Baking 101: a series of how-tos and what’s-what when it comes to home baking. The small stuff, explained.
If you don’t know it by now, baking can be tricky. What’s tricky is that, when you read a recipe (and you should totally read a recipe before you get in the kitchen) it’s hard to know which steps are super important, and which steps you can flub a bit.
Here’s how most of my recipes start:
“Place a rack in the center or upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. ”
Yes… I’m bossy enough to tell you exactly where to place the rack in your own oven. Some nerve, right? Sooooome nerve. The bossy has a function- to our wild baking success.
First let’s talk about ovens. See, there’s a difference in heat-force in different parts of the oven hot-box. Most ovens have two heating sources, one at the bottom of the oven and one at the top. When we turn the oven on to preheat, usually both heating elements activate to heat the oven. Once the oven has come to our desired temperature, the bottom heat source is what occasionally kicks in to maintain the temperature of the oven.
Hot air rises, so the top of the oven is actually consistently hotter, while the bottom of the oven will heat in bursts to maintain the overall temperature.
The bottom oven rack is great for crust breads and pizzas… baked goods that you want to intensely brown on the bottom.
The top oven rack is great for things you’d like a crusty brown top on… things like pies and casseroles.
The middle oven rack is the happy place where air is circulating, the heat sources are evenly distributed, and tops and bottoms aren’t in danger of burning or browning too quickly. It’s the perfect place for cakes, cookies, and brownies to stay and bake.
If you’ve got a busy oven and you’re baking more than one pan of something at a time, be sure to rotate the baked goods between racks. For example, if you have two sheet pans of cookies baking at once, swap the bottom pan to the center, and the center pan to the bottom halfway through baking. The same goes for cake layers though be careful to let the cake set before moving the cake around in the oven… it may collapse.
Here’s the thing, just because you start on one rack, doesn’t mean you’re married to it! Moving baked goods around the oven will help to evenly bake our baked goods. Think about what you want from your baked good and go for it.
For pies, you want a burst of heat to set the pie crust to flakey, time in the oven to set the filling, and some quality time at the top of the oven to brown the crust. For this reason, we can start a pie on the bottom rack to brown the bottom crust, move it to the center rack for a majority of the baking time, and finish the oven on the top rack to brown the crust. See? That’s an even bake.
For pizzas you want a crisp crust and a browned bubbling top. Now that you know where the heat lives in the oven, start by baking pizza in a hot hot oven on the bottom rack and once it’s cooked through, move it to the top rack to brown the cheese (maybe even kick in the broiler if you’re feelin’ it!).
With a little bit of oven knowledge, knowing where heat comes from and how it lives, the power is yours. Placement is key, but you’re not married to one oven rack.
When in doubt, stick to the middle and don’t be afraid to adjust.
(For the purposes of this post I’m talking about electric and gas ovens. We’ll talk about convection ovens in a few weeks!)
Here’s more knowledge in the Baking 101 Series –
Baking 101: How To Frost A Cake
Baking 101: How To Brown Butter
Baking 101: My Favorite Vegan Egg Substitute
Baking 101: What’s In A Whisk?
Baking 101: How To Crack And Separate An Egg
Ezana
Do you think that the times used about 15 to 20 minutes is reliable with this technique? How much time should be dedicated to having the pizza in the bottom rack, rotating it, and then moving it to the top rack and doing the same?
Jen
“We’ll talk about convection ovens in a few weeks”
Did you ever get into that? Searching “convection” returns no relevant results on your site, and I was hoping for a post about it after reading this piece!
Jodi
I was wondering the same thing.
Jeffrey Donaldson
What about dark cake pan / Or the Williams Sonomas Gold Touch pans.I have both. I was told to drop temp from 350 degrees to 325 degrees. On the lower rack below the middle? I’m getting mixed results. Just wondering even with cupcakes? Thank You
Patsy
Hi! I´ve got an electic oven with 5 rack positions. Which one would you use to bake a PAVLOVA? The recipe says in a 110C fan forced oven. Thanks in advance. ..
Joy the Baker
I would choose the middle rack.
CYNTHIA L WILBERT
I don’t know where to place the roast.
I need to determine where the heat comes from.
Do I put it closest to the heat source.
Help!
Angela
Where is the middle rack on an electric oven with 4 rack positions? I’m having a hard time finding this answer. Thanks.
Abby Mallett
Hi there, I would probably put it on the second rack from the top to be safe. It would seem to be the nearest equivalent to the upper third. Hope this helps!
Siti
Can I place two pans next to each other on the same rack keeping an equal distance between them and around the sides of the oven? Will this affect the end result? Do I need to rotate the pan halfway through?
Abby Mallett
Hello! I would say if the rack is in the direct middle (the best place for cakes) you could set them both equidistant from each other on the same rack. And rotating the pans are never a bad idea! If it’s cookies I would set one on top one on the bottom and rotate halfway through. Happy baking!
Pamela
Will moving a cake to another rack during baking result in a sink hole ?
joythebaker
It really depends on when you move the cake. I would say don’t move a cake for at least 30 minutes of baking. The cake needs time to rise and set. Moving it before the rise has set can definitely result in a sink hole.
Glenda williams
Making a German chocolate cake three cake pans can I go on the same rack
Jasmine
My cake usually get drak brown and crusty. I use to bake on the last rack.from now on its middle rack. Thank you for info.
Cheryl
Thanks middle rack it is going forward