A microwave oven is one of the most important and most-used kitchen appliances used for cooking food as well as snacks in your kitchen. Substituting the traditional cooking methods with a microwave oven for baking simplifies the task at hand and saves you a lot of cooking time.
With the advent of cutting-edge technology, traditional kitchen appliances have also evolved into smart cooking gadgets.
They come with some excellent features, such as built-in auto-cook menus. Features like these can significantly reduce a home chef’s learning curve and create delicious meals.
If you’re wondering if you can use a microwave oven for baking, there are a few specifics you should be aware of.
We’ll cover all of the questions and answers in this article, so make sure you read until the end.
Can You Use a Microwave Oven For Baking?
Long story short, yes, you can use a microwave oven for baking! You can also use it for reheating food, defrosting, roasting, blanching, boiling, and steaming.
However, there are a few things you need to pay attention to when it comes to baking in a microwave oven. For instance, you’ll need to preheat it before baking. On top of that, baking larger quantities of food will take longer than in traditional ovens.
That said, if you have limited space and budget constraints, a microwave oven may be worth the buy. If you decide to go with a microwave oven for baking, you’ll still have to purchase the right kind with the right features and capacity for an effective appliance.
The Different Types Available
There are primarily 3 types:
- Solo
- Grill
- Convection
These ovens vary in size and capacity, ranging from 17 to 42 liters or 0.6 to 1.5 cubic feet.
Let’s discuss each of them in detail:
Solo Microwave Oven
The standard or solo microwave oven is the most basic. It’s designed to sit on countertops and is ideal for cooking simple recipes, defrosting, and reheating food.
Unlike convection and grill microwave ovens, it’s much cheaper and therefore can be found in most households.
Grill Microwave Oven
A grill microwave oven can do everything that a solo one does but better. Plus, it comes with an additional grilling function.
It has a heating element or tube attached at the chamber’s top (or bottom), generating heat and warming up or grilling the food. The grilling feature makes it possible to roast meat, veggies or other items.
The only downside to a grill microwave is that it doesn’t have fans to distribute the heat evenly.
Convection Microwave Oven
The convection microwave works with a built-in fan that evenly circulates the air inside the oven chamber, spreading the heat uniformly around food.
This microwave version is capable of more advanced tasks or can be used as a standard microwave oven.
The uniform heating feature of convection microwaves makes it possible to use them for baking, grilling, cooking, roasting, heating and defrosting.
Which Microwave Oven For Baking is Best?
Convection microwave ovens are perhaps the best option for all types of cooking and baking. Its combined functionality of microwaving the food and cooking with radiant heat gives it the performance level of a typical conventional oven.
The built-in fan system that circulates hot air uniformly throughout the chamber helps spread the heat evenly and makes sure that your food is well-cooked, grilled, roasted, or baked.
Remember to check the wattage of your convection oven before you start using it. This wattage can range from anywhere between 800 watts to 1600 watts. Keep in mind that, as the wattage varies, so does the cooking time and temperature.
Is a Microwave Oven Safe to Use?
Microwave ovens are a safe and efficient tool for cooking. There’s no objective evidence that proves that they’re harmful to your health.
However, there are specific measures that you can take to protect yourself from potential harm:
- Avoid using plastic containers when cooking or microwaving.
- Make sure that your food is cooked and heated evenly.
- Understand that microwave radiation has very little chance of having any negative effect on your health.
READ MORE: Microwave Ovens & Health
Pros
- More energy-efficient than a conventional oven. Features like automatic mode and humidity sensors easily adjust the cooking time and save substantial amounts of energy.
- Offers several additional features like child lock, auto recipes, cooking menus, defrosting settings, and more.
- They can safe you time preparing and cooking meals.
- A microwave has the upper hand when it comes to price, compactness and mobility.
Cons
- You can’t use solo and grill-type microwaves for baking.
- While convection microwaves are the most ideal for baking, they’re more costly than grill or solo microwaves.
- The rotating disk often restricts the size of the baking tray or tin.
- Convection microwaves can only be used for single-use baking.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: Do All Microwaves Have the Same Wattage/Power?
A: No, many models come with multiple power levels and different options for each function based on whether you’re cooking, baking, grilling, microwaving, etc.
Q: Do They Come With Built-in Air Circulation?
A: Only convection microwave ovens come with built-in fans that circulate warm air evenly throughout the chamber.
Q: Is the Exterior of Safe to Touch?
A: Ovens can get very hot when in use. So, it’s advisable to use oven mits when opening and closing while they’re still in use.
Conclusion
A convection microwave is the way to go if you’re looking for a microwave oven for baking. However, it’s prudent to mention here that you can only bake a limited number of items at once.
If you’re looking for the most cooking space, go for a baking oven; and if it’s a varied cooking experience that you want, a microwave will efficiently serve this purpose.
There are a plethora of options to choose from, depending on size, capacity and price.
So make sure you know what you want in a microwave oven for baking before deciding on one. Keep scrolling through more home and kitchen appliance reviews for more cooking-related advice, tasty recipes and the newest products!
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