Using the apple and blueberry pancake recipe from the community, we substituted peach and raspberries because we ran out of apples. Accompanied with fresh pineapple, orange and peach smoothie.
http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/main-dishes-others-recipes/apple-blueberry-pancakes/55177
It’s a wet cold Sunday morning, perfect weather for a hot breakfast, we tried the thermomix poached eggs.
There was a little lead time ensuring the water was boiling first before adding the eggs. Then the eggs were in dropped into the fast boiling water. We fully expected the whites to disintegrate everywhere in the basket but instead we were surprised and impressed by their cooked rounded shape unlike the flatter poached eggs husband normally serves up from stovetop pan. The only downside is the basket apparently only allows for two eggs at a time but with the ‘prepare and walk away’ factor, I’m not complaining. Takes 3 minutes to poach the eggs and gives me time set up the plates while the thermomix does the work. Our young food critics gave them the seal of approval, and Miss 8 even asked for another one.
Wowee, just made Nutella, thermomix ground up hazelnuts, chocolate and coconut oil, cooked for 6 minutes in the thermomix, then a few seconds to blend. Hey presto delicious, preservatives free. Recipe from quirky cooking website. Reduced sugar by half. Thickens when cooled in fridge.
http://quirkycooking.blogspot.co.nz/2009/10/chocolate-hazelnut-spread-dairy-free.html
Note: I used the old site to find this recipe, didn’t continue to the new site.
So handy to have these for lunch boxes and snacks. Proving still takes more than an hour, will experiment with the yeast activation to see if this speeds up the rising.
Verdict after 12 days:
The thermomix has been used on average 5 times a day for simple tasks like chopping garlic and onion, creaming butter and sugar for baking, and chopping veges for salads, blending dressings and smoothies. Love how one piece of equipment does so much work so quickly, is so easy to clean, doesn’t require any set up and also how we don’t have to worry getting out any other appliances. I haven’t used my pressure cooker ,slow cooker, cake mixer, food processor or bread maker. Must admit though I would still keep a bread maker.
Love the fact that we have a lot of leftovers, the crepes recipe made in weekend produced a huge amount which could be used for either savoury or sweet dishes, just added maple syrup and fruit and great for kids breakfast. And super fast 2 whole lemons juiced using only half the sugar in recipe for a zingy refreshing start to Monday morning.
We call these crepes : pancakes at our house. Grandma makes the best and these smell just like hers. Delicious and so easy to make the batter with the thermomix.
Deliciously moist and whipped up quickly in seconds. Reduced sugar in loaf to 120gms. Wonderful popped into kids lunch boxes and again followed thermomix guided recipe. Note : have made this with milk instead of buttermilk too and still turns out fantastic.
So excited to have more time to test the thermomix today. First breakfast, chose easy waffles from recipe community, plus fruit smoothie of course. Talk about easy peasy, the hardest part is measuring the ingredients into the bowl. Seconds later a smooth batter ready to pour into the waffle iron. Kids love the waffles and berry smoothie of course.
Next decided to make chicken stock, just added chicken, root veges, herbs, wine and salt into the TM, cooked and puréed in the TM. Made a huge amount of chicken stock paste 500g ( 1 Tb makes 500ml of chicken stock) , the accountant in me wants to calculate the cost savings already, not to mention the benefit of knowing that the stock made from is pure natural fresh ingredients, no msg or additives.
For lunch the kids wanted to try pizza, so we made the dough which makes two large pizzas. Only two minutes kneading by the TM and the dough is one ready to prove, too easy. The hardest thing is adding in the ingredients! .
Next, lemonade using the guided recipe. Just seconds and two whole lemons including the skin, caster sugar and water. Kids and I love the lemonade, it’s better than the homemade lemon cordial we make. Husband makes the comment that this is better than any cafe bought lemonade he’s ever tasted. He’s already thinking about cost saving too and smiling! A whole jug from two lemons from our garden, no mess no squeezing, no pulp, just blitz a few seconds.
Next we tried guided fruity dream recipe ( soft serve ice cream) raspberries, sugar and an egg white made a “Mr whippy” ice cream. The kids loved it. Although I will substitute sugar with a banana next time or halve the sugar. Was a tad sweet for my taste buds!
And just to give the TM a rest we made a soup using chicken stock made in TM the old fashion way on the stove in a pot. It’s funny but we feel energised, wonder if it’s the quality of the food ?
Verdict after day four:
Love the ease of use, one bowl no other dishes or equipment needed, integrated scales, self clean, touchscreen guided recipes, turns itself off when cooking finished, recipes seem to be very well tested and can’t wait to work my way through more of the basic cookbook. Haven’t even used the multi level steam cooking yet. Potential is incredible. Love it so far! Who doesn’t need a kitchen helper like this. The breakfasts are better than cafe food!
Ps went to Milly’s Kitchen to buy loaf tins and it was satisfying to see a huge billboard in the front of the store showing all the Kitchenaid equipment all just for $3500, about three machines plus accessories. If I was starting again, I’d only buy the thermomix.
One of the reasons why I was convinced the TM was the way to go, is the well established recipe community. Any recipe you could possibly want to try can be searched on the community pages along with user star ratings and comments. I found this apple and blueberry pancake recipe. Literally seconds later after adding the ingredients in the TM, we have the pancake batter ready to cook. This along with linseed sunflower and chia berry smoothie gives us a healthy serve of fruit to start the day. I made myself a green smoothie from whole unpeeled apple, cucumber, spinach, mint and l.s.c seed mix.
Daughter made the best focaccia bread, the dough was done in the machine in two minutes, and after months of skepticism about the thermomix that mum had been talking about, she suddenly saw how incredible this piece of equipment could be.
Also made the coleslaw from the recipe chip and was so easy, just chucked in cabbage apple onion and mayonnaise, blitz a few seconds and hey presto it’s done, no pic taken, forgotten in all the excitement.
Verdict after Day three:
Even with dough kneading in the bowl, we could still use the self cleaning option and so very little extra dishes to get done. Super fast and like having a extra pair of hands in the kitchen. It’s potential is enormous. I actually felt guilty buying a loaf of bread from the supermarket but only because I realised we didn’t own any bread loaf tins to bake the bread in. The potential to mill own grains and understand exactly what is in our food will change our diet for the better.
Only negative was the butterfly whisk was a little hard to insert properly when make the fruity dream soft serve ice cream. But that’s more user familiarity than design issue. You needed to insert and twist to lock under the blades.
I converted an Annabel Langbein recipe for the thermomix. So easy in minutes the dough was ready for rising and the finished product even better than hand kneaded dough.
The kids devoured one side before I could take a picture ! The texture was so soft and stayed this way the next day for school lunchboxes.
Verdict after day one:
The blitzing function is incredibly fast, loved being able to produce such a healthy tasty salad in seconds. The weighing and kneading function for bread making super fast. And the machine self cleans, wow!
NZ thermomix mum's blog 