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Cooking/Baking in a Toaster Oven
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nikki15



Joined: 02 Jun 2010

PostPosted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 5:58 am    Post subject: Cooking/Baking in a Toaster Oven Reply with quote

Hi,

I apologize if a similar thread has been started before; the search function is not working, as usual.

I love cooking and I especially love baking. Obviously with my lack of kitchen (two burners and a toaster oven) this becomes difficult. I have successfully baked cookies and banana bread in my toaster oven and I am wondering if anyone bakes regularly and has recipes to share. OR cooks using their toaster oven and has recipes to share, such as small casseroles, baked pasta, etc.

I am assuming brownies would work fine, muffins as well...how about small cakes?
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Illysook



Joined: 30 Jun 2008

PostPosted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 6:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The tops of things tend to burn while the inside still needs time to bake, but it's worth it sometimes. I try to wait until the top looks dry and then put aluminum foil over things to prevent this, but it doesn't always work.
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Ruthdes



Joined: 16 Oct 2008
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 6:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I bake a lot in my toaster oven, but it's a relatively good/big one (it fits a full size pizza). However, it operates on the hot end and I have to adjust the baking time accordingly. For something that says 35-40 mins, I usually need just 25 at 10-20 degrees celcius less than the recipe says. I also have to turn it around half way through, or the back half burns. It's really just a matter of experimentation to make your recipes work.

For a successful search on Dave's use this website: http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=006359271486458796786:_ooozypbm6u It's much better than the official search page.
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War Eagle



Joined: 15 Feb 2009

PostPosted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 9:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I love to cook. And I love food even more. I spent over 10 years in the restaurant industry, most of that managing some of the best chefs in Atlanta. They taught me a lot about cooking and back home my extremely well-stocked kitchen was my palace/sanctuary.

With that said, I have found my toaster oven can cook anything that my oven back home could. Recipes take some tweaking with the wet ingredients, temperature and cook times, but practice makes perfect. Although after a recent move into a larger place, I do plan on investing in one of those mac daddy deluxe magic "ovens".

Edit: but obviously the portions are much smaller Smile
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nomad-ish



Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Location: On the bottom of the food chain

PostPosted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 9:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

muffins definitely work fine. the only (slight) issue is that they don't always look as aesthetically pleasing (i'm guessing because of how the heat is distributed in a toaster oven). i've also baked cookies, pizza, and made homemade stuffing with my toaster oven. it all worked really well. Smile
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AsiaESLbound



Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri

PostPosted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 9:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If it has a top and bottom heating elements, you have a good one. If it has a convection fan, you have a great little oven. I bake whole chickens in my toaster oven for 1 1/2 hour. I bake whole fish for 1 hour. A top and bottom element gets red hot. I thinly slice potatoes, dip in olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper, lay single layer on baking pan, and bake on highest setting for crispy potato bake. Now that I have scored a can of Libby's pumpkin, I think I can bake a pie or pumpkin nut bread.
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Illysook



Joined: 30 Jun 2008

PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 7:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I thought I'd revive this to see if anyone has any tips. Things seem to bake faster in the toaster oven and this will reduce moisture inside. Additionally, the tops of things will sometimes burn while the insides are not finished baking. I've been thinking about turning the temperature down a few degrees, but how many? I usually bake things like chicken breasts, brownies, and banana bread, but I'd like to branch out a bit and maybe try something akin to a pot roast. I'm not sure where I will find the right cut of beef, but it might be worth a shot.
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UknowsI



Joined: 16 Apr 2009

PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 8:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Do you use tin foil when baking bread and muffins? I make a lot of baked food which is pre-cooked, because then the toaster oven mostly just have to melt cheese on top. However most things will burn if I leave it in for more than 10 minutes, so I've tried using tin foil a couple of time. Cooking with tin foil works... but does not always give the best results. I can't adjust the temperature on my toaster oven, so I guess it's around... 220?
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Ruthdes



Joined: 16 Oct 2008
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 8:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Illysook wrote:
I thought I'd revive this to see if anyone has any tips. Things seem to bake faster in the toaster oven and this will reduce moisture inside. Additionally, the tops of things will sometimes burn while the insides are not finished baking. I've been thinking about turning the temperature down a few degrees, but how many? I usually bake things like chicken breasts, brownies, and banana bread, but I'd like to branch out a bit and maybe try something akin to a pot roast. I'm not sure where I will find the right cut of beef, but it might be worth a shot.


No one is going to be able to give you specific tips, b/c I assume that every toaster oven is different. I had to experiment with my recipes to get them to turn out right. I would guess that you have to reduce the temperature by about 10-20%, and the cooking time by around 30%. That's what I do for mine anyway. Who knows if yours is the same?

The foil tip is interesting. I haven't tried that. I also haven't tried varying the ingredients, but maybe I should be adding more wet ingredients. My pizzas are awesome and cook in only 12 minutes! I also use a non-rise base recipe, so they can potentially be ready to eat in 30 minutes, start to finish. I use the highest temperature possible for pizza.

Mine has a lot of different settings, but I usually use the fan forced oven setting. It uses the top and bottom elements. I don't know if this has helped you, but I'd love to hear any other tips from other people. It takes patience. My first 3 or 4 batches of cookies were rock hard. Now I have the nice chewy texture that I can get back home. When it comes to toaster ovens, it seems that less is more, with regards to both temperature and time.
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chiarezza



Joined: 03 Jan 2010
Location: Daegu

PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 9:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

my old coworker used hers to make brownies, which turned out well, not sure which recipe she used.

I use mine to bake chicken... takes like 10 minutes or something like that.

I've also used it to roast pork (though I had to saute it on a burner first, and then bake it) that took about 30 minutes in the toaster oven.

Finally I also make meatloaf in a small casserole dish. I think that took like 20 minutes or something... not sure.
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chiarezza



Joined: 03 Jan 2010
Location: Daegu

PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 9:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

also, someone mentioned that they wanted to branch out to pot roasts... i've had lots of success with pork roasts in my toaster oven. Unfortunately that was a year ago, so I don't remember exactly what temperature I had it on. Anyway, I don't think it was too high... like the middle of how hot the toaster over could go.

Well that was pretty useless advice.

I will say though, that for my pork roast, I first cooked it on a burner on high heat in oil for about 5 minutes on each side, then added a half a cup of wine and turned it down to medium for a while 'till the wine evaporated, then added a cup of chicken stock and let it simmer on low for 15 minutes. I then took these juices and poured them over the roast and placed them in the toaster oven for 30 minutes. Turned out really nice!
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nomad-ish



Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Location: On the bottom of the food chain

PostPosted: Wed Nov 03, 2010 4:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

UknowsI wrote:
Do you use tin foil when baking bread and muffins? I make a lot of baked food which is pre-cooked, because then the toaster oven mostly just have to melt cheese on top. However most things will burn if I leave it in for more than 10 minutes, so I've tried using tin foil a couple of time. Cooking with tin foil works... but does not always give the best results. I can't adjust the temperature on my toaster oven, so I guess it's around... 220?


i don't use tin foil for muffins or bread. i do have to use those baking cups for the muffins however, since i couldn't find a small enough muffin tray to fit inside my toaster oven. Embarassed everything cooks fine though, and my oven is just the one with the top and bottom heating elements and no convection fan. i do have temperature settings though.
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crsandus



Joined: 05 Oct 2004

PostPosted: Wed Nov 03, 2010 6:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

AsiaESLbound wrote:
If it has a top and bottom heating elements, you have a good one. If it has a convection fan, you have a great little oven. I bake whole chickens in my toaster oven for 1 1/2 hour. I bake whole fish for 1 hour. A top and bottom element gets red hot. I thinly slice potatoes, dip in olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper, lay single layer on baking pan, and bake on highest setting for crispy potato bake. Now that I have scored a can of Libby's pumpkin, I think I can bake a pie or pumpkin nut bread.


Could you share where you found Libby's pumpkin?
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HagwonKanobi77



Joined: 16 Oct 2010
Location: Gwangju, South Korea

PostPosted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 8:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Is there a certain brand of toaster oven that they sell here that does well and is priced fairly cheaply. Oh, and does Lotte Mart or E-Mart charge for delivering things to the house? I live about a 15-minute walk from both places which would make walking a pain in the legs, lugging a large box around. Anyone?
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nomad-ish



Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Location: On the bottom of the food chain

PostPosted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 5:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i bought mine in yongsan, and i think i paid 30,000 won (it was a year ago, i can't remember exactly). it has a temperature gauge and top and bottom heating elements. it exactly does a really good job -- best purchase in korea for me.

if you go to yongsan, just remember to ask around at a bunch of stalls before you settle on one. i found the stalls closest to the escalators were the most expensive and then further back, i got better prices.
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