Bottom of food burning

I am sure this has happened to everyone. The bottom of cakes, muffins or pizza being burned. A lady at our TM dealer told me if you take a cermaic tile the 12inch one works the best. put it in the lower shelf of the oven. The one with the holes, and it will distribute the heat better and cook things more evenly! Maybe this is old news to some of you but I was thrilled at how well it worked! Just make sure if you are cooking pizza or something that could drip not to let it drip on the tile cause it will break. When we travel i just (I know another thing to remember) wrap it in a dish towel or oven mits to keep it from bouncing around so much.

Audra K

Using the tile is a great idea!

I finally figured out that I could keep my biscuits from burning on the bottom by turning them over halfway thru their baking time.

I've used a tile and had trouble with them breaking. Have you found any type of tile that tends to hold up better?

The tip on turning biscuits over is a good one.

We really like our oven and use it a lot. Sometimes I make up yeast roll dough and keep it in the refrigerator. Each evening I pinch off enough for rolls that night, let them rise and bake. The dough will easily keep 3 to 4 days.

I use the one with the glaze on it. I have had the same one for a year and I use my oven often.  I have not had trouble.  My mother has had trouble when stuff has dripped down on it.  

I think that tiles with glaze should be avoided. Only use an unfinished tile. A pizza stone, and a thermometer  is your best  bet.

My wife is a potter and she just said no glaze. Reasons, (1) some glazes for low fire (read oven) temps will give off lead or other types of fumes. (2) the glaze expands and contracts at different rates than does the clay the tiles are made from. This results in cracking sometimes with force (called an explosion)

Hope this helps.

[Carol]

Audra_K-

Does placement of the tile on the bottom of the oven cause ventilation problems within the oven?  If I am reading your post correctly, you place the tile on the floor of the oven.

When baking muffins, I have used an oven thermometer to get the temperature right. The built in one is a little high on  my oven. I do turn the pan half way though baking.

I do like the tile or pizza stone idea, though.

Carol

Another thing to try is one of those "air bake" sheets. The baking sheets that are kind of thick to allow the air right underneath your biscuits or whatever to heat evenly. I use them a lot at home, but haven't tried one in the TM yet. Has anyone got any experience with these in the TM's oven?

[glow=red,2,300]Happytrails.........[/glow]

[kdrickard]

Just make sure if you are cooking pizza or something that could drip not to let it drip on the tile cause it will break.

Audra K

So I'm cooking pizza for the kids tonight at home and it got me thinking about this thread a bit and what might work best in the TM oven -- tile, pizza stone, etc. I don't have a clue or not if this would make a difference in helping the tiles not break if something drips on them, but..., what if you wrapped the tile in aluminum foil? I have not thought this through fully (or better yet tried it).

Hypothesis: ??? It seems like it would either cause the tiles to break more often due to trapped moisture under the foil, or (hopefully) 8) insulate the tile from the temp difference of the drip that I assume would cause it to break.

Just an idea...

Kevin