The Easy Way To Find Hot Spots In Your Oven Without Wasting Bread

Some bakers may notice that their baked goods are coming out uneven, when a cookie on the left side of the pan is beautifully browned and a cookie on the right is offensively burned. This is because some ovens have hot spots, which are places in an oven that get hotter than other spots. While many are familiar with using bread to find hot spots on a grill, there is an easier, more affordable way to check for hot spots without wasting a loaf of bread.

Instead of bread — or any food at all — a piece of parchment paper will do the trick. By covering a pan in a piece of parchment paper, placing it on the middle rack, and turning the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, the paper will show where the hot spots are by displaying a darker color in those particular areas. And while the aforementioned bread hack would also work in the oven, a sheet of parchment paper will be a lot less costly (but also, sadly, a lot less tasty).

Hot spots are more likely to appear in particular sections of an oven. This may be in the back of the oven, the top rack, and around direct heat sources (near coils, burners, or corners). While each type of oven has specific places where hot spots occur most often, doing the parchment paper test will confirm suspicions and allow bakers to be able to combat these spots when cooking in the oven.

Being aware of the best rack on which to cook your dish is also a great way to combat the hot spots. While the middle rack is best for baking large dishes that simply need to be cooked, the top rack may provide a crispy, sometimes singed top (which is why you shouldn't bake cookies on the top rack). The bottom rack, on the other hand, is great for browning pie crusts and frozen pizzas. Once you suss out where the hot spots are in your oven, you never have to sacrifice another row of cookies to the baking gods.