Go to a store where you can use the cooking appliances. Miele and Wolf both have their own showrooms in several major metro areas plus stores like Pirch have the appliances set up for demos. Make sure both can be easily serviced in your area.

Good advice from Stan. Both are good. You don't need to choose one or the other. I have a wolf cooktop, Miele fridge and freezer, and three other makers as well.

I went with an all Miele kitchen. Too many people blindly put Wolf/SZ in kitchens, I try to be a little different. I also had concerns about the porcelain flaking issues with the Wolf ovens. I liked the sleek look of Miele better and I liked that the CSO has a broiler. I have Miele CSO, 30" convection oven, 30" induction cooktop, hood, dishwasher and the bottom freezer fridge.

The Miele, Thermador, and Bosch column refrigerator/freezers all come out of the same factory in Turkey. It is very helpful to find an appliance store that has all the manufactures on the same showroom so you can compare the differences. There are subtle differences in lighting and bin/rack configuration that for some people will make a significant difference.

Cookies baked in my brand-new Wolf E-series wall oven and dual-fuel range oven overbake outside and underbake inside--no matter how I've adjusted time and temperature. Slightly better results using Convection Bake setting, but not very good. There is a wide swing of oven temperature during baking, although a service tech tested both ovens and said the temperatures were within "acceptable" range. These ovens are the worst for cookies that I've ever used. Anyone else have this problem?

Janehorn,

I'm not a big cookie maker, however I made some last month and they came out perfect. Overall, I LOVE our Wolf ovens and I bake a lot. We have the L Series electric wall ovens and the combi steam oven. We also love our Miele dishwasher.

MJ

I have a Wolf DF 36" range and have not had problems like that but a couple of questions.

How long are you preheating? For baking, you need to preheat a good 30 minutes and maybe more for the range oven if it is 36". It takes this long to stabilize.

Since you said you have temperature swings, I assume you are checking with a separate thermometer. What type of thermometer(s) are you using? Where are you putting it/them? How does temp correlate in different parts of the oven with the set temp. What is the swing on 250, 350 and 450? Is this with the door closed? I would first test it without food and without opening the door just to see what it does.

What type of oven did you have before? Are these recipes you have baked before?

A service tech for Wolf appliances did a temperature test with his professional digital thermometer (probe inside, readout outside the oven). He averaged his numbers over a period of time and the result was acceptable to him. He noted that even though the oven dinged when reaching the preset temp, it needed 30 minutes to stabilize, as you said. These are recipes I've made countless times in my former oven with success. Will have to keep at it until I figure it. out

It might be that your old oven was the one that was off but that is what you were used to and worked for your recipes. Ovens can vary considerably. If the longer preheat doesn't help, I would turn it down by 25F and maybe more.

Convection should make this more of an issue though unless you turned the temp down at the same time. The fan dries the outside of the cookie and promotes browning. It also accelerates heat transfer. It could appear done before the inside has a chance to cook.

One thing I like about Wolf is that they have two fan speeds, at least mine does. They don't mention it but you can hear the difference in the convection (high) and convection bake(low).

Janehorn,

My suggestions are more baking advice then appliance... First, I would suggest considering the pans you are using, if they are dark that could add to the uneven baking issue. I would also say that it may be worth refrigerating the dough in advance and taking it out for the 30 minutes you preheat.

Hope that helps,

T

Thanks, all. I am trying various combinations of time and temperature (and settings--Convection Bake or. Standard) for a better result. I never use dark pans and I do chill the dough.