How Long Do I Have to Preheat The Oven? Easily Explained

How long to preheat your oven

You must preheat an oven until it reaches the target temperature required by the dish you are baking. It usually takes 15 to 25 minutes for that to happen.

• It’s not just the oven itself that matters – older ovens take longer than modern ovens – but also the level of the target temperature. A temperature of 180 degrees is reached faster than 250 degrees.
• Most ovens have a small indicator light that lights up when the target temperature is reached.
• If your oven doesn’t have this, or if you always want to know exactly how hot your oven is, you can get an oven thermometer.
• When preheating, remove all baking sheets from the oven. The unnecessary heating consumes energy.
• Also, if you put your dish on a hot baking sheet, you’ll be subjecting it to heat shock which can ruin it.

When to preheat and when to leave it out

There are few dishes that only work well in a preheated oven. You can also put many things in the cold oven, even if preheating is recommended in the recipe or on the preparation instructions.

• Delicate doughs, such as biscuit dough or puff pastry, must be baked at a constant temperature in order to achieve the desired consistency. You should therefore only put them in the oven when it has already reached the target temperature.
• You should also preheat your oven when making bread or any other pastry that you want a crispy crust.
• You can also put most of the other dishes in the cold oven, but they turn out just as well. These include, for example, casseroles, roasts, yeast cakes, frozen meals, or baked potatoes.
• You can then no longer rely on the baking time given in the recipe or on the packaging but have to decide for yourself when the dish is ready.