Test Driving a New Stove.................

................And what better way than to bake bread.

Monday, Moe and I went into Victoria for a Dim Sum lunch. We also dropped into an appliance store just to look at range hoods. While there we saw a Whirlpool Range with Steam Clean and True Convection that was marked down big time because of a dent on the top frame. Price was $1399.00 marked down to $799.00. Seemed like a really good deal. We left there and went to two other appliance stores still looking at range hoods. And we started looking at other ranges and comparing prices to the "Scratch and Dent" one. Nothing came close. When we got home I called the store and bought both the stove and the hood and even better, got them to reduce everything another $120.00.

The stove that we replaced was over 25 years old. It was here when we bought our home about 19 months ago. I kept waiting for it to die so I could buy a new one , but unfortunately it worked fine.

Curtis, one of our neighbours has a truck so he and Moe went back yesterday and picked up the new range and hood. While they were gone another neighbour, Erwin, removed the old hood and stove and was waiting to install the new one when it arrived. Everything was in place by about 2:30PM.

I just happened to have a double batch of French bread dough in the fridge. So what better way to test out the new oven.

The oven door has little dots on the glass so it was difficult to take a picture through the closed door.

Haven't started to brown yet. Still need to spray the loaves one more time.

Rotated the loaves. Now starting to brown.

The oven will never be this clean again.

Ready to come out of the oven.

Although I would like to say that the bread turned out better because of the new oven, I really can't. BUT, one thing I did notice is that the inside of this oven is larger. My stone has about 4 inches of space between the edge and the oven wall on both sides. The old stove only had about an inch or so of clearance. This means that I can get a larger stone and bake longer baguettes.