Tiny rental kitchens often mean even tinier ovens. But with a little preparation and the right tools, cooking in your apartment's small oven can be efficient and effective.
Here are four hacks to make your small oven work for you:
1. Personal-pizza size baking stones. If you're getting into baking homemade bread or pizza, you're probably in the market for a pizza stone. Pizza stones help create that crispy crunchy texture that makes you wonder why you ever bothered with delivery pizza.
Trouble is, most of them are large and round—and in my case, too wide to fit in my rental's narrow oven. The solution came in the form of a set of six pizza tiles. Use one to make a personal pizza, or fit four to six of them together to create a long rectangular surface big enough to cook a large pie.
2. Tag-team your baking with a toaster oven. If you're hosting a dinner party, or just getting fancy with your dinner menu one night, chances are you'll find yourself needing to bake two things at once. Toaster ovens can help. These guys are surprisingly powerful and are a great option to bake side dishes or keep things warm while your other dishes finish. Check out these recipes to get inspired!
3. Split it up. Have a recipe that calls for baking in a 9x13 pan? Split it in half across two 8x8s. The smaller size will fit in your oven and splitting it up from the beginning makes it easy to save half your dish for later.
4. Think outside the apartment. There are lots of forums online for serious cooks and bakers working in less-than-ideal chef's kitchens. The Boat Galley.com has great advice for making the most of the small kitchens found on houseboats, much of which can be applied to your apartment-sized appliances.
Have a clever workaround to make the most of your tiny kitchen? Share it with us!
