Baking Basics: Is it Necessary to Preheat the Oven?
Preheating the oven. How many times have you looked at a recipe and step one is preheat your oven? *Recipe source: Popovers from New York Times But is it really necessary? The answer is yes... and no. As a general rule, it entirely depends on what you're making, your ingredients and what your goal is when baking. *photo source: Electrolux First off, what are you making? If you are baking something, for example lasagne or a casserole, that is not going to rise in the oven it is absolutely not necessary to preheat the oven. You may need to bake it slightly longer without preheating the oven, but the oven doesn't really need to be hot before you place your dish into the oven. *photo source: which.co.uk Second, your ingredients. A while back, I wrote a blog about the difference between single and double acting baking powder. And we learned that single acting baking powder can be just as effective as double acting... if the baking powder is added to the batter n...