# I Burned The Brownies!



## ZHB (Mar 17, 2009)

Hi all~ so last weekend on our maiden voyage with the new OB, I made one terrible error (at least my kids thought so) - I burned the brownies! (The kids didn't realize the whole reason I made the brownies was to find out how the gas oven handled....)

I have never used a gas oven, much less one so small~ I put an oven thermometer in there, and it read about 25* low...of course with the little knob,there's not much precision in the temp control. I was thinking of putting a pizza stone in there to help regulate the heat - more specifically, I was thinking of a 12" square unglazed terracotta tile, which would accomplish the same result. I saw some references to people doing this elsewhere in the forum. Has anyone here had good results?


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## bbwb (Apr 4, 2008)

You are correct on the discrepancies between actual temperature and what is printed on the knob (ours runs much hotter). The best thing to do is get a good thermometer and try and figure out how much to turn the knob on either side of the printed temp. We have used our with various degrees of success.

bbwb


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

The stone (or tile) is the way to go. You need to cover the entire metal deck above the burner, just do not cover the vent holes in the deck. This help prevent the oven from cycling to much. Then use a second stone directly under the cookie, biscuit or brownies. Preheat oven and both stones and once you put the item to be cooked in the oven do your very best not to open until done. It will take a little practice but you will get it.


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## bradnjess (Mar 25, 2007)

CamperAndy said:


> The stone (or tile) is the way to go. You need to cover the entire metal deck above the burner, just do not cover the vent holes in the deck. This help prevent the oven from cycling to much. Then use a second stone directly under the cookie, biscuit or brownies. Preheat oven and both stones and once you put the item to be cooked in the oven do your very best not to open until done. It will take a little practice but you will get it.


I'm going to have to try this, there's nothing worse than biscuts burnt on the bottom and half done on top.








Where might one get an unglazed terracotta tile, I would imagine everything at a box store would be glazed. We have a pizza stone for home but I'm thinking a tile would be a bit cheaper. Thanks,

Brad


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

CamperAndy said:


> The stone (or tile) is the way to go. You need to cover the entire metal deck above the burner, just do not cover the vent holes in the deck. This help prevent the oven from cycling to much. Then use a second stone directly under the cookie, biscuit or brownies. Preheat oven and both stones and once you put the item to be cooked in the oven do your very best not to open until done. It will take a little practice but you will get it.


Ah...we only used 1 stone and had problems.

Thanks Andy, we can now attempt to use the oven again.


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## zachsmom (Aug 17, 2008)

You can also move the oven rack up to the top setting, that helps with uneven temps when you don't have a stone.

Last trip, I moved the rack up and just checked often and the brownies came out just fine. We cooked a ham in there with the rack in the lower position and it was fine. We don't have the stone yet but will be getting one soon....

Now, if we just ate fruit instead of brownies, there would be no problem....


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

Yup, I made toast of the brownies at first too. I used one left over 12x12 ceramic tile from our bathroom remodel. Works great and no unintended toast since







We even shattered the tile when some liquid spilled on it while hot and it still works fine. Just gottta diffuse that very hot direct heat coming off the burner.


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## brenda (Jan 3, 2007)

Oven,, so that is what that thing with the handle is for.. I havent used it in the last 3 RVs we owned.. We take brownies if we want them,haha. We do all our cooking on the grill or on a hot plate outside.. When we sell we can really show them a brand new oven.


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## ALASKA PFLOCK (Jun 24, 2007)

Mmm...Burnt brownies, just like mom made.







We have found that a round pizza stone placed on the bottom rack at its lowest setting works great. No more hockey puck sweet rolls!


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## anne72 (Apr 27, 2007)

We made cinnamon rolls the first trip out and I burned them badly, enough that I had to throw away the pan! I gave up after that, although I do have a pampered chef stone that would fit in there. I'll have to give it a try!


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## ZHB (Mar 17, 2009)

You can get the tile at Home Depot or Lowe's (or whatever big box store is in your area.) Just looks for the ugly, plain ones on the bottom shelf. Supposedly some of the glazing can cause issues with repeated heating & cooling (i.e. poisonous gases.)

The whole point of the tile is thermal density, as it heats up and distributed the heat more evenly in the oven... altho in the tiny oven we have, it would also help to put a thermal barrier between the food & the flame. Same basic idea - it would spread the heat to the sides of the oven instead of right in the middle.


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

ZHB said:


> ... Supposedly some of the glazing can cause issues with repeated heating & cooling (i.e. poisonous gases.)


I was once concerned about this, but was then informed that the tiles are fired at well over 1000 degrees in the kiln when they are made. So my measly 350 degrees is not likley to get them hot enough to do any harm.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

ZHB said:


> You can get the tile at Home Depot or Lowe's (or whatever big box store is in your area.) Just looks for the ugly, plain ones on the bottom shelf. Supposedly some of the glazing can cause issues with repeated heating & cooling (i.e. poisonous gases.)
> 
> The whole point of the tile is thermal density, *as it heats up and distributed the heat more evenly in the oven... altho in the tiny oven we have, it would also help to put a thermal barrier between the food & the flame*. Same basic idea - it would spread the heat to the sides of the oven instead of right in the middle.


Thats why you use two stones. One for oven heat distribution and the other to prevent the brownies from burning.


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## WIOutbacker (Feb 12, 2006)

brenda said:


> Oven,, so that is what that thing with the handle is for.. I havent used it in the last 3 RVs we owned.. We take brownies if we want them,haha. We do all our cooking on the grill or on a hot plate outside.. When we sell we can really show them a brand new oven.


Same here. Only things we use the inside oven for is to store the instructions for the oven. All of our cooking is done on a grill, in a dutch oven, or an electric griddle.


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## Ridgway-Rangers (Apr 18, 2008)

California Jim said:


> ... Supposedly some of the glazing can cause issues with repeated heating & cooling (i.e. poisonous gases.)


I was once concerned about this, but was then informed that the tiles are fired at well over 1000 degrees in the kiln when they are made. So my measly 350 degrees is not likley to get them hot enough to do any harm.
[/quote]

After our first cooking experiance, I thought the oven might be at 1000 degrees. Yup, brownies. Since, a pizza stone and cooler oven temp have solved the proble. you cant beat the smell of brownies or cookies cooked fresh.








Brian


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## folsom_five (Jan 10, 2008)

Ridgway-Rangers said:


> ... Supposedly some of the glazing can cause issues with repeated heating & cooling (i.e. poisonous gases.)


I was once concerned about this, but was then informed that the tiles are fired at well over 1000 degrees in the kiln when they are made. So my measly 350 degrees is not likley to get them hot enough to do any harm.
[/quote]

After our first cooking experiance, I thought the oven might be at 1000 degrees. Yup, brownies. Since, a pizza stone and cooler oven temp have solved the proble. you cant beat the smell of brownies or cookies cooked fresh.








Brian
[/quote]

Brian,
We baked some chocolate chip cookies at Seacliff last year, and you wouldn't believe how many people walking by commented on the wonderful smell coming from our trailer.

--Greg


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## Collinsfam_WY (Nov 9, 2006)

In our oven I didn't use a pampered chef baking stone or a ceramic tile (or 2 as suggested) the reason being I was trying to be very aware of the added weight in our trailer since it was our first time towing a travel trailer. 
What I did instead was to fold heavy duty foil over itself until I had a nice thick pad of it (6-10 layers). I placed that in the oven under the rack but on top of the metal shelf. I also use an oven thermometer that I bought at walmart for $5 or so. My oven is about 25 degrees low unless I want to let it preheat for 30 minutes. I have baked biscuits, cinnamon rolls, muffins, stuffed jalapenos and many other things with no problems. Also the foil won't totally block the holes in the metal shelf since it isn't rigid. I think there are others on this board who have done the foil option as well. Since it worked for me I never tried the stones or tiles. Good Luck and let us know what ends up working for you!

Micah


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## Calvin&Hobbes (May 24, 2006)

After placing two cooking tiles in there, there's not much room for anything else!


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## bradnjess (Mar 25, 2007)

I just remembered my DW and I found a small air bake pan that was the perfect size for the OB oven earlier this year. Now I have to remember where we put it.









Brad


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## peacemakerpete (Mar 28, 2008)

Ridgway-Rangers said:


> ... Supposedly some of the glazing can cause issues with repeated heating & cooling (i.e. poisonous gases.)


I was once concerned about this, but was then informed that the tiles are fired at well over 1000 degrees in the kiln when they are made. So my measly 350 degrees is not likley to get them hot enough to do any harm.
[/quote]

After our first cooking experiance, I thought the oven might be at 1000 degrees. Yup, brownies. Since, a pizza stone and cooler oven temp have solved the proble. you cant beat the smell of brownies or cookies cooked fresh.








Brian
[/quote]

Hi
We use an INSULATED COOKIE SHEET (one with the air-sandwich in between the two aluminum surfaces). The cookie sheet is placed on the rack, and then the oven pan on top of that. I think this helps regulate the highs and lows out when the gas thermostat opens the oven burner. Works great for biscuits and pop+serve cinnamon rolls my DW likes to surprise us with. We had to shop for a SMALL cookie sheet. The local kitchen gourmet store had just the right size for our outback oven. NO MORE BURNED BROWNIES!!!

Peacmakerpete


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## The Stephensons (Jul 10, 2007)

I've been using Pampered Chef stoneware to actually bake/cook everything I make in the oven (in addition to a rectangle stone to distribute the heat) - everything now comes out perfect!


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## ss70chev (Sep 5, 2010)

I'm going to have to try this, there's nothing worse than biscuts burnt on the bottom and half done on top.








Where might one get an unglazed terracotta tile, I would imagine everything at a box store would be glazed. We have a pizza stone for home but I'm thinking a tile would be a bit cheaper. Thanks,

I have burned many biscuits on the bottom, but have finally come up with a solution. Cook them half of the time on the top rack and the other half on the bottom (broiler). This cooks them evenly on both sides.


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## 2girls4mom (Feb 26, 2012)

I had the same problem and know other folks have it too. I purchased the Pampered Chef stone bakers in the medium bar pan and 9x13 size. I no longer burn anything in the oven. I always carry along a cake mix and brownie mix to celebrate a birthday or create a wonderful dessert. In the PNW, if you limit your camping to just summer you would hardly camp. Some of our best trips have been in the pouring rain with a hot, bubbly, cheesy baked spaghetti from the oven. Don't be hesitant to use the oven, get stoneware, a tile or pizza stone to help you out.


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