Have you wondered how you ended up with burnt cake or pastry from the oven? To answer your question, the correct oven temperature is key to how successful your homemade bakes turn out to be.
Most cooking recipes come with specific instructions regarding oven use. It is crucial to follow the recipe closely because it recommends the specific temperature as well as the duration of cooking to ensure that food is baked to perfection. Irregular temperature control can directly affect the cooking time and it will be extremely difficult to estimate when the food will be fully-cooked.
Proper oven temperature is just as equally important as proper pan selection for baking. Each recipe has a perfect baking temperature and time, so it would be wise to adhere to those specifics. If the temperature is too low, then baked foods might end up with a sunken and damp center. Also, different types of food require different oven temperature. For instance, during the heating process, food such as pies or cookies should be baked quickly in high temperature, while others should be baked slowly in lower temperature, so that center part of the food is fully cooked without overly burnt outer edges of food or crust.
Other than that, food with dark coloured fillings will bake sooner than those light colored ones as they tend to absorb heat at a faster rate.
As such, oven temperature should be monitored at all times in order to avoid disappointing results such as overbaking, overbrownning, rough or dry texture. Different ovens may have little discrepancy in temperature and cooking duration which is usually affected by external factors.
Nowadays, ovens are designed with regulatory function which cycles the heat regularly to maintain a consistent temperature during cooking. This allow ovens to avoid overheating and maintain the nutritional value of food. In addition, an oven thermometer can be placed inside the oven beforehand so that you are able to know when it exceeds the ideal temperature.
It is also important to make sure that the ingredients used are at the right temperature, especially when it comes to butter and eggs.
