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Baking on a Bluestar

10 years ago

My husband and I are in the final weeks in deciding on appliances for our "new" kitchen. My current kitchen has a 13 year old 48" DCS dual fuel range. I love it. For my new kitchen, I am completely sold on the BlueStar cooktop and would love another 48" range - I just love the look. Here is my dilema - the gas vs. electric oven. I love to cook, but love to bake (I probably bake cookies, cupcakes, brownie twice a week). Can anyone with the BlueStar oven let me know how it is to bake in? If it's not great - I will go with the range top with 2 electric wall ovens. Thanks for your help!

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Comments (3)

jojoco
10 years ago
I had a blue star for 7 years until I sold my house. Loved it. Like you, I love to bake. It is great for baking. Only drawback is that it takes ages to preheat. (I had a 36" range).
Would buy another in a heartbeat.

Jo
brindamour
10 years ago
Hi Jen. I'm more of a cook than a baker, but since I do have a Bluestar I'll have a go at answering your question. I have the six burner range with convection fan in the oven. Because the oven is larger than most (I can fit three full size sheet pans in it at one time -- hooray!) it takes quite a bit longer to heat than standard sized ovens.

That issue aside, I have found that it bakes wonderfully, regardless of whether I use convection or not. If you are used to electric, then gas would certainly be a change if you go that route, but once you adjusted I think you'd like it. My cakes, brownies and everything else have come out great -- I am very pleased every time I bake something. Browning is very even and all goods have been moist and evenly cooked throughout.

Really, what it comes down to is personal preference. I considered electric wall ovens (because electric is what I had been used to), but again I had to weigh the fact that I bake less often than I cook. I do love everything about my Bluestar. It doesn't have any fancy bells and whistles like Wolf or DCS, but that is what drew me to it. I like it's simplicity and the fact that the range as a whole was made for performance.

My range is now seven years old (can't believe it's been that long since the kitchen remodel!) and has never had any issues. I attribute that to the fact that it doesn't have any electronics that can be easily fried by high heat output. If you like cook as well as bake, I think you'd enjoy having a Bluestar.

If I can answer any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Another Jen
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Sorry, just took a look at this thread again and noticed your question...by the time I got to Miele, I had decided on induction, so I didn't give the Miele an actual test drive. I did give it a pretty thorough inspection at the Miele place, though, and thought it was a very sexy range -- and the performance seemed very similar to the Wolf dual fuel. I say that b/c the Miele also has the stacked burners, which I really liked, but the BTUs are higher than Wolf (which top out at around 16k, I believe -- Miele was closer to 20k or so -- I can't quite remember). The Miele ovens on the 48" range were very nice -- the smaller one is a speed oven, and the bigger one is a regular convection. The speed oven wasn't a big plus for me personally, since I really wanted a steam oven as a second oven, but there are people on this forum who love their speed ovens. One thing I really liked about the Miele oven, which Wolf doesn't have, is the burst of steam option, which is great for baking (you can program up to 3 bursts of steam for up to 6 min. each during cooking). I didn't care that much about the MasterChef options on Miele, but again, others love these. At any rate, the Miele seemed very similar to the Wolf, I liked the steam option on the oven better and liked the Miele burners better (also, if you're interested in a grill, theirs was excellent and seemed very similar to the Wolf, which I think is the best in the business). If I had stuck with a range, I would have been very tempted by the Miele.
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JenMc
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for all of the feedback. After reading your comments, I am going to go with the 48" range! Thanks again!

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