sleeping body in the house by then. Moments later the stove timer also went off. Why didn't the Stop button put an end to that, I wondered. I finally hit the Timer button and all was quiet again. You have to realize that I'm not used to these digital settings. My 40 year old stove had easy to use dials!
I checked the pie, by inserting a knife in the middle. If it comes out clean the pie is done. Theknife wasn't clean, but then, the pie was cold from being in the fridge overnight so it's logical that it would need a bit more time. I gave it another 5 minutes. Then another 5, and then 10, before I finally noticed that the oven indicator light was no longer lit. When I had pushed the Stop button, I had turned off the heat in the oven instead of the timer.
I removed the pie, preheated the oven and put the pie back in for a couple more tries. It finally was finally cooked by 7:50am, so I didn't save any electricity. It also made a mess of the oven. I'm not sure how as it didn't actually boil over, if you examine the crust. I expected the smoke detector to go off as the spills really smoked as they cooked onto the bottom of my nice new clean oven. Normally I use a pie ring when I'm baking fruit pies, but I wasn't expecting a mess this time. I opened the windows to let the smoke out and was very glad that the temperature had dropped dramatically since yesterday.
I asked a lot of questions about self cleaning ovens before I bought one. People said they don't find they have to actually turn on the self cleaner often, as they just wipe the stove out when there is a spill. Well, this spill will not simply wipe out. I tried that. I even tried the srubby side of a sponge and then a metal pot scrubber, but none of those cleaned up the mess. I'm wishing already it wasn't a self cleaning oven, as a little squirt of Easy Off would take care of that spill, no problem. I'm apparently going to be using the self cleaner a whole lot sooner than expected and probably a whole lot more often than the people I've been speaking to. Normally I'd be worried about baking this mess on even more with the dinner I have planned, but since the self cleaner is going to incinerate it anyway, I guess that's not a concern. I guess I'll learn how to use this new fangled gadget sooner or later but I can't say that I'm off to a good start.
My oven has a removable "pan" that fits under the lower elements. I keep a layer of tin foil wrapped over the top part of the pan. This way, I never have to clean the oven with any chemicals. I just replace the foil.
ReplyDeleteThe lower element is below the surface of the oven and not visible, as you may notice in the photo. The manual specifically says not to use foil in this oven as it will cause a fire. After cooking supper in the oven this evening, I found that most of what had burned on this morning became a white powder and was much easier to wipe out.
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