This content was produced as advertising by Remodelista in collaboration with Bosch.
I was always a fan of my grandmother’s cookies. But, truthfully, I was a forgiving audience, responding more to the love with which they were made than the evenness of the baking (in her defense, she didn’t have the advantages of a convection oven).
To demonstrate the benefits of convection cooking technology, we teamed with Bosch Home Appliances to make and bake one of our favorite recipes: lemon lavender shortbread cookies.
Photography by Joyelle West for Remodelista. Styling by Justine Hand and Kaylei McGaw.
How convection ovens work
Conventional, thermal ovens cook with radiant heat, or heat emitted directly into the oven interior. This can create “hot spots,” meaning some parts of the oven are hotter than others, resulting in uneven baking. To alleviate this issue, convection ovens utilize a fan to circulate hot air around the oven, which both speeds up the cooking process and results in more evenly dispersed heat throughout the oven.
Advantages of convection versus conventional ovens
The advantages of convection baking are threefold:
- More even cooking: Conventional ovens tend to be hotter toward the bottom, which can result in uneven baking—especially when you use multiple racks. (Ever try to cook several sheets of cookies at once? You usually have to rotate the top and bottom racks to keep the bottom cookies from burning.) By contrast, convection ovens, which circulate hot air, result in even baking on all racks.
- Faster cooking times: Circulating air accelerates the transfer of heat, meaning that convection ovens cook food faster than conventional ovens.
- Better flavor and texture: Convection cooking produces crisper edges, moister interiors, and deeper flavors.
How to use a convection oven
Using a Bosch Convection Oven is easy, requiring only a few minor adjustments when baking.
- Select Convection Bake: Bosch’s convection ovens allow you to cook in both “bake” and “convection bake” modes.
- Choose “Auto” mode to adjust the temperature: To adjust for your convection oven’s more efficient heating, choose auto mode and enter the recipe’s suggested temperature. Your Bosch oven will automatically adjust the temperature for you.
Practice makes perfect: The more you use the convection settings, the more familiar you will become with how it cooks.
The results: more evenly baked cookies
Our cookies baked more evenly, held their shape, and were more flaky and flavorful than the same recipe cooked in my conventional oven.
For more information on Bosch convection ovens, visit Bosch Home Appliances.
