Got a nice surprise from FedEx on Saturday -- despite my refurb being scheduled for delivery on Tuesday, it managed to trek up from NJ in less than 24h. Put it to work pretty quickly:
Started with some single ingredient wonders. First, toast (no picture, sorry!) -- and I can see why people like the toasting function, though it's not someplace where I'm picky. I was worried the edges wouldn't be crisp but they were, despite a moister center. Wasn't using my usual bread, though, so will have to investigate further.
Second up -- oven fries, since we needed a quick snack. Two russets, peeled, cut, and tossed with oil:
Tried these on steam bake @ 400F for 20min, and they weren't quite done; flipped them and went for 10min more. The interior was amazing, though I didn't think the exterior was as good as ones I've done with the BSO convection setting.
Also tried a couple of beets per @weinoo 's method which came out nicely. Not hugely different than my Instant Pot results, but way less hassle -- no foil wrapping is a huge plus.
Sunday morning I needed to make bacon for breakfast, and decided to do a literal bakeoff:
Same bacon, same pan (TeamFar), same time. 400F convection in the BSO and 400F steam bake in the CSO. Both very good, and *very* similar. The BSO bacon was crisper, but the CSO had better flavor and rendering. I'd take either any day, though.
Final test -- bread. I won't duplicate my pics from the baking forum, but I'm very pleased at the results from a first effort. Frankly, I wasn't really sure my dough would even come out, so I didn't put much care into the process; I preheated the (empty) oven to 450F and then switched to the Bread cycle, also at 450F. (As an aside, the steam cycle was also really helpful for coaxing my very reluctant naturally leavened sourdough to rise in our over-airconditioned apartment.)
I'm definitely going to need a stone or skillet to get the results I want, and will need to play with the cycles / timing; I pulled it a little early due to the browning on the top, and didn't get much color on the bottom. Fantastic oven spring, though.
I think I've seen others here post about preferring the Steam Bake cycle to the Bread cycle for bread baking. I'll probably review those posts and try that next. I'm curious, though, if anyone has played with Super Steam in their bread-baking process? Since that only uses the bottom element, I would think that starting on Super Steam and then switching to Convection Bake might prevent over-browning on the top rack.
