The most important piece of kit in my new kitchen, it was quite a momentous day!
I'd been awaiting the day I'd no longer have "more than 5 hours of shortbread ahead of me" but could bake all 8-rounds of shortbread in just one session of 40 minutes. I just needed to wait until the 200v socket and water pipe for the steam function were in place.
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I had also ordered the official stand for the oven. Though it was a little pricey at around 70,000 yen, I decided against the IKEA udden console which had roughly the same dimensions at less than 10,000 yen because the oven is fairly heavy and I didn't want to risk it falling or being pulled off the surface, or the whole thing toppling forward. The official stand has a ridge in which the oven nestles and nifty racks for your oven trays.
Since a little time has now passed since the oven came I can also comment on using it. I love it :)
There are a couple of things I initially needed to get used to - the fans are quite strong, and so anything quite light, or that only holds down part of the baking paper with its own weight needs to go in with bits of batter or magnets holding down the corners of the paper, if you're baking high cakes or those with extended paper collars such as Christmas cakes, then the available width between the racks in the oven is fairly narrow (about 25cm).
Overall though it's amazing - the texture of cakes is tremendously improved from my home oven, flapjacks bake nicely on the base, and overall cooking time for most things is shorter. Oh! And finally proper steam! My sourdoughs are getting lovely red-brown crusts and great oven spring. I'm a happy camper indeed. A particular feature of this oven is that it runs on single phase electricity (単相 / tansou) and so regular houses that don't have commercial 3-phase electricity can also use it, as long as you have a 200v socket fitted.
It's already worth its weight in gold, and I'm very happy with the purchase.
I also have a similar oven and am amazed at how perfectly it bakes wholemeal bread. I plan to serve sandwiches and toasted sandwiches while the customers listen to live piano. Good luck with your venture.
ReplyDeleteThanks Neil! I've been pretty happy with it :)
DeleteIs this the only size the oven comes in? How many racks does it support? Just wondering if it's better to get something like this it something larger for if you want to cook a few cakes at once.
ReplyDeleteThere are 4 shelves, so depending how tall or large your cakes are you can do 4-8 whole cakes at once. Christmas fruit cakes and those that require an extended collar of paper during baking are a bit more of an issue as the shelves are quite close together, maybe 10cm or so apart. This oven is just one size, as a small sized professional oven, but by all means if you have the budget and space for something larger then go for that!
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