JJ Lighting & Electrical - Home Electrical Centre

Double oven, ceramic top, fully programmable timer

It’s becoming the more modern thing these days to have built-in ovens and hobs in kitchens. However, there are still plenty of older kitchens which are fitted with freestanding cookers, but you would be forgiven for thinking that development had ground to a halt, such is the lack of interest shown by many maufacturers now. So while such developments as pyrolytic self-cleaning ovens and induction hobs are hard to find, there are still a few good solid machines out there.

One of our best-selling has always been Creda’s entry-level 60cm ceramic model. We’ve always thought it offers excellent value for money, and the latest version, the C367, continues the trend. Available in basic white but also in black or stainless steel (at extra cost), it might never set the world on fire, but thanks to a few nice features it should never set your lunch on fire either! At £449 including free installation and disposal of your old cooker, it comes in at nearly £200 less than the equivalent ones from Cannon and Zanussi. So what do you get for your money? Two ovens, one of which is fan-assisted, a ceramic hob, and the usual scattering of extras.

The top compartment is a grill and an oven, the bottom is fan oven

The main oven is of course fan-assisted, incorporating Creda’s Circulaire system. This uses a circular element mounted around the fan itself, which heats the air directly as it circulates through the oven. Depending on what you’re cooking, most of the time you can run the oven at up to 20 degrees less than a conventional oven, and knock about ten minutes off the cooking time for each hour. Of course, the main bonus of a fan oven – the fact that the temperature is quite even throughout – still applies. A light is included in the main oven cavity, so you can sit and watch your food cooking – or, in my case, look on in despair as most of it escapes the inadequate dish and ends up all over the place. Not to worry though – the oven linings are made of a self-cleaning catalytic material, so as long as you cook at 220 degrees or above from time to time you shouldn’t need to break out the Mr Muscle too often.

Simple, well laid out controls are easy to use.

A clock and timer are provided if you want your food to be cooked for you when you get home (don’t we all!), and a minute minder can be set to beep when your food is ready.

Above the main oven is a second, smaller cavity. For this sort of money you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was just a grill, but in fact it is a full-on conventional oven too if you wish to use it as such. This provides top and bottom heat like cookers of old, and with no fan to circulate the air it’s ideal for smaller dishes or baking which needs to rise. Again, provided you cook at a hot enough temperature, the top oven should keep itself pretty clean. The grill, meanwhile, incorporates another long-standing Creda feature – a twin element. If you need to, you can of course use the full width of it and adjust the power too – but if you’re doing a single round of cheese on toast (as much as I can handle on a weekday morning), you can simply use the centre section and save electricity.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m not exactly a wizard in the kitchen – well, in my household a slightly less polite word is used actually – so now we come to my main area of interest; the ceramic hob. Yep, beans-on-toast time. Ceramic hobs have changed from a luxury to an essential over the past twenty years, and it’s easy to see why. Although still not quite as controllable as a gas hob, the latest generation of ceramic hobs are much improved. Four zones – “burners”, if you like – are provided, and one of them is a dual-zone one. This means you can choose to use just the centre section for something like a milk pan, or use the whole large zone for the Sunday fry-up for example. Even better, when you’re done and dusted, the plain glass hob can be cleaned simply by wiping it over. Perfect.

So there you are. The freestanding cooker may not have benefited from the development that the built-in models have, but anyone who’s enjoyed the current cooker for the last few years will be right at home here. And that sounds pretty good to me!

Hotpoint Creda 60cm wide Ceramic Double Cooker, £449 at time of writing.