August 23, 2008 - 10:48pm
Kitchenaid steam assist convection oven
Does anyone know anything about these Kitchenaid ovens with built-in steam assist technology?
http://www.kitchenaid.com/catalog/product.jsp?src=Compare&categoryId=124&productId=1318
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Paul,
Best to get a baking stone and a stainless steel cover. The bread is baked underneath the SS cover for the first 15 minutes of the bake. It's called cloaching. The cover keeps the space around the bread very moist during the spring rise of the bake and begins the development of the chewy, crunchy sourdough crust. Most of us have tried pouring water or tossing ice cubes into a hot cast iron frying pan to develop a steam blanket. I even tried using a roasting bag just to see if would work (it did). I bought a deep (8 inches) half size steam tray pan at a restaurant supply for the cover. It's now standard equipment. One other point with the cloach method is doesn't matter whether you have a gas or electric stove. The results remain the same for either...,
Wild-Yeast
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They are incredibly expensive for starters and the reviews haven't been great. I guess trying to get them serviced is not easy. I'd certainly check some review sites before expending the money for this oven. I'm with YW - a stainless steel cover works great and the price is right!
Trish
OK, thanks for the comments. I realize that part of the fun of this whole enterprise is getting creative and trying new things. With a steam assist oven I'd be locked into one way of doing things. And expensive and apparently bad service. So thanks for bringing me back to planet Earth.
If the oven works the way commercial ovens work, you control how much - if any - steam to use. Normally, you use a bit of steam at the start of the bake. After that, no more.
There is a tremendous difference between steaming and baking.
Still, it's a lot to spend on an oven that may be somewhat unreliable and hard to get fixed.
Mike
While I know that this is an old thread, I am new to this board and wish to tell everyone about my new steam oven. We had been looking for an extra oven because my bread baking always seemed to conflict with the rest of the meal. The wall ovens we looked at were expensive and nothing special...except maybe the kitchen aid steam assist. We had been looking at a Cadco half size oven for awhile when they launched a new line not too long ago.
http://www.cadco-ltd.com/ovens-full.html
The company operates out of Conn. but the ovens are made in Italy. We had it to our door for half the cost of the Kitchen Aid and it is an amazing thing. It has a convection fan that is so powerful that it can blow the pepperonis off your pizza and reverses every 2 minutes. It has the ability to put in 70 different programs with varying the time, temp, and humidity from 0-100%. It is well insulated and stainless throughout. They are all the rage in Europe and are popular in small restaurants and coffee shops.
I did call King Arthur when we got it to ask about times and humidity and the baker I talked to was stunned that I had a steam oven in my home. He promptly wrote down all the information and was going to look into it. It has done wonders for my breads, but I don't like it for quick breads. We have done roast chicken in it and it's wonderful. We have had it since July and we are still learning all it can do. The people at Cadco are great and will answer any question you might have. The steam is pumped thru a tube that you drop in a gallon of distilled water and I use a gallon about every 8 weeks baking 4-5 days a week.
I'll be glad to answer any questions that you all may have. My icon is my oven!
Cheers,
Stefania
Oops, forgot to say we bought the XAF-115. It takes 220v and a Nema 6 plug so we had to have an electrician install one.
Stefania
I have been looking at steam ovens - particularly ovens that will manage a high volume of bread baking for home consumption.
Viking had a steam oven that it has since discontinued.
I've heavily considered the Gaggenau Combi-Steam oven (but at *gasp* $7k - it's too much)
The Kitchenaid KEBU107SSS is now the front runner. It's $2,800. (I need to clarify if it's hard-plumbed or uses a resevoir. My preference is hard-plumbed.)
I considered Cadco, but a size comparable to the Kitchenaid runs almost $4,500. I also didn't care for the Cadco website as the images for the XAF ovens are digital renderings rather than real photo's. I actually would like to see real photo's to get an idea of how the panel really displays and the overall look of the oven - especially the clarity of the glass. Digital renderings don't quite give that.
I like the French-door style of American Range which will be the oven above whatever steam-convection oven we ultimately choose.
Any other steam-combi ovens out there?
A gaggenau combi-steam. Wish I had known about cadco when built our new and LAST house. Our oven needed plumbing, too. Does the Cadco require plumbing?
Pam
The Cadco does not require any special plumbing. It has a tube with a weight on the end that comes out of the back that you merely drop into a jug of distilled water. It works well and we still love the oven. However, since posting last , we accidentally touched (very lightly) the front glass panel with a pot and the tempered glass exploded. They wanted over $200 to replace it, but my husband cut out some plexi-glass and screwed it in since there is airspace between and it doesn't really get hot....a much cheaper solution.
We have also been producing wonderful pizza at the 500 degree setting using an aluminized steele plate from Instawares I believe. It was about $35 and works so much better than a stone. In fact, they have also come out with a plate that fits over the convection fan so you can cook more delicate types of pastry which I may try. Regardless, we still love the oven.
Stefania
Well, just looked at both links, and there's about a $600 difference between the KitchenAid and the Cadco XAF-115. Not much more for the K/A, is it?
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