I love all things European... MyCook Premium and Linux - a closer look

Linux vs Windows
This year I decided to see what life would be like if I went Microsoft free at home... and mostly I have not looked back. Blogging however; has been a different story. I used to write my blogs from Windows live writer and there does not yet appear to be a comparable Linux blog writer... so apologies for the long delay between blogs. I'm backstage of blogger atm trying the "blog-thing online". If you like to stay up-to-the-minute please feel free to join my facebook group here. I write micro-blogs at least weekly, which are much easier to do from a tablet or phone.

Honey is still plugging away on his Win 7 (now 10) that keeps crashing, and complaining on each month around "Patch Tuesday" when his computer gets hijacked and forced to restart. For TAFE purposes I used open Suse, that was ok... but since finishing my course I have played with Fedora and smelled the fresh breath of Linux Mint and have had no regrets. It annoys me the way MS seems to permeate the Queensland education system... offering cheap licences to get people "hooked" and biting them with huge fees later.

Since first writing this post I have found that I can quite easily blog from the blogger dashboard and adding pictures is actually easier this way; however tagging them and cropping is slightly harder. Hence it hasn't been done since I stopped blogging with Microsoft. I can access this from my tablet and have written some blogs in a comfy horizontal position, and made minor changes later with my computer.


I love my MyCook
Now for some news... we have a new addition to the Rutterbugs thermo-machine family... Introducing the MyCook Premium or as I like to call her Mykah.I bought y myCook Premium from contacting the Australian distributors here.

It started a few months back when I saw this. Then this article too.It made me mad, that once again we were being blindly guided towards just one particular machine without really being told of the other fantastic alternatives there are in the world. I wanted people to know that they had options, and the best way to learn about a machine is to play with it.

The MyCook Premium lid could not be that difficult to remove, I reasoned and that was the only look in that viewers received about the Spanish machine. It had great reviews on YouTube. One chef in particular saying that young staff members were using it with ease. So I wanted to see if I could find out for myself if the MyCook Premium was comparable to my other "kids".

I am very glad I took a closer look as she has been a wonderful addition to our home.

First thoughts:

I remember thinking to myself straight away that I did not now think that either the ThermoChef or the Thermoblend 1 were modelled on entirely the TM. The TB1 jug, blades and mixing paddle or aka "butterfly" were very similar in shape. The lids both have "waves" on the top that are fantastic for keeping "spitting" to a minimum. The plastic and stainless steal of the MyCook Premium having a feel of quality, heavier and sturdier. Like the TC she was dark grey with pretty lights and most importantly the steaming baskets were stainless steal.

Lid

I have not found it any more difficult to remove or put on than any of my other machines. My sister who is a lefty really liked how it was not "right-centric" as some of the cheaper machines of mine she had used were. As I said above the waves help keep splatter to a minimum and are easily cleaned with a brush.

Beaker

You may know it as (Measuring cup, MC)... cute, stable (once again clear and easy to "overlook" when trying to find it in a hurry *wonders* can we get it in pink for Breast Cancer month? Handy to know... TM31 and TB1 measuring cups fit too... In case you are thinking of upgrading from TB1 (or believe having 2/+ machines helps run an efficient kitchen).

Jar

(aka Jug, bowl). Actually the same capacity as TM31, Bellini, Mistral and TBs 1 and 2. The base is a little more narrow and taller, though it is seated about 10cm into the machine so size is deceptive. I love that it has a plastic clip on the base (unlike TB1) which means that I can pop it into the fridge to cool when making French Onion dip, and saves my fingers from accidentally touching the hot base. I hae even seen it popped straight into an ice bath to cool while making yoghurt.

The narrower base makes it great for cutting herbs as they stay mostly at the bottom of the jar.

Recipe books

The MyCook recipe book has a list of gourmet meals very popular in Europe. The recipes are well set out, easy to follow on glossy paper which wipes clean.  I have tried a few recipes such as Spaghetti bol and churros (also available here) which is the recipe book for the older model MyCook professional. So far from the new book
I have tried 2 lots of dough and I intend to try more recipes from the included book once our family favourites are tried and tested.

 
Speeds 

I was sceptical but found it to be true that the slow speed is so soft that a reverse function or blunt blade is not necessary. In fact the slow speed is so soft it makes perfect spaghetti bol sauce without needing to cook the mince in the steamer and add at the last part of the cooking.  

I recently made corn relish with the intention of making corn relish dip for a work function. I used a Recipe Community recipe and noticed in the comments that the other mixers had shredded the corn slightly however, the corn was perfectly intact with Mykah's efforts.


knead function apparently has a method of "working the gluten" by "tossing" it with each spin, as I don't eat gluten I didn't really need it to bother, but found the one touch button handy for making pie and pasta dough.

Dishwasher

I love that everything except the blades are dishwasher safe... there is no *good* place for the blades in the dishwasher anyway. I find that they are easily cleaned with some water a toothbrush and dish-washing liquid. I love that there seem to be no places for the dish-washer water to *remain* and spill on your dry goods when unpacking the way my cheaper jugs and even TM bowl does. I love that there are no electrical bits on the bottom needing to be carefully dried before replacing back into the machine.

Functions

The sauté function is a fantastic touch, I find that I often use it in conjunction with my multi-cooker. It chops and sautés at the same time and being able to reach a hotter temperature gets the onions tasting just a little nicer.

Induction heating means that food cooks slightly faster and more efficiently.

You can set the timer for longer than 1 hour. Very handy for "stewing" meats saving some money and getting a great tasting product. I used cheaper cut meat to make stroganoff and curries cooking it for longer with great results.

Drawbacks

There is always a few with anything. There is no "fast" way to get to a minute (like pressing the - button first as with the Mistral and TM), but holding the + button more firmly makes digits spin over faster.

Burn marks; if you are using a TM recipe and forget to back the cooking-time off a bit (as I did) there was a nasty burn mark. However, I covered the mark with water adding 3 tbs bicarb soda, 5 mins 120c sp 4 and it came of very easily.

The temperature is what the machine is set to not what the food is at. If cooking something like cheese or yoghurt, a kitchen thermometer is handy (I needed one for my TB1, so this was not a problem for me).

There is no quick way to *wake up* a sleeping MyCook, it must be switched off then on again. But I like that it saves me some power in sleep mode. 

The whole *difficult lid* controversy

All I can say about that, is that it has never been a problem for me or the other MyCook owners that I have met online. Click on and off while in the unlocked position and it works every time... steamer and lid. I have cooked with kids (my neice and nephew, 10 and 11) who worked the lid with ease and also mentioned that they found it less tricky to work than their Mum's TM (they are Pro's at cooking rice).

Overall

I have lent each and every one of my thermo-appliances except my MyCook. I did so because I believed at the time that could live without them... and I did not miss them while they were gone... The same cannot be said for the MyCook. I use it almost every day and often multiple times in a day. It has features that I use often like a knead button, sauté function and can go up to 120c and I love that I can pop it in the dishwasher, go do other jobs and be ready to cook again in 30 mins without having to dry the jar. 

Pritikin Survivor

As a child of the 80s who grew up in a conservative protestant home I was scared of many things… ACDC, Dungeons and Dragons, Madonna (and more)… I laugh now, but nearly as frightening as the devil and “his music” was the cholesterol injected food that tasted so good such as white flour, rice and bread (not a fan of the taste and empty calories these days) and the Ohhhh so evil butter, egg yolk and cheese (unless it was the revolting stuff like fat-free cottage). It was maybe 2ish years that we lived on that food, but it felt like forever. To this day; I hate diets and all the fat I lose tends to find me again and bring its friends that is why I am a huge fan of lifestyle changes and making healthier eating and exercise choices fun. Yes we had the Pritikin diet shoved down our throats and lived to tell the story, but in my 20s I had a lot of “unlearning” to do.
I’m not really angry at my parents, they were worried about the junk we ate and Dad needed support when he had to lower his cholesterol so the whole family had to partake of the diet restrictions. Some of the food was not that bad, but we were certainly the weird family in our circles- and that was not a good feeling when all you want to do was blend, in my 30s I don’t mind being outstanding and I look at music a lot differently to the way I did when I was a child.
foccaciaGF Focaccia
Herbs
I tried the herbs and cheese focaccia bread this week which I took to a party. It was very well received. I made a quarter of my artisan dough into small dough balls and sprinkled herbs and cheese on top. For next time, I will knead some herbs into the bread first, to give it a little more flavour.
Bacon and Cheese
20150209_144517I wizzed some frozen chunks of shortcut bacon in the TB1, 2x Turbo for 2-3 seconds. Scraped some tomato paste onto the dough (1/4 divided into 6 ball shapes)  then dipped each dough ball into the bacon pieces carefully placing them into the slow cooker and sprinkled parmesan cheese on top.
Dairy free custard20150207_191819
I made some DF custard this week and tried it out on some friends who agreed to be guinea pigs, it was a hit, though I added a little too much GF corn flour so it was a bit thick. As you can see by my picture; I still think Passata jars are excellent for storage, but I don’t have much luck getting rid of the macro label.
Recipe 1
500mL coconut milk, 25g Corn flour, 2 egg yolks (I can hear Nathan Pritikin tsking), 20g sugar (or to taste), cocoa pdr or vanilla essence (I made vanilla). 100c, 10 mins, sp 4 or 3 for GSM machine… this was a little too long I noticed it was cooked with about 2-3 mins to go. So you can back off the time a bit. I had very +ive feedback, and my friends were surprised that it was DF… requesting a bounty flavour next time using chocolate flavour.
JuiceBlendz ThermoBlend style
I am not sure how long it takes to blend a juice in the TM31, what I do know is that you can fill the jug with orange halves, wizz it and add coconut milk by drizzling through the space in the lid around the MC… then wizz some cinnamon in and you are done… a crowd pleaser. I can now tell you that it works pretty much the same with the TB1 as with a GSM machine.
Dairy Free(Cheese-less) Pizza… before it was cool 
As you may know, I have been experimenting with some DF along with my GF foods, mostly so I know if I have a DF guest what I could serve that tastes nice. I was thinking about alternatives to dairy this week, my sister went through a vegan phase and bought soy cheese which was very nice (but expensive) and some people are uncomfortable with soy these days. Then I remembered…
I will never to this day forget the look on the youth leader’s daughter’s face when I mentioned at youth group that actually pizza without cheese tastes ok… she looked at me like I was a martian. For some reason the topic came up that pizza without cheese is ‘without’ I am not sure of the context or what we were supposed to learn that day… I learnt that I was weird and not in a good way.
But Mr Pritikin did get something right decades ago that could help people today. I remember Mum telling us that she read that he made a pizza for his kids filled it with heaps of toping held together with egg white (keep the yolk for authenticity in appearance, it’s really not evil food) and they didn’t notice that the cheese is missing (and nor did we).
This would be a problem for your child if they cannot do dairy or egg, but if you are out of nut cheese and lack time to make it, this could work for you.
Judie

Brown Basmati and Amaranth grain

junkIn BasmatiFor people who have followed my blogging bread adventures for a while; you may remember that I  liked Amaranth flour as a substitute for sorghum and dreamed of adding brown basmati rice to my bread. A few months ago I purchased a bag of brown basmati rice and was very excited. My dreams were dashed for a while as I cooked some for dinner that night with an Indian curry which was ruined by little woody bits through the rice.
This is not a ratio representation of rice to woody bits, a 2kg (- what I cooked that night) package had about 3x that number of woody bits. The rice has now been milled, is safely in my freezer and in the next few weeks will be turned to bread. There may be different brands of brown Basmati rice available without the woody bits, I think that availability comes and goes. I would love to have had access to BB when I was living back at home for a bit… My parents being diabetic would only eat basmati, I (for health reasons) preferred whole-grains. I had looked everywhere in Rocky Health food stores and Asian store, back then I could have gotten brown Jasmine (which is not available now though how good would that have been in bread?)… I will keep up my search. 
Amaranth flour is available from local health food stores, for around $5-6/500g or the same price for 1kg of grain. I will be testing how well each machine mills the grain in the near future. For some people rice is the more affordable grain, but amaranth being an ancient grain has many health benefits that it can bring to the table.
Thanks Honey for my new ThermoScience banner that links to my Facebook page…

Varomas and Teeny Slow Cookers

SndcakeYou may know that Sand Cake is pretty much my favourite go to recipe. Once I tasted it I decided I was never going back to a packet mix. I always make it Gluten free and have turned it into golden syrup pudding, caramel flavour, cupcakes, lamingtons and strawberry short cake. It is so versatile and this week I turned it Dairy Free chocolate flavour, which I think would also be ok for diabetics too. Served with GF custard, this was a lovely treat.
I had told Honey a while back how delish my mums orange meringue used to be and was delighted when she made some one evening for our relatives that were visiting. Yeek she used fake sugar, it totally did not do the dessert justice. So I wanted a dessert up my sleave for “next time” that also was handy for people who cannot do dairy.
smallCookerMy green grocer ages ago told me about a trick for replacing eggs and fat with apple sauce in cakes and how nice they turn out. I needed to use up egg whites so I just replaced the butter this time, making a 1/2 batch in case it did not work out, so I also wanted to steam them in the varoma so I didn’t have to turn the oven on… To my delight it worked, very well. The batter divided evenly between 2 ramekins and I used the TB1 on 120c for 15 mins. It probably could have gone for a shorter time. If you decide to make this for yourself, please keep an eye on them.




Mini Slow-cooker bread
smlCookAt last I was able to test my smallest slow cooker (1.5L) with bread baking. It worked rather well, though it did get rather humid on the lid, so the crust was a little moist. This may improve with a tea-towel under the lid which I plan to try in the near future. when the bread cooled however the crust was normal and the slices a lovely shape. If I had not had access to my new GF toaster or the sandwich loaf pan this would have been more of a fantastic thing for me, as the slices were quite well-suited to sandwiches… for GF bread that is. Finding that the yeast bread can be made in the slow cooker without a 2nd rise has taken a lot of the headache out of bread-making for me.  I like that the dough can be left in the fridge until needed for up to a week and popped into the slow cooker. I have also frozen some slices in pairs for the forthcoming crazy weeks ahead with TAFE. Once again recipe here

Larger Slow-Cooker Artisan Bread

Artisan bread is simply a miracle I think and the Healthy Bread in 5 minutes recipe writers are geniuses. I thought I was the first person to cook their bread in my slow cooker… Obviously not after reading this today. largeCookerWhich was very timely as I had already put my bread on for a second rise 60 minutes before finding out that it can go straight into the crock pot. This is beyond handy to know, as the 4x with yeast mix can be made up to a week in advance (it’s better tasting the first few days). Depending on your Slow Cooker  you would then just take out a ball pop it in the machine and have fresh bread 90ish minutes later. You could also have the dough ready for pizza, calzones and focaccia.
I have been asked “Will the artisan bread work in a larger slow cooker?” the answer is yes. I took advantage of the Big W 5.5L for $20.00 deal this week. Honey thinks it was because he wanted Pea and Ham soup cooked with a ham bone… we know it was really bought to check out if it was good for cooking bread. While I was at it, I grabbed a cute little slow cooker to test from Woolworths, also $20. As we speak I have 2 yeast cobs in the slow cooker and earlier this week I did a yeast free loaf, which took closer to 2 hours than the 1.5 in the 5.5L slow cooker, but it got there and the results were just as delish.
yeastBreadI also have cooking away in my camping oven a small tin loaf using yeast this time. I think last time I over-did the water and didn’t put in quite enough this time, the crust is looking a little dry. Worried for nothing, it was perfect.
My multi-cooker also arrived this week. I have only cooked brown rice in it so far (high pressure, ready in 14 mins), my toddler nephew was here this weekend he saw the cooker and asked for rice, so we gave it a go. The “keep warm” function kept the rice at the perfect temperature till dinner time when we made sushi with it. I also saved some rice for the next evening when we had tuna mornay (warming it in the varoma as the sauce cooked).
Good news, our Conversion Chart for making smaller Artisan loaves has been uploaded.

Alternative bread baking part 2

Everything I have made in my Thermomix or any of the clones and blogged about, has now been added to a new category which Icob created recently called “ThermoMachines”… I had not remembered that I enjoyed the Quirky loaf, but having a bread tin (as opposed to a rectangle cake tin… small one for GF bread) has made a huge difference to my enjoyment of the bread as it fits better in my GF toaster ($8 from wollies and I can keep it as hot as I like without Honey burning his toast or contaminating mine). It has a huge purple nail-polish Gf on each side… So far I have made artisan bread into a loaf 2x, Tania Hubbard’s nut bread (expensive breadbut nice) recipe here, we changed 2 eggs for apple sauce in one lot and 1/2 a mashed banana in another lot… I liked both, Honey preferred apple sauce recipe… and date muffins as a loaf recipe here also switching some ingredients to make a savoury loaf too.
Would you like to know more about our thermo-experiments? Join my ThermoScience and MixinFun group on Facebook for up-to-date information on all the tests we do, you can even make requests… here1
I had not realised I made my first ever yeast free dough rise for 40 mins… who has time for that, 10 is pushing the limit these days… time is of the essence and it appears to be a much better loaf. I found another gluten free bogger, here; very interesting information yet I cannot understand the fascination with cutting the top of the loaf before cooking… they all do it; it’s a pain to remember and I think it makes the shape of finished product a bit annoying and have noticed no great benefit to the cuts. The absolute best way I have found to cook an artesian loaf is in the slow cooker (I have a round base which is perfect for the small loaf), does not heat up the kitchen in Summer and saves electricity…
pizzaTodays experiment is in response to a query I had regarding school lunches. I can little imagine the frustration as a child with even more limited options for a yummy lunch than it can be for an adult. At least at TAFE, we had sandwich toasters and microwaves available. Pizza is awesome for lunch but finding a good base that is nice cold is a challenge. On holidays there is little to complain about with polenta bases and yoghurt dough fresh from the oven, but the next day when they are cold… can be rather chewy. I grin and bear it, but if I was a school kid missing out I think I would be pretty ticked off (and they wonder why there is a high incidence of depression among the GF population)…
2Usually when I make pizza it is with the 5mins/Quirky dough, 1/4 rolled out between 2 sheets of baking paper with oil between, transfer it to the cast-iron skillet which is on a heated element, begin adding topping and cover for about 10 mins then transfer to hot oven… this is delicious, wood-fired would slightly top the experience. But not every one has a cast-iron skillet and I don’t think I have ever attempted pizza with the yeast free bread dough. So tonight 2x quarters are cooking in a loaf tin in the toaster oven, 1x quarter is in the slow cooker and the other quarter is busy in the oven on a normal pizza tray with leftovers from our ridge/freezer… chorizo, chicken, avocado, tomatoes a few herbs and cheese. I will try not to eat it all so I can try a piece tomorrow for lunch.
3Straight out of the oven, it was good… we were hungry so I didn’t get a shot first… but it looked like pizza should. Snuffy our fury 5yo took my last piece of pizza when I got up to check on the bread… fortunately I had a small sliver in the fridge for tomorrow.
Bread smells like honey, and is slightly darker than usual but the crust is quite soft to touch and I am looking forward to breakfast in the morning.
Day 2
Once again the bread was perfect the next day, however there is the slight taste of bicarb soda in the bread, so next time I will back it off a bit. For each cup of flour I added to the mixing bowl; 1 tsp of Bicarb soda was added, perhaps that ratio was a little too high;, or perhaps the bread dough needed more time to relax before being popped into the oven.

ThermoMachines… My 2c worth

TKids2It seems everyone has an opinion these days about which is the best Thermo-machine and 80% of the time it’s the brand that is sitting on their own kitchen bench. Some people cannot justify the 2k of a TM and others cannot justify the extra landfill from a clone.

To some people considering help in the kitchen; 2k is almost what they paid for their car (both cars I have bought actually), “rego-ish” is more in their price range. Whichever side of the fence you are on I encourage you to research before you buy. 2k is a lot of money to pay for a thing that sits in your kitchen and does nothing, but so is $250 for a clone (when they are on sale).
Some readers may be aware that I own a TM31, a TB1, Bellini 1 and a Mistral (and now a MyCook). They don’t all always live at my house, they often (like children) go to visit my friends. Recently I was accused of being (by Honey) a Thermomix snob, that is because I loved my TM waaaaay more than our first clone (Thermoblend1) the base was smaller and harder to clean, he kept “biting” me- the blades are sharper ( I think they start out ridiculous and go blunter over time, whereas the TM blades are able to be sharpened by grinding ice). He went to visit my bridesmaid, Ebony, and she had no pre-conceived ideas of what a thermo-machine should be. She enjoyed his stay, and like me found making TB1 custard a nightmare too (but it’s fun to drink). Ebony also had a better TB1 sized scrubbing brush, which made cleaning the jug easier. Lending the TB1 actually helped me to enjoy it more when it was returned... I even missed him while he was gone.
I bought the Bellini while Davo (our TB1) was visiting Ebony. The day I dropped him off, Ebb had a friend visiting who was a proud Bellini owner, I had a fantastic chat with her as she was the first Bellini owner I had actually met… and she knew someone with a Mistral. I had researched both machines after popping a comment on a FB group that I am a member of asking if anyone had Bellinis that lasted longer than 6 months. The response was overwhelming. Ebbs friend offered to let me play with her Bellini, and I was excited; then they came on special and I decided I really wanted to try it; so bought it.
Making dinner that night Honey said to me… I thought you would be using your new toy… I was like this is the new toy. The jugs looked so similar. The Bellini (Rebekah) was christened with Quirky's Paprika Chicken… I use boned chicken as it’s cheaper but it takes a little longer. We loved it.
And my Thermomix brush works very well on both machines. If you own a TM or a TB pro, Mistral, Bellini (or probably any Thermo-machine with a wide base) I highly recommend these brushes. They last for ages, soak in bleach and water once a week or pop in the dishwasher. Honey uses my old one for cleaning the pet food cans before they go in the recycling.
I took advantage of the Christmas sales to purchase the Mistral. Mistakenly believing this one person on the thread who told me that her Mistral was far superior to a Bellini (admittedly she was comparing it to the older model what was recalled a while back, the updated model works very well). Really the only differences in the 2 machines is the shape of the base, the shape of the scales and that the Mistral has a sleep mode, which is handy. I’m not too annoyed though about the misinformation having 4 T-Ms (thermo-machines) going to make fudge over Christmas was fun and super handy. Rebekah is visiting my friend in Brisbane for a bit but not before we did some tests with the “kids”. I found that the Recipe Community caramel fudge recipe works just as well in a GSM model as in the TM31. To my disappointment (and the chooks delight) I found that the TB1 needed a different recipe.

While I love my GSM machines I don't think that they are best for milling and kneading if you plan to do a lot of that, you are better off with a Thermoblender type clone or if you can afford it, a more heavy duty machine. If ease of cooking meals that do not come out of a bottle is more your thing than a GSM machine is a fantastic machine that will save you and your family from eating a lot of junk as far as additives goes. 

I think that the MyCook Premium is the best value for money machine that I have tried... Blog here. I recently lent my TM31 and did not miss it at all. Of all my machines the TM31 and the Mistral are the only ones which have broken. I am currently negotiating to get them fixed and will blog what I think of their customer service.

Updates:

Bellini is upgrading their intelli machine, it has caused some mayhem in that People who have multiple jugs want to be able to keep buying Bellinis as they do not fit into Mistral machines. I am sure that in my research, I have read that the Bellini jug fits the Kogan Thermoblend pro machine, which is available from Kogan with a 5 year warranty. We have certainly found that to be very handy for us.

I found this website which is a collection of owners who have given their feedback on what they think of their devices. It is not just thermal cookers but heaps of gadgets.

MyCook appears to be available for purchase in some stores such as Betta, Bing Lee, Retravision, The Good Guys and Vitality life.

Judie

Oven Alternatives for cooking Bread

Blech in CQ it is ridiculously hot... Honey and I have been seeking refuge in our air-coned room this week and Camp oventoday when I went to cook, I realised why we hide away so much... I had to have a shower after 20 mins prep... I was not going out there doing calculations in my head with this heat so I made a full batch of bread dough. Recipe Here. This is my go to GF bread recipe, it’s yummy and cheaper than the nut bread. But lately I have not bothered making it much due to not wanting the oven to contribute to any more heat in our house. I started to think of alternatives…
As soon as I heard of this, I have been wanting to try out the slow cooker method for making bread and as this is the yummiest cheap recipe I have found I decided to see if it would work, I had my doubts due to the differences in cooking styles, but the end result was quite nice. Very handy for days when I need to run a few errands, come home to delicious bread. I also thought of my toaster oven, both appliances use less energy/hour than the oven too which is a bonus.
slow CookerI am out of yeast so am doing this bunch with baking powder, I actually prefer this method as it saves a lot of time having to juggle rises but it is slightly nicer with yeast, but not 5 hours nicer. Today instead of sorghum I am using maise corn, grown by our L2L member, Robert. I have tried in the past popping corn and rice as well which we love, while chia, quinoa and besan- not so much... well not at all really (you will see my thoughts on that adventure in the cooking section of this site).
 
GF floursFor the milling, I grabbed from the freezer rice and corn flour that I had milled in experiments using the TB1, TM31, Mistral and Bellini. Mistral and Bellini mill slightly courser than the TB1 and TM31, but the flour is very usable and gives a crustier crust. If you are on a low gluten diet, this rice flour found in the Asian section at Coles, may help you to achieve a smoother result (should you require it) if you are worried about the “glutinous” check this out. You could use it instead of the brown rice flour or sorghum flour. I will be testing this flour in another blog. Right beside it, similarly packaged was the tapioca flour, I usually buy the pictured arrowroot flour, but decided to give this a try today. It was fantastic, and cheap.
So can this recipe be used to make a sandwich loaf? I was keen to test that theory too, I woke up hungry; no leftovers as we ate out last night, the kitchen was stinking hot, so today was the day to test all cooking methods. One quirky dough makes 4 small loaves as I was not going to be bothered to do maths in the summer heat of our kitchen the division of bread dough wOven loafent as follows: 2 lots in the bread tin in the oven, 1 lot in the toaster oven, 1 lot in the slow cooker. All were delicious. The drawback with the toaster oven was that it needed to be reset after an hour, and t took about 1hr 40mins to be cooked with a nice crust (200c with a water bath when adding the dough to the oven). I popped the bread dough (which was a little sticky so I kneaded in some more flour- all purpose GF Woolworths select brand, and lowered it down into the SC with the baking paper). I am very impressed with the loaf of bread in the tin. It worked very well and I look forward to yummy sandwiches with it tomorrow. I will try cooking it next time in the toaster oven to save energy. Perhaps there will be a larger SC batch in my future too.
Day 2
All bread was still moist this morning, my thoughts of toast for breakfast were supplanted when I had a nibble of the yummy moist bread… so nice I ate it plain (though I had been drooling over thoughts of butter and OzEmite). I cut each loaf into slices and placed some in the freezer and kept some on the counter. The Loaf from the tin had an air pocket in the top, I will need to research ways to get rid of that for the future; however it does not effect the flavour.
Day 3 and 4
Bread had been refrigerated and was a bit hard due to it being colder. It was very nice toasted.
I also made a chart for easy reference, as sometimes it is tricky to do the conversions in, I have been unable to upload it but if you would like a copy please check out our Facebook page in the files section or click this link otherwise, pop me an email and I will get it to you.
Judie