New Oven suitable for a home baker – advice welcome

[Gretus]

My mum bakes. At least 3 times a week. She knows her way round an oven, and was professionally trained in cookery.

Scones, tarts, pies, bread, sponges…

Her current oven is getting on (Bosch, built-in), and isn’t what it once was.

The Bosch produces pretty good results, yet, it has a hot spot, and trays have needed twirling from the outset. My mum has much fonder memories of her old Belling, which preceeded the Bosch, and was a faithful workhorse for about 25 years.

She’s asked me, if there might be any potential replacements for the Bosch.

Most modern ovens seem to be aimed at the occasional user, not the constant baker. My mum’s not interested in fancy design and OTT controls. She’s after an oven that:

a) holds an even temperature,
b) doesn’t have a large hot-spot,
c) is practical, and
*d) can churn out batch after batch of mince pies, without having an elemental conniption [* 3rd party parameter, not mum’s].

Does anything like this still exist? If there’s nothing on the domestic market, are there any small ‘professional’ ovens that might be suitable?

All pointers gratefully received.

Thank you.

[don]

It may pay you to explore the Miele and Bosch destination demo stores. I know Miele experience centre is in London while Bosch and Neff hold in store baking days around the country. These events allow you to ask questions and get hands on in a limited way as well.

If you watch cooking programmes look at what the chefs are using, I know “top end ” suppliers will loan them free to get noticed. But it does give you an idea. Wolf seem to be popular at the moment on BBC and ITV channels. Then there is Lincat as well. If it’s good enough for them then ………..

Unless anyone knows any different.

Don

[Gretus]

Thank you for this information.

Wolf and Lincat are new to me. I’ve had a quick look at Wolf, and they seem just the job. Sadly, I misread the price tag, thought ‘that seems low’, and had a second look. An audible gulp accompanied the extra zero.

I’ll do as you suggest, and watch a few Mastercheffy and Bakering Off style programmes to see what they’re using, and find out if Bosch and Neff have ‘up, up North’ baking days.

Bosch have an unfortunate tendency, on too many models, of providing knobs and dials with lousy contrast, failing at the first hurdle. It’s sobering, reading about cooks having to use a torch, awkwardly peering up at the underside of a dial, trying to see where the marks are. Absolutely basic design functionality, ignored.

Thanks again!

[andyjawa]

I`d keep away from the Bosch model/s that have that door that pulls down then slides underneath the oven out of view: “hide and slide” or is it “slide and hide” from my experience the door falls off it runners or/and jams i.e, half open, even near shut, or fully open take ya pick = Slide and jam is more appropriately accurate. Load of complicated expensive and trendy (for a time) rubbish for no real world gain. Almost caused me a nervous breakdown trying to fix the pile of……. Hopefully even Bosch saw sense (you never now, has been known on rare occasions!) and if there is a God hopefully it has been discontinued and consigned to history BUT it might not be? Think they were used on The Great British Bake off programme some years ago – can`t remember now.
Back to your question….basically unanswerable from doors that fall off to heating elements that fail after 1 year. I think generally everything is impaired one way or another – seen some horrific expensive premature faults on expensive stuff bought by Henley on Thames Brigade – certainly compared to an ancient Belling, Karron, Tricity or 1960s Revo = all were expensive in relative terms back then but people could still afford them; ever wondered why we, as in general population, are getting so much poorer now? Well my East German mates found that out the hard way: dated East German electrical goods that were very well made and very affordable and fixable (but sold themselves out for a fast food beef burger) to expensive West German stuff that wasn`t a patch on their stuff and cost a fortune to get fixed….but I digress. You take pot luck BUT do your research watch for poor spares back-up with the cheaper off-beat brands in fact DO NOT GO THERE. Maybe a straight forward Zanussi or straight forward Bosch (if it exists) is a good compromise I had less trouble with those, still not brilliant though!.

[Gretus]

The extra – and extraneous – fangling, is a like a carrot on a stick, luring you away from the sad fact that the actual oven is barely fit-for-purpose.

Yes, those sliding doors look like bad news, so thank you for warning me.

I will look at spares back-up.

I’m now fervently hoping that mum sticks with the oven she’s got and that, bar bunging in a new element once in a while, it stays workable if not wonderful.

If there was an East German oven equivalent on the market, it’d be a no-brainer: solid, no frills, reliable, uncomplicated, fixable. Exactly what is needed. If, by some magical stroke of luck, we’d retained the old electric Belling cooker and used it to prop up a corner of the garage or something, I’d be seriously considering the viability of having it stripped down, fixed and reinstated. Sadly, it’s long gone.

There’s a gap in the market the size of a juggernaught. And nowt filling it.

Thank you for your comments, very much appreciated!

[Author]

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