Loaf cakes

When I say loaf cake, I am not thinking of the french size long tin, which we refer to as “moule a cake”.  Yes, as funny as it is, we have a cake in France which name is the word “Cake” as such, that is in English! How funny!  I will do a post on this famous “cake” and the numerous derivatives mastered by the French, I am not kidding there are tens of books on those “cakes”.

Today I am speaking about the large ad generous loaf cakes.  They are not top elegant (like the “cake” cake) but are so comforting.  They also have a great advantage: they can feed a crowd!

Here are two of them: the classic australian banana cake and a quick orange cake which I am asking you to try because it is really worth it!

The classic banana bread

Yum! I am warning you :

  1. it is delicious
  2. it is nutritious and even more if you serve it with a salted caramel spread, it then becomes quite indulgent.

So freeze these very ripe bananas until you get a few and go for it! The recipe is HERE.

LOAF CAKE BANANA BREAD

The not so known quick orange cake

I like to think of that one as the “hubby bake”. If my husband was one day to bake a cake (he never has), he would like to put it all in the food processor, press start, transfer to the tin and bake. Well this is pretty much this cake! you put everything, the whole orange skin and all! I have made this orange cake again and again over the years.  The recipe is from a Australian Country Women cook book given to me by friends years ago (because they wanted to give me something Australian  and liked coming home for some meals!). Not sure if they are reading today but thank you!

This time I added some walnuts, but it is also great without. Just give it a try! The recipe is HERE.

No health warning here, butter has been swapped for oil.

orange cake loaf

School lunchboxes are back!

School lunchboxes are back!

Yeah, yeah.  In New South Wales, school starts officially tomorrow.  We have just moved house, still in Sydney but on an island! I managed in time to get my baking goods out of boxes to prepare a great lunch box slice for this week.

choc fondant slice

You can’t make it easier

This is as easy as it can get really.  There are 4 ingredients, no cooking skills required (i.e. make your child mix it all) and it is ready and baked in a flash!

Hopefully you have a can of sweet condensed milk in the pantry.  I had to buy one to do it tonight, I found that recipe or variations of it on many french websites when emptying my pantry before our move.

Follow the link to the recipe

Go to the recipe HERE.  Have a go at it, it is pretty simple (and not just for children of course).

choc fondant slice

choc fondant slice, school lunchbox are back

 

 

 

My clafoutis story, with pits and stems!

Today is about my cherry clafoutis story. A few weeks ago, a friend asked me for a cherry clafoutis recipe. A clafoutis is a very simple dessert: a few fruits placed at the bottom of a dish on top of which you pour a simple batter.

I had not made a cherry clafoutis before, I guess the cherries somehow always appear to vanish too quickly from their bowl for that!  Find the guilty! I wish I had a cherry tree!

My cherry story

My grandmother in the Champagne area in France has this orchard that was quite magical for us kids.  Not only were there stories of old wells not to go near as we could fall into and disappear, but there were also a number of fruit trees, including quite a few cherry trees along a white earth garden alley leading to a small door in the property wall facing the village’s church.  Those cherry trees were loaded with fruits at the start of summer.  My Grandma used to make preserves and fill these tall glass jars.  I have a very clear picture of those glass jars being brought to the kitchen one at the time when required, but don’t ask where they were kept (I don’t know).

Bonne Maman (this is how we called my Grandma) used the cherries mostly in cherry tarts, they were so delicious and beautifully presented on a glazed terracotta platter.  Those tarts are associated with Dad’s loud comment (he still brings it up when we mention those cherry tarts) that the cherries still contained the pits (which obviously annoyed him)!

Now why have I told you my childhood cherries story you wonder? Simply because the cherry clafoutis comes with its controversy about keeping or removing the pits!

Pits or no Pits?

A little bit of research has taught me that the cherry clafoutis originates from an area called Limousin, in central France. There, the clafoutis must be served with full cherries.  This makes sense, think that the clafoutis was a simple countryside dish (Limousin is essentially a rural area), why bother removing the pits? What a loss of time, removing all those pits!

I can only agree. I started removing the pits for my first clafoutis and realised quickly it was taking ages.  I stopped at half and decided to make 2 clafoutis to try the differences, one with and one without pit!

Here is the outcome:

  • With pits, the dish is neat and the fruits retain their juice;
  • Without pits, the juice of the fruits can freely run out of the cherries, it gives a runny look to the clafoutis which can be quite satisfying but when eating a cherry, it will have lost a fair amount of its taste.

clafoutis

Tip: to remove the pits easily, make a small cross cut with a sharp knife on the bottom part of the cherry.  Then using a chop stick, push the pit out by inserting it through the top where the stem was attached.  It works also well without the incision, but it gets really messy if you misfire the pit!

I preferred the cherry with pit version.

Now, my version of the clafoutis

Yes, with pits and stems!!! So fun!

clafoutis with pits and stem clafoutis with pits and stem

 

 

clafoutis with pits and stemThe batter of the clafoutis is normally just eggs, milk, flour and sugar.  With the cherries I found that utterly boring! The recipe needed something to marry the cherries well with the rest of the dessert.  My version swaps some of the milk for greek yoghurt.  It was perfect. And since I was not removing the pits, I decided to leave the stems as well! Now if you do that, make sure your children don’t pull out all of the cherries before touching the cake bit.  It is quite fun I must say.

Click HERE for the recipe.

Other tips about clafoutis in general:

Tip: use a deep dish.  You need the batter to be poured 4 to 5 cm thick (or the clafoutis may be dry).

Tip:  The clafoutis rises during baking.   So have a couple of centimetres of free board (it deflates when taken out of the oven)

Tip: I more generally make apricot clafoutis.  That recipe includes almond meal to soak up some of the juice made by the fruits while cooking.  Another great clafoutis is mirabelle (a type of plum) clafoutis.

The clafoutis keeps well for a day or two.

clafoutis with pits and stem

Two recipes for early January

Happy new year dear readers!

While on a claim for the perfect cherry clafouti, I have disgressed to other desserts.  So, no clafoutis stories this week, I have a couple more of them to make before that.

I am back in front of my computer (it went all the way to Singapore for repairs and back, there was a fan noises issue!).  Times have been busy, as always at this time of the year, even more for our family as we prepare to move house and have decided to renovate sections of the house we are moving to before getting there…

I am feeding you two desserts recipes in tune with January in Australia.

A lime & yoghurt cheesecake

Easy to make, no cooking required, perfect to support digestion (the yoghurt) on a hot day.  And what else than lime to finish diner when it is still over (or much over) 25 degrees out there.  It won’t take long to make, which is great as we are all making the most of summer and not much in the kitchen in this season.

You need to make it a day ahead. Apart from that, the recipe is yours! It is served with a berry coulis.  The desert is born from a need to empty my fridge, freezer and part of my pantry before the move.  I also had a number of limes which were getting on.

refreshing lime and yohurt cheescake

 

 

 

refreshing lime and yohurt cheescake

A chocolate galette des rois

Never heard about the galette des rois? It is a french tradition early January to invite family and friends to share the cake.  The galette refers to the celebration of the three kings bringing presents to the young Jesus, the Epiphany.  There is a little piece of ceramic, called “feve” in French which has been hidden during the making of the galette.  The one who has it in its piece of cake becomes the king!

The traditional galette des rois has a plain creme frangipane as a filling. This version has a chocolate filling (with almond that is).  This saves having to do a creme patissiere! It is seriously good!

And before you ask, yes, it is my making.  Just had a spare box and needed to keep it safe for a few hours!

chocolate and puff pastry kings pudding

 

The “Tough Cookie” post on coconut sugar…

Ever wondered about the trend for coconut sugar.  This post on coconut sugar by Nila who blogs on the “Tough Cookie” is pretty good in providing a nutritious review on coconut sugar.  I tend to be of the same opinion than Nila on the use of coconut sugar.

I read about coconut sugar through 2016, what the post does not go into is the sustainability of the production of coconut sugar. the topic is highly controversial.  Leave this to you do your homework there.

 

 

La bûche de Noël

La bûche de Noël, a French dessert of the Christmas period

A very merry Christmas to you dear readers.  Christmas is associated to many different food specialties, I am not telling you anything new there.  What is worth looking at is the diversity of the dishes regionally and/or between countries.  I love that variety of approaches (although I can tell you, I do not love all of the dishes!).   La buche de Noël is a typical French dessert at Christmas time.  It is only served on Christmas day but in that period of the year.

Bavarois Christmas log

The idea of that “bûche de Noël”

A bûche de Noël is a “log”, it represents a section of a tree log.  In France it is often based on a rolled biscuit (think jam roly-poly here) and a chocolate or mocha, or chestnut filling and a butter cream icing. There is a myriad of options.

Being in Australia, in the middle of summer, I wanted to make a log dessert but something fruity (for a change). Initially, I had ideas around a mango pavlova rolls, pavlova being the Australian Christmas dessert by excellence! I decided otherwise, though I may do it in the coming weeks.

This log is simply a raspberry bavarois (or bavaroise in French) covered with a blanket of mascarpone & lime icing.  it is light in texture, low in sugar and very fruity!

Read the full recipe HERE.

What is a bavarois?

A bavarois is based on a “creme anglaise”, a flavour (I used frozen raspberries here) and some whipped cream and gelatine.  The amount of gelatine is just enough to make it hold without being a jelly!  it does need at least overnight in the fridge to hold.

I have made the bavarois before as a single dessert, dressed with berries and as little individual potions for a stand up party.  It always has that “Waho!” effect, so give it a try, it is well worth it.

To make a log shape I used a flexible cardboard cut to the size of my log cake tin. It does slightly collapse but not too much.

bavarois christmas log
Raspberry Bavarois centre for the Christmas log

Mascarpone & lime icing

When I say icing, do not imagine tons of sugar, there is only 1/2 cup for 500 g of mascarpone, 100 ml of thickened cream and some lime juice and lots of rind.

Everything goes in the food processor, whizzzzzzzz. This is it, cover the log and decorate.  I used more lime rind, some cocoa nibs, mint leaves and a couple of mango flesh jellied stars.

I also added a nut crumble to give that little extra texture.

bavarois christmas log

Gift from the heart

The joy of offering a little something, a gift from the heart

Today, I am going back to one thing cooking and this time of the year is about: the family.   I love involving the children in the cooking activities, I enjoy seeing them exploring and taking initiatives, not just my children, all children!

Welcome into the “Silly Season”

In Australia, this time of the year is called the “silly season”.  It may be called the same elsewhere.  In the Southern hemisphere, not only is it Christmas and New Year Eve, it is also the start of the summer holidays and the end of the school year!

A lot to celebrate, gifts to exchange and opportunities to indulge!  The great thing on that aspect is that being summer, there are lots of opportunities for swims or water activities to stay away of the treats or use the calories brought by those extra treats (assuming some get guilty).

Chocolate truffles, the plain, the salted caramel ones and the kids party ones!

This week my daughters have wanted to make little presents for their teachers.  They decided to make something with chocolate, it quickly became truffles.  Not the classic plain chocolate truffles  I normally do, but a salted caramel chocolate truffle.

 

They were having lots of fun getting their hands really messy and once we were done licking every finger, of course.  As they make me notice when I sent them washing themselves in the bathroom, we all ended up like “Rudolf, the red nose reindeer” if not for the wrong colour! That was not the end of the truffle season here, a few days after that first episode, Ambrine had to bring something for her class party.  Guess what? Truffles! Yes, but this time she decided to adapt it to children’s tastes (RECIPE HERE). She did well!

Kids chocolate truffles. Replacing the cocoa coating with 100s&1000s

Now, rapidly before loosing you, truffles are simply a chocolate ganache, cooled down, rolled in small balls and coated in dutch cocoa powder.  From there, there are many variations possible.  So, go for it, it is EASY and YUMMY!!!

Truffles anyone?

 

 

 

 

 

Picnic savoury real food!

Picnic savoury food can be a bit repetitive.  Do you need some ideas of savoury dishes for a picnic ? Others are already bringing the cheese and crackers, olives, dips….

Try these ones. They are rapid to make, hold well in the heat and are crowd pleasers. They also feed the troops!

The onion tart

onion tart

Here is a great opportunities to use these onions which have been lying in your basket for a while.  Actually, you may need a few extra ones.  The onion tart is great just out of the oven and great at room temperature.  It does not need to be kept in the fridge.  You will create a great impact for only a few dollars, perfect!   Jump to the recipe HERE.

Psst: Kids often love this tart too as onions can be quite sweet.

The pissalardiere

red onion tart

This is the southern France version of the above onion tart (which is more a norther France dish). Here you go! The seasoning is different.  You can use plain shortcrust pastry of puff pastry. A pissalardiere seasoning has anchovies, olives, herbs and optionally cheese as seasoning.

The tart in the photo is with red onions, which is not so frequent, you can use brown onions as well.

Homemade Paté

This is a must do! Homemade pate can be prepared in batches and placed in several containers then frozen for up to a couple of months.  The top layer is butter and prevents oxydation.  Chicken liver pate can have a strong taste, to soften this I add a little mince.  My favourite flavour is 3 peppers: red, green and black.  This requires to be done the day before at least.

Chicken liver pate

Chicken liver pate

An asian mushroom quiche

The irony is that  I have made this quiche a number of time now for picnics but do not have a great photo to share.  Imagine a quiche (loaded with parmesan or pecorino) with the mushrooms placed on top as a decorative outlay, a bit like trying to do a painting.  The recipe uses enoki mushrooms, white oyster mushroom, brown mushrooms and any other you wish to use.  I will do it soon and upload the full recipe.

quiche-enoki-mushroom

Bright dessert tarts

Summer is here. Mangoes have arrived in large quantities (and great price!) but the stone fruits are nowhere to be seen. No apricots, a pity, I was running low on apricot jam.  For me, it is the yellow nectarines which I miss the most.  What has happened?  I have no idea, google would not tell.  Well, let us this not stop from making tarts, with lemons, raspberries and chocolate, we have many options for bright summer tarts!

Here are two tarts to brighten your dessert plates (and your palates).  Follow the links for the full recipes.

Pierre Hermé’s raspberry chocolate tart

This recipe is one from Pierre Herme’s book “Le Larousse du Chocolat”.  Recipes in the book are not necessarily Pierre Herme’s own recipes but have been selected by him across his professional and personal network.

This is the case for this one, it comes from a Patisserie in Strasbourg, in Eastern France, and is by Thierry Mulhaupt.

What I like here is that the raspberries are not just on top, but some have been juice and mixed with the chocolate ganache.  Click HERE for the full recipe.

raspberry chocolate tart
raspberry chocolate tart

Lemon curd tartlets

Oh, so oozy and lemony.  I made those yesterday with some left over pastry and a very large lemon which has already lost its rind in another creation and was threatening to have a tantrum.

You can prepare lemon curd in such a short time: a bit of sugar, a large lemon juice, couple eggs, some butter.  Heat all items except the eggs to which you give a good beating in the meanwhile. Add the eggs when reaching the boiling point. Keep whisking until thick (do not let it boil!) and this is it. Simple, no? As I learnt recently, the colour is associated to the yolk of the eggs, not the rind.

lemon tart lemon tart

Now, I made the lemon curd on top of my head quite quickly. If you want a recipe look HERE.  The pastry can be a classic sweet shortcrust or the one in the raspberry chocolate tart.

lemon tart

Little simple pleasures

Ah! The little simple pleasures of fresh and simple food !

Finally, I am back!  But where has she been ?  Some of you may wonder. A range of reasons have kept me away from my weekly post.  A lot had to do with hydrogeological work, getting ready for a field trip to Darwin and eventually going there.   “Mais qu’allait-il donc faire dans cette galere?” (Moliere, borrowed from Cyrano de Bergerac).  at work

Good question!  It was very hot and humid over there and working ourdoors long days in the heat was difficult.  Then coming back and eventually getting some rest, or maybe not that easily.  Indeed, this is without saying that my beautiful girls wanted my attention (I was not to sleep more than 2 hours that night (night flight back), oh no! So be it! And since the weather was awesome, a butterfly dresses and coconuttrip to the seaside was a necessity!

These last two weeks, I scaled a little down the cooking. Not that we ate cheesy maccaroni and bang and mash so much (it did happen, rest assured).  It is more that I didn’t embark on grand cooking plans and enjoyed the simple pleasures of fresh beautiful produces when they require very little preparation.

To be fair, there was a cooking afternoon, temptation won.  I tried to reproduce a delicious tart I had eaten tarte choco caramelon a market.
See my recipe is all scribbled on the back of my child’s drawing (almost got into trouble there but Oceane’s dear sibling had already written all over it!).  recipe notesWith the days passing, the recipe, if we dare calling those hurried notes, such a thing is now competing with Year 2 math exercises.  Let not go into the expectations of a curriculum vs the means the curriculum  is providing (at least the teachers are really good!), that just drive me insane, no wonder Australian kids lag behind compared with many of their peers overseas. ……..Back to today’s topic now. 🙂

Fried sardines

sardines

Easy!

  1. go to the fish market or super fresh fish monger
  2. mix 2 tablespoons of flour with 1 teaspoon of salt, sardinescoat the sardines. Depending of the quantity, you may need more. Adjust the salt if you prefer more salty.
  3. Heat up 1 cm of oil in a thick based fry-pan, when the oil is hot, place the sardines, reduce sardinesslightly the oil, turn over when golden-brown. Serve immediately with fresh lettuce leaves.

sardines

Yoghurt with fresh berries

Of course, so simple and delicious!

In a large bowl, sweetened slightly some natural yoghurt with caster sugar. yahourt-aux-fruits-1 Wheezzz (I can hear the sound of it) a handful of fruits in the food processor or bar mixer. You may need to add a little water and if one or two teaspoons of sugar (try as you go to avoid overdoing it).  You will obtain a puree.

Place the yogurt in individual pots and place some of the puree on top. With a fork, give a swirl for aestetics.  Top up with extra berries and mint leaves (if you hapen to have mint in your backyard or anywhere handy).

The Tip Week!

This tip week is about baking tips, some of them hot from the press for me at least!

FabienneIf you follow my blog, you will remember that last weekend was the local school fete, the Halloween School fete.  The set up put in place was amaaaaazing and the fete was pretty cool.  Not that I saw a lot of it by any means, I spent most of the time at the food stall which name was  ” The Yummy Mummies Cafe”. 🙂

By the way, I did not bake everything, though a lot of it, and I had a great team of helpers for preparation and service.

Anyway, this Tip Week is bringing to you 5 key tips for your baking.  I will not overdo it because you would not remember all of them (I wouldn’t!).

Tip 1 : Getting a bright yellow lemon Curd

Lemon curd colour
Lemon curd with pale egg yolks on the right and bright egg yolks on the left

We had lemon curd tiramisu pots on our school fete menu. Yum! I get my eggs, some beautiful lemon supplied by the local grocer, sugar aHalloween fetend butter and I start cooking.  My first batch was pale yellow, it would have scared the crowds away! What to do?

I discovered that the egg yolks is the key element which provides the colour! I changed eggs and got a beautiful bright yellow lemon curd.  This is the reason why some recipes remove part of the egg white: it keep the yellow colour more intense.

Tip 2: Use corn flour when rolling fondant

This tip is so useful!  Seriously, make your life easy when rolling fondant. You only need a little bit of corn flour, no mess really and so much easier. For the 40 or so ghosts I manage to roll the fondant quite thin (2mm), from there it was just a matter of placing it on top of the lollypop balls.

Also, to attach two pieces of fondant together, use a drop of water!

Tip 3: Some items don’t bake well together

I could have prevented this one, my focus was unfortunately elsewhere.

Baking a cake at the same time as brioches does not work! Simply because the brioche asks for a humid environment, when the cake doesn’t.  Our cake ended up looking somewhat like the face of the moon. We ate it here, it was still beautiful, but not presentable.

Tip 4: Line or butter and flour your tin?

Lately, I had been lining with baking paper a lot of my tins, at least the base.  I always used not to do so but to generously butter all sides and flour over it.  I have had a few catastrophes, I guess, this is why I lined the tin.  Some recipes will clearly ask you to line the tin, do it!

Otherwise, it depends on your tin.  By the way, we are speaking metal cake tins here. If you tin is old with uneven surface, lining is definitely safer! New tins, feel free to butter and flour, it works perfectly well.

I had 2 set of muffin trays for my brioches, the old one kept sticking while brioches in the new one would just pop out on their own! However, it is not easy to line muffin trays, so I just made sure there was a serious butter&flour coating and I managed.

Tip 5: Testing your cake for doneness

There are a few ways here.  The safest way is to use a cake tester.  It is a thick and long needle tool which can be inserted in the middle of the cake and should come out dry.  Insert through a crack if there are any, it won’t leave a trace. Don’t have a cake tester? Use a kebab stick? Use the thinner one in the pack if possible.

Another way to check, is to place your hand over the middle of the cake and gently wobble the top.  If the cake wobbles, it needs more cooking. If the cake does not move, it is likely to be done.  Now, for bigger cakes, there is a risk that the very middle may still need more time, for those, I recommend the cake tester.

The Yummy Mummies Cafe
Chocolate mousses with raspberry topping, apple tart, lemon curd tiramisu, ghosts, friands…
The Yummy Mummies Cafe
Chocolate cake (gateau de Suzy), fairy wands, …

Halloween Menu

Halloween is a couple of weeks away. I have been preparing a Halloween menu for the local school fete and doing some trials.  I know some of you may be curious to get a few ideas to get the children involved in the kitchen or to be able to bring something topical for a party.

I will now share with you some of the Halloween specific menu items.

The witch’s hat

The concept:

A large cupcake, preferably
in a shiny casing,
a strongly coloured icing and a chocolate glaze painted ice cream cone!

Tips for the making:
  • Use a chocolate cupcake. As a recipe take any good moist chocolate cake.  I Halloweenlike to use the reine de Saba but there would be other nice options.
  • The ice cream cone is painted, using a kitchen brush, with a mix of dutch cocoa (darker than the normal one), icing sugar and a little hot water.  It dries out and remains stable for a while.  As a base mix 2 tbsp of cocoa, 1 cup icing sugar and 2 tbsp of hot water.  Make it darker adding more cocoa if required.  Some recipes add 2 tbsp of butter or margarine.
  • For the hat buckle, use for rolling icing.  Add a few drops of food colouring to change the colour and if it becomes to wet, add corn flour.  Similarly, use corn flour to prevent it to stick to the surface and rolling-pin, you can later brush off the excess corn flour.  Use a drop of water to attach together pieces of fondant.

The ghosts

halloween

The concept:

I used individual brioches drapped with white fondant, just add then the eyes!

Tips for the making
  • Use the brioche recipe in here.  This will make 20 individual brioches. Bake them in a muffin tray.   Make sure you butter and flour well your tray.
  • To drape the ghost esthetically, it is best to rise the height of the draping.  Use a lollipop, place fondant around the ball then plant the stick in the brioche.  Place the ghost draping over the lollipop.
  • For the eyes, you can use melted chocolate or some of the decorative pens sold in food sections of supermarkets.

The not so creepy bugs

halloween

The concept:

This one is easy.  I love it, it is very cute. Just a madeleine covered in coloured white chocolate partly on one side.  Eyes are made using chocolate cupcake decoration balls and the antennas are pieces of pretzels.

Halloween

Tips for the making

The white chocolate must be coloured using powder food colours, those are found in specialty stores.  The liquid food colours will make the white chocolate seize.  You may manage to get it again nice and smooth (by warming it again) but it may not fully dry out (like on the photos here, my prototypes).

The fairy wands

The concept:

Very easy again. Buy some grissini (those long narrow bread sticks).  Melt some white chocolate. Brush it on one end and roll the grissini in hundreds and thousands! My 4 y.o had a great time making them!

halloween
rolling hundreds and thousands
Tips for the making

Just be careful not to burn the white chocolate. Melting it in a bain marie is safer.

HAVE FUN!

Thermomix or no thermomix?

I am about to create some controversy ! Ahh!  My kitchen is reasonably well equipped. I have no thermomix and have not investigated it much really. Until now.  A friend left me his thermomix to try for a few weeks.

thermomix

What to do with this thermomix sitting here in my kitchen?

My first approach was to browse through the thermomix dedicated cookbooks my friend left with me.  Maybe I should have started by downloading the user guide….(if you read that, thermomix owner, don’t worry, your Vortex is safe!).

To be fair, at first I was not impressed, the food looks like mashy boring food.  For many people, it can be fine, mmmm, there must be something behind this success.  I decided to push on into the investigation.

This is when I texted my sister in France who has one of these machines.  I know she swears by it. Guess what? I received an avalanche of recipes to try.  Well, thanks for internet I could consult them, see, her Fremch “Vortex” books and the ones I had access to in Australia do not display the same recipes.

Who are the thermomix lovers?

Progressing through my investigation, my next questions were:

  • Why do people love it? (assuming they do)
  • Who are the users?
  • What does it bring to the advance home cook ?
  • Why do some professional use it?

Here are my findings: people love the thermomix for a range of reasons, the reasons are associated with the use and the level of cooking skills of the users. As a result, the range of reasons is quite broad.

The near beginner

For the near beginner or someone who does not like spending much time in the kitchen, it is a perfect tool which dictates them exactly what to do, one step at the time.  Even better, these people can do recipes with no technical skills.  Never made a creme anglaise before? No worries, Your “vortex”  will make it for you perfectly, just put all ingredients in the bowl, press a few buttons (sounds like a science fiction movies from the 80s!) and this is it.  And truly this is it!

The busy family

For the busy Mum, this is all about having dinner ready early.  The meal can be ready to cook and it can be switched on by the first person arriving at home.

The cramped space

For the people living in a small place, the Thermomix replaces many kitchen appliances, great job there! Gone is the ice cream maker, gone is the food processor, gone is the steamer, gone is the blender, gone is the dough mixer, gone is the rice cooker.  I am sure there are more of those! All is still required is a fry pan and an oven (unfortunately the thermomix does not brown food).

The professional kitchen

For the professional kitchens, there is definitely a use for defined activities. Not only does it save manpower, the machine gets it right every time.  I am thinking of some sauces, custards, creams, etc. Each professional kitchen which chooses to use the Thermomix will have a valid reason for it.

The anti

There are also people who do not like the thermomix, but their voice is weak as they go against a cult and their comments are usually not well received.  I am not speaking about the safety concern that one of the model had issue with, but more about the feel that it is yet another machine not required in some people’s kitchen. Fair enough!

And then finally: what is it good at?

This is where the practical part of the investigation comes in play.  Now, I will speak as an advance cook, keep that in mind!

First, you need to become familiar with the vocabulary. Not only has each part of the machine its own little name, there are also a number of symbols introduced to recipes.  I have to say that those are quite self-explanatory. In doubt? The user guide can be downloaded for free! (do that before you get started, my avice)

I tried the following recipes:

  • Profiteroles. Why this recipe: if you have ever made pate a choux, you will remember that this is a physically hard one to do. it required a lot of elbow oil. If a machine can do it for me, great!
  • Ice-cream – I wanted to try the custard making capability
  • Chocolate spread – finally something that could potentially grind hazelnuts and make a great paste (Yum!)
  • Couscous semolina – to try the multi level steam baskets
  • Steamed soy-honey salmon with vegetables – we had t have dinner, so why not?
Profiteroles

SUCCESS. I was initially taken aback because the thermomix recipe cuts down a lot of the water volumes from t
he traditional recipe. I fought my desire to change the recipe.  In the end, the result is great.

Ice-cream

SUCCESS.  Making a custard like preparation is a strength of the Vanilla ice creamThermomix.  On the recipes provided, I would not hesitate to decrease the sugar quantity if it appears a bit high.  Advise: you do need quite a bit of time to freeze the ice cream, do not leave it at the last minute!

The recipe for the one above is on the thermomix website.  I used a real vanilla bean plus some ground vanilla powder.

Hazelnut chocolate spread

SUCCESS for the technique,  The hazelnuts came out so fine! So did the cooking chocolate.  nd of course the sugar in icing sugar!thermomix chocolate spread

DISASTER for the recipe itself (too strong, I will need to compensate it now, can’t be used as such).

 

Steamed fish and couscous

SUCCESS (technique).

I did not follow a recipe. I only read how to use the steamer part (what is its name again?). No surprise here.  Only minus, I find the baskets a little small. It will feed a family of 4 just right, but no more. The food was good (but no surprise there).

 

My verdict

This piece of equipment is very well designed, I came to appreciate some of the details in the shapes and uses while trying it.  For example, the lid of the bowl will gather all spills and make sure any addition makes it to the “Vortex”.

I was very impressed with the thermomix mixing power, the temperature control and of course the pulverisation power!

Until I read the user guide, I found the cleaning painful, but I only have myself to blame here!  One thing I had enough at the end of the test is the noise.  The thermomix is noisy, but I guess most people will not use it non stop for three hours!

The volume is limited, for larger families/groups, this would be a limitation.

All the recipes on the book are not a success and it would be fair to say, the pictures are not always very attractive. However, there are a number of dedicated websites with great content.

I do understand very well the attraction for owing one of those.  Now is it on my shopping list? Not really, or maybe right at the bottom for now. Remember it costs around AU$2,000!  If I am using one, it would be to save my time minding a saucepan and use it doing another element of a meal!