Whether you’ve just unboxed a brand new oven or have been baking with the same one for years, it’s easy to forget that every oven has its own quirks. Spending a little time to understand yours can dramatically improve consistency in your bakes, and set you up for more predictable results. This is especially if you create your own content, recipes or even if you run a home-based baking business. Hence, I hope my baking tip on Essential Tips To Do with New Ovens would be helpful!

I am a proud owner of one really old oven and one new one.

Tefal Delice: Approx 32L, single heating element, age of at least 10 years, electric
Mayer MMO3501: Approx 35L, double heating elements, age of a day old, electric

The 5 tips I am sharing with you is tried and tested, and is what I do to break in a new oven, or to maintain an old one. Furthermore, this is very important for me when I get to a new venue and do demos or workshops!

1. Do A Burn-In

Before baking anything, especially with a new oven, run it at the highest temperature for 30 minutes. This helps burn off any manufacturing residues (if any), clears any lingering odours and ensures that the heating elements are functioning properly. Even with older ovens, doing this occasionally helps eliminate trapped smells and reset performance.

If your house or oven blacks out at this stage, it’s time to send it for a repair or to contact the manufacturer!

2. Check The Real Temperature

Most oven dials aren’t accurate, and they tend to drift over time. Place a simple oven thermometer inside and pre-heat to your usual baking temperature (I recommend 180C/350F since this is most often used). If the oven runs hotter or cooler, you will know how to adjust the recipes accordingly.

This is one of the easiest way to avoid underbaked centres or over-browned edges.

3. Run a Hot Spot Test

Ovens almost always heat unevenly. To find the hot and cold zones, bake a sheet of chocolate chip cookies or white bread without rotating the tray. Where they brown faster, these are your hot spots and where they stay pale, these are your cool zones. The best part of this would be getting a small treat at the end of this test!

This helps you to position your cakes and pastries more accurately, know where to place sensitive bakes (like macarons) and plan multiple trays more confidently. Ideally, they bake evenly!

4. Test Both Tiers, if you have Dual Heating

If your oven has multiple heating zones or shelves, bake the same item on both tiers simultaneously at least once. The goal is to see if they have the same doneness, texture and colour.

Some ovens have cooler bottoms, hotter tops or uneven convection distribution. Knowing this helps you to decide which tier is the unreliable one, how to plan multi-tray bakes and whether it’s better to just bake with a single tier.

5. For Content Creators, Test Your Angles

If you film your bakes, treat your oven like part of your studio setup. Try front-door shots, side lighting, warm interior glow shots and to see whether your oven window helps or hinders visibility. Getting familiar with how your oven works visually helps you capture cleaner, brighter footages and makes your baking tutorial looks way more polished.

Ultimately, your oven has a personality and it’s important to know it! No two ovens behave the same way. Running these simple checks once in a while keeps your baking consistent, saves time troubleshooting in the long run, and helps you confidently follow any recipe knowing exactly how your oven will respond.