For many bakers, choosing the right oven for their kitchen is vital. If you’re a baker and you’re buying a new oven soon, you may be wondering whether your baking will be helped if you switched ovens.
If you are currently using an electric oven, could your baking benefit from a gas oven?
Well, just like many cooking questions, it depends. It depends on what you like to bake and a few other factors.
So, are gas ovens good for baking? Let’s find out, shall we?
Gas ovens are good for certain types of baking but struggle with others. This is because gas ovens release moisture into the warm air of the oven.
So, for cakes and any other baked goods that need to stay moist, gas ovens are incredible. However, for pie crusts and things like that, gas ovens aren’t the ideal choice.
The other issue with many gas ovens is that they usually don’t have fans, unlike most electric ovens. This means that there are more cold spots in the oven, and the bottom of the oven can be a lot hotter than the top, which means baked goods cook unevenly.
If the gas cooker you are considering has a fan, you’re in luck. A gas cooker with a fan takes away a lot of the downsides that we mentioned above.
The fan pushes a lot of moisture out of the oven cavity and distributes the heat more evenly too. The fan inside a gas oven essentially makes it into an electric oven that has far more controllable heat.
The pros of using a gas oven for baking:
- Controllable heat
- Moist air great for cakes
- Faster preheat time
The cons of using a gas oven for baking:
- Unless your oven has a fan, cooking crispy pie crusts and things can be almost impossible
- Cold spots
- Most baked goods require turning frequently
Gas ovens are wonderful for cooking anything that you’d like to retain moisture, broths and cakes, for example.
Electric ovens are excellent for roasts and cookies.
Now, we aren’t suggesting that you buy a gas oven for your cakes and an electric oven for your cookies. What we are saying is that different types of oven do a better job at certain baking tasks.
If you do like the sound of gas ovens, try and find one in your price range that has a fan, as this will allow you to bake a lot more.
Gas ovens can be a fantastic tool for a baker, but ultimately it depends on what you like to bake and the oven you buy.
We hope this look at gas ovens and baking has been helpful. For more information about the best cookware and appliances for baking, please explore our website further. We have everything a baker needs to bake the perfect bun, bread or biscuit.
Scott is a writer and a passionate home chef. His passion for cooking began when he was 10 years old. Scott has been writing professionally for over five years now and loves to combine his passion for cooking with his day job.