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A convection oven is just a regular oven with a fan to circulate the air. On mine I can choose to have the fan on (convection), or off (normal bake mode). It's a counter top model that is no larger than a microwave, but it's big enough inside for a whole Freschetta pizza. I rarely use my big oven anymore.
Sorry I'm late to the thread, but I'll add my 2-cents anyway
I used a combination microwave/convection oven for 2 decades and absolutely loved them. (I had 2 of them over this period, one over the range and one portable.) The best feature was the "combination cook" - which not all of them have. I could make roasts in it, which would cook in slightly longer than plain microwave time and they would come out nice and brown on the outside from the convection. I even made small turkeys in them.
Unfortunately, the house I am in now came with a brand new, huge, built in, regular microwave and separate double wall ovens that are both convection and regular ovens. I am not about to incur the expense to change them, nor do I want to add clutter to the countertops by buying a countertop model, but when these eventually need replacing, I'd definitely buy a microwave/convection combo again.
However... I do NOT bake cakes or pastries, so I do not know how well they would do with that, and for breads I use a bread machine.
You can bake most of the same things in there, but the size is what changes a lot of your flexibility. There are a lot of things that won't fit into a small convection oven, but let me tell you they cook a lot faster and more evenly.
I use mine often and I love it, plus if you get one like mine it has plenty of other features like toasting, dehydrating, etc.
If you're stuck with having to get a convection oven for this place, then I'd suggest going to the Consumer Reports website to look up information and ratings on them. We've gotten excellent and very useful data there whenever we've had to purchase an appliance or electronics or a vehicle, particularly in situations where we didn't know a lot about whatever the object was.
We have a stove that has an optional convection oven (we can either set it to run as a normal oven or with convection) and I guess I haven't noticed an enormous difference between the two. The literature claims that the convection method cooks food faster, but I haven't experienced that. My spouse uses convection-bake when he makes frittatas, but he's also made them without the convection mode and as far as I'm concerned, they taste just as good either way.
Good luck; I'd hate to be stuck without being able to bake, so I hope you can find something that works for you.
I used to have one and it was great. Cooked in almost half the time and sure saved the day when I didnt want to have to use the big oven in the summer. Sure wish I had one now.
Do you use convection to bake cakes and breads such as banana bread? If so, how do you adjust the temperature and time? I have read varying information and am curious as to what actual bakers do.
Specifically, I am making pumpkin cake roll and banana bread and am using non-stick dark baking pans. I generally just guess about the temperature and time, but I reallly want these to turn out on the first try.
Also, if anyone knows of a really active and helpful baking forum/message board, I would love a referral.
I have a small toaster/convection oven that I use for just about anything. I use the same baking rules as I always do: look up the recommended time, set the timer for the minimum amount, and check it. For baking it's never been an issue, though when I roast meat it's usually done faster (though I do like my meat on the rarer side...so maybe that's it).
As far as pans, I have 1 glass and 1 dark metal, so really it's just whichever one I grab first.
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Baking with convection oven
