Have an 8 year old who loves to bake. She is gluten free, so never got an easy bake oven. I would like to get something smaller than the big oven that she can bake stuff in. It would also be used for cooking in general, as we have a really old oven in a rental house that I don't always like using.
The NuWave looks interesting. Would an older child be able to use it? Any other suggestions?
Thanks.
I live in a rental apartment that only has a small kitchenette, that has NO oven at all. just a couple gas burners. For the past decades, I have relied on large size toaster ovens for all my broiling of meats & fish, and baking.
When the current one wears out, I am definitely getting a convection toaster oven, so I can cook things faster. My cousins do catering. When I worked with them, catering various holiday office parties, often we'd have to set up the temporary kitchens in the back hallways & storerooms. We used 4 small, (household, not industrial) countertop DeLonghi convection ovens, in which we were constantly filling with hors d'oeuvres that had to bake and crisp up quickly. That certainly sold me on convection toaster ovens. Foods that normally would have taken 20 minutes in a regular toaster oven were cooking up in about 14 minutes.
One thing I would suggest and that is a must for me is an
automatic shut-off timer. I prefer a knob dial I have to
turn to set the time, rather than a digital display. Many times, when I'm trying to set the digital time on my microwave oven too quickly, I have accidentally set the wrong amount of time. It's all too easy to accidentally hit the zero twice. So, instead of setting it to cook for 2:00 minutes, I have accidentally hit 20:00 minutes.
I only catch it as I'm listening for the beeps. But a child might not catch it and set the length of time too long, so that the food catches fire in an oven.
With a knob dial, I just turn it to the 12 minute mark for a chop. Even if I go off and forget about it, I know it will turn off in 12 minutes not accidentally an hour and 20 minutes. When I finally get back to it, it's not been cooking beyond that time, getting burnt. I flip the chop then set it to finish the second side. Again, if I'm to busy to get to it, it's turned off.
If you need to, you can draw a red line on the dial with red nail polish, to a time for your DD to never dial past, say 20 minutes. (Food should be checked on periodically anyway.
) Even though you will be supervising her cooking, it would be a great safe-guard, in case there ever is a time she decides to "help" by putting something in the oven while you are busy on the phone or something.
SO nice not to turn on a regular oven !
