At DiSanto Propane, we’ve been supplying the residents of upstate New York with clean, reliable, and safe propane energy for several decades. Over the course of four generations, our family-owned company has built a reputation on our reliability and high level of customer service. We’ve provided hundreds of families with propane, and one of the areas in your home that can truly benefit from propane usage is your kitchen. In fact, you can save up to $80 to $120 in annual energy costs simply by switching to propane ranges and ovens. Many food lovers and at-home chefs simply love cooking with propane-powered appliances. However, making the switch to propane requires some changes in your cooking techniques. Today, we would like to provide you with some tips for baking with a propane oven:

Rotate Your Trays

Like electric ovens, gas ovens can have hot spots, so remember to rotate your trays a few times while baking. If you are baking for a short amount of time, then you’ll probably only need to rotate your tray once. However, if you are baking for longer periods of time, then you’ll need to rotate your tray a few more times. Rotations ensure that your food cooks as evenly as possible. For trays of muffins or foods such as cakes, turn the tray 90 degrees when they are halfway cooked. If you enjoy baking multiple trays of cookies, then swap out the top and bottom trays in addition to rotating them. Once you are finished, stop by our office so that we can sample your baking.

The Magic Of Pizza Stones

Have you ever come across a pizza stone when shopping in the cooking aisle of your favorite store? Pizza stones can be quite useful in propane-powered ovens because they retain and radiate heat outward at a consistent rate. In fact, you can use your pizza stone even when you are not making a pizza. Place the pizza stone on the bottom rack or on the floor of the oven and then cook your food on the next rack above it. Your foods receive the maximum benefit of the even heat radiated from the pizza stone when they are baked directly above it. The best pizza stones for your ovens are the large rectangular ones.

For Browner Tops, Move Trays Up Higher

One of the major differences between propane ovens and electric ovens is that gas ovens contain more moisture in the air. While this may be great for baking cakes, this can make browning food trickier. In order to speed up the browning process, you can either move the tray to the top of the oven or you can place another baking sheet directly above your food. This causes the heat to reflect off the top of the oven, assisting the browning process.

You could also run your broiler briefly (one to two minutes) to help brown your food. However, broiling quickly burns food to a crisp, so don’t leave your food under the broiler for too long unless you prefer your cake charbroiled.

Stay Away From Dark Metal Cookware

In propane ovens, the bottom of your food is vulnerable to burning before the top or middle is even finished baking. The heat in the oven is extremely intense, so avoid baking your food in dark metal cookware. This type of bakeware actually speeds up the cooking process because it absorbs more heat. We recommend cooking with glass, silicon, and light-colored metal instead. If you simply cannot part with your dark metal bakeware, then try moving your food to the higher trays to create some distance from the heating mechanism.

Enjoy cooking with your propane oven! Contact DiSanto Propane today to deliver your home propane directly to you.