For example, if you want to bake a chiffon cake, it is usually preheated to 180 degrees, then you need to set the oven temperature to 180 degrees in advance. Generally, you only need to wait 2 or 3 minutes in the oven. Seeing that the temperature in the oven has risen, put the prepared cake ingredients in and bake.
Preheating means to heat the oven for a while before baking food, and then put the food in when it reaches the predetermined temperature, instead of waiting for it to cool down before putting the food in.
Before baking food, the food is at room temperature. Generally, the temperature during baking is required to be more than 100 degrees or even 200 degrees. If you do not preheat, put the food directly into the oven. The oven is equivalent to slowly heating the food from room temperature to the set temperature;
If it is preheated, the food is equivalent to going directly from room temperature to the set baking temperature. The cooking method will obviously have different effects on the changes in the internal structure of the food during baking. For example, if a cake is baked without preheating, the texture will not be as fluffy as the cake after the preheating process.
Properly preheating your oven is the key to success in any baking process. It usually takes about 20 minutes for the oven to reach the desired temperature, so be sure to allow sufficient preheating time. Always measure oven temperature carefully with a free-standing oven thermometer. Never trust the temperature indicated on the thermostat dial - these temperatures are extremely unreliable.
Extended information:
Heat selection
Whether you are baking cakes, biscuits or quick bread, heat is a major reason for the failure of low-fat baking. Low-fat baked goods may look moist and undercooked, but that appearance may be just an illusion.
Low-fat cake baking has a different method of checking the heat than traditional baking. In full-fat baking, the most common way to check the heat is to insert a toothpick, or a thin wire cake tester, into the center of the cake.
If the toothpick comes out clean and does not have any uncooked batter on it, it means the cake is baked. But the toothpick test does not apply to reduced-fat baking, which requires other visual and tactile inspection methods to ensure that the baked goods are cooked properly. The same goes for muffins and quick breads.
1. In order to avoid over-baking, check whether the heat is on point at the beginning of the specified time range.
2. Unless otherwise specified in the recipe, the top of the baked product will bounce back when you gently press the center part of the baked product.
3. Brown the edges slightly and begin to peel away from the sides of the baking pan. Some quick breads will develop a large crack from top to bottom - this is normal.
Bake the biscuits until the edges are lightly browned. While the centers may appear half-cooked, they will firm up as they cool. Pie crust should be baked until browned. If the pie crust is overcooked before the filling is done (the center of the pie should jiggle only slightly when you shake it), wrap it in aluminum foil to protect the crust from mishaps.
Reference source: Baidu Encyclopedia-Oven preheating