Thermomix Seeded Bread Rolls

Bread making in the Thermomix is so easy and homemade bread is one of my life's pleasures.  I'm never going to knead and pummel bread dough by hand it's just too hard work and I like to let one of my kitchen gadgets do all the hard work.

I made these bread rolls with fresh yeast and here again the Thermie comes into it's own.  Using fresh yeast can sometimes be a faff but all you have to do is put the fresh yeast along with water into the jug and in a couple of minutes time it's lukewarm and mixed perfectly for the next stage. I asked at the bread counter for my yeast and then broke it into 20g pieces, wrapped them in clingfilm and popped them into the freezer for another day. When you want to make bread simply thaw still wrapped in the clingwrap.

Some recipes recommend kneading in the TM for 2 minutes but I find 4 minutes is perfect to get to the windowpane stage.

After mixing and kneading all you have to do is turn the jug upside down, twist the handle away from the base and the blade falls out with the dough.

Divide the dough into 12 and shape into bread rolls.

Cover the rolls in clingwrap and prove until double in size. Brush the rolls with water and sprinkle with seeds.

There's nothing quite like seeing a cooling rack adorned with freshly baked bread rolls.

Conventional Method in Italics

Thermomix Recipe (slightly adapted)

Makes: 12

20g olive oil
small sprig of fresh rosemary
300g water
20g fresh yeast
1 tsp salt
500g strong white bread flour
100 g mixed seeds

You will need: a large shallow baking tray

1  Place the sprig of rosemary into the olive oil to infuse. Lightly flour the tray. Add the fresh yeast (defrosted to room temperature if previously frozen) to the jug with the water 2 min/37°C/speed 1.
Rub the yeast into the flour.
2  Remove the sprig of rosemary from the olive oil. Now add the olive oil, salt and flour.  Knead 2 minutes. Add 80g of the seeds and using knead setting 2 minutes.
Measure out the water and heat to tepid. Make a well in the centre of the flour. Pour in the water, olive oil and salt. Place the dough hook onto the stand mixer and mix on slow until a dough forms. Continue kneading on a medium speed for 8 minutes until smooth. Add the seeds and continue kneading for another 2 minutes until the seeds have been worked in. Or alternatively, remove the dough from the mixer, add the seeds and knead them in by hand.
3 Turn the dough out onto a silicone mat. Break the dough into 12 equal pieces. Arrange the rolls onto the floured tray.  Cover loosely with greased clingfilm and leave to rise until double in size. Brush the tops gently with water and sprinkle with the remaining seeds. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
4  Bake the rolls 20-30 minutes until golden and risen. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Summer Berry Tarts

The shops are full to the brim with summer berries and what better way to use them than a simple pastry tart topped with a lemon mascarpone filling, adorned with berries and blobs of luscious lemon curd.

Unfortunately my raspberries haven't done so well this year, my strawberry plants have done okay but need replacing next year, as ever my redcurrant bushes are bursting with little red berries.  Redcurrant bushes look after themselves so why the berries cost a fortune in the shops is a complete mystery to me.

The tarts still look pretty without lemon curd

Instructions for Thermomix pastry - food processor instructions in italics.

You will need: 6 x 10cm tins with a loose base, greased

225g plain flour
110g unsalted butter, cubed
pinch of salt
40g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
2/3 tbsp cold water

For the filling:
250g light mascarpone cheese
lemon curd

Decoration:
Mixed fruits of your choice

Food processor instructions in italics

1. Add the flour, butter, sugar and salt to the bowl - Turbo a few times to turn into crumbs. Now add the egg yolk and water. Turbo until just mixed together. Only add more water if necessary to get the dough to cling together.
Add the flour, butter and sugar to the bowl of the processor. Pulse until fine crumbs. Add the egg yolk and water, pulse until the dough starts to come together.
2. Remove the dough from the bowl and form into a flat disc. Cover in clingwrap and refridgerate for 30 minutes.
3. Divide the dough into six and roll out on a lightly floured board. Place the rolled dough carefully into the tins.  Prick the base, place the tins onto a baking tray and chill for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 180ºC conventional.
5. Place squares of baking paper into each tin and fill with baking beans.
6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, remove the paper and baking beans. Return to the oven for another 10 minutes.
7. Place the baked pastry cases onto a cooling rack.
8. Add the mascarpone cheese into a bowl and beat until smooth.  Add lemon curd to taste, mix and place in the fridge to chill.
9. Place dollops of lemon mascarpone cheese into the cooled baked pastry cases, top with berries and blobs of lemon curd, if you like.

You may also like:
Summer Berries Pavlova
Berry Meringue
Mixed Berry and White Chocolate Cheesecake Slice

Salad Bowl Recipe

One of the things I like about a salad bowl is that you can keep adding to it and it's also a great way to have a fridge clear.

If you enjoy looking at Instagram the hashtag #powerbowl and #saladbowl are inspirational and Pinterest is another great source where you're sure to get salad bowl envy. My only comment though is that the bowls are nearly overflowing and there appears to be enough food in them for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

There's no recipe as such - my salad consists of a base layer of mixed leaves, an oven cooked breast of chicken lightly coated in piri piri spices. Bulgar wheat with diced peppers and raisins, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, julienned carrot and courgettes. Lightly toasted pine nuts and a handful of sunflower seeds.

Mix a dressing of your choice to pour over the salad and lastly add a few slices of sliced avocado.

We've just returned from a week away in Caernarfon, North Wales - this holiday we decided to rent a cottage overlooking mountains and coast. Salads were a great way to feed ourselves without spending too much time in the kitchen.

I'm missing this fabulous view from the holiday cottage already and I've only been home for a few days!

Back soon!

Thermomix Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake

I've now learnt how to make cake successfully in a Thermie in 25 seconds and all you need to do is add everything to the jug and whiz, it's like magic, and no more curdled cake batter. My food processor makes cake in less than a minute, the stand mixer takes 2 minutes and I find they all give the same result. To be fair none of us need all this kitchen gadgetry to produce a cake and occasionally I use a wooden spoon and bowl which gives me some satisfaction to feel more 'hands on' when I bake.

I'm not sure that I should be making and eating cake after over indulging on holiday but I find lemon drizzle irresistible and after all there was a lemon in the fridge crying out to be used. I also add a dash of lemon extract and the zest to the cake batter for a wonderful hit of lemon.

Note: These ingredients and method are written specifically for the Thermomix TM5. To make in a food processor add all the cake ingredients to the processor bowl and whiz until just combined. For the stand mixer place everything in the bowl and mix for 2 minutes until smooth.

Ingredients:
180g granulated sugar (caster sugar if using a food processor or stand mixer)
180g self raising flour
180g softened unsalted butter
pinch of salt
3 large eggs
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon extract (optional)
zest of 1 lemon

For the icing:
50g icing sugar
3 tsp lemon juice

You will need: 900g loaf tin lined

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
2. Add the sugar to the TM bowl and grind 20 Seconds/Speed 8.
3. Add the flour, salt, softened butter, eggs, lemon juice, lemon extract and zest to the bowl. TM 20 Seconds/Speed 5.
4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  TM 5 Seconds/Speed 5.
5. Pour the cake batter into the lined loaf tin and bake for 40 minutes - test with a cake tester to ensure the cake is cooked through.

6. For the icing: Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together leave to stand whilst you poke holes in the top of the hot cake.  Drizzle the icing over the cake hot cake which gives a crunchy topping. Leave the cake in the tin to cool on a cooling rack.

7. Once cold can be frozen in slices.

You may also like:
Thermomix Banana Cake
Pecan Sponge Squares
Plum and Pear Slice

Easy White Bread Rolls Recipe

I've been away on holiday to the wonderful island of Madeira, we had amazing food at our hotel and I especially loved the vast choice of desserts but now it's back to every day home cooking and salad, salad and more salad!  I made these bread rolls before I went away on holiday.

I used to live in a small market town in Leicestershire and one of the things we ate regularly at home was a cob filled with Leicester cheese and topped with a few slices of home made pickled beetroot and a grinding of black pepper. It's still a firm favourite now and if you can find time to make your own bread and cook up some beetroot it takes lunch to another level. I must write a blog post showing how easy it is to cook beetroot using a steam oven, trust me it saves getting everything covered in beetroot juice, and if you've ever cooked beetroot in a pressure cooker you will know where I'm coming from!

The bread dough was made in my Thermomix but I've included instructions for using a stand mixer too, the rolls are easy to make and are wonderfully soft, light and fluffy, this is a recipe I use time and again. I always use Waitrose Canadian White Strong Bread Flour because I've found it consistently gives me the best result.

Thermomix Instructions in Italics

Makes: 12

500g strong white bread flour
5g fast-action yeast
10g salt
35g butter
300ml warm water

1. Put the flour into the bowl of the mixer and using the appropriate attachment rub in the butter.
2. Add the yeast and salt to the bowl, it's always best to place them on opposite sides of the bowl.
Add the flour, yeast, salt and butter to the jug Turbo x 3 times.
3. Fit the dough hook and pour in 300ml of warm water, knead for 5 minutes until the dough is elastic.
Pour 300g warm water into the jug Knead Function/4 minutes.
4. Remove the dough and place into a greased bowl, cover with cling wrap and prove for an hour or so until doubled in size.
Prove the dough in the TM jug, cover with cling wrap, leave until double in size about 1 hour.
5. Remove the dough from the bowl, return to the stand mixing bowl and using the dough hook knead for a minute to knock out the air.
Remove the dough from the TM jug and knock out the air.
6. Cut the dough into 12 even size pieces and shape into balls.  Place onto floured baking sheets. Dust with flour and cover with a tea towel to prove until double in size.
7. Preheat the oven to 210ºC. Place the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Place on a wire rack to cool.

More Bread Recipes:
Malted and White Bread Rolls
Apricot Couronne
Fougasse

How to Sous Vide In The Oven

My first attempt to sous vide without any fancy kitchen gadgets....I used a digital ovenproof thermometer, deep ovenproof casserole, large freezer bag with a zip (try the bargain shops), round cooling rack, bulldog clips and a straw.

I took inspiration from online searches and asked hubby to help me. Temperatures and timings can be found at ChefSteps (a link is at the end of this posting).  I cooked my joint for 6 hours which produced meat which was medium but I think 4 hours would have been sufficient.

I did find it all a bit of a faff but the end result made it all so worthwhile. The meat was a silverside joint I bought from Asda when it was on offer, for our time we were rewarded with a really tender joint without shrinkage and it didn't dry out. The downside is that you have to sear the meat in a pan after it's cooked and this process fills the kitchen with smoke, or alternatively browned using a blow torch otherwise the outside looks anaemic, unappetising and the meat will lack in flavour.


Experimenting before buying expensive gadgetry is a great way to try before you buy.  Sous vide machines have a huge footprint and some are the size of a microwave or there are alternative sous vide cooking aids that you can buy.

I used a fan setting at 110 deg C and let the oven heat up and stabilise for a good half an hour prior to cooking. The rolled 1kg silverside joint is seasoned and placed into a strong ziplock freezer bag.  It's good practise to turn down a third of the bag to the outside when placing the meat inside the bag to help eliminate bacteria.

This is where the faff begins.....Place hot water from the tap to half fill the large deep casserole. Now boil the kettle and add some of this to the casserole, using your digital thermometer you are looking for 60 deg C.

Taking the air out of the bag using the water displacement method is to simply place the open bag into the water and the air is automatically released from the bag, close to a straw width and then making sure you don't suck up any meat juices suck out the remaining air and close the bag.

Place the rack on top of the casserole, using bulldog clips attach the bag to the top of the cooling rack, ensure that the bag does not touch the casserole.

Being extremely careful place the casserole into the oven.  Top up with hot water checking it is 60 deg C.

Place the probe of the digital thermometer into the water and attach using a bulldog clip, ensuring that it is reading the temperature of the water and not in contact with the casserole, close the oven door.

Adjust the oven temperature to keep the water to 60 deg C. My oven temperature setting initially needed to be 110 deg C but then tracked down to range between 65 deg C and 75 deg C I used fan for efficiency, but once it settled down I didn't have to keep an eye it was quite happy at 85 deg C.....but all this for me was a faff but hubby seemed happy enough checking the temperature.

The meat doesn't look very pretty when you remove it from it's water bath but you get all those lovely meat juices to make your gravy, just be sure to pour these through a sieve and you are left with tasty meat juice.  Here is a blog post How to use juices from the bag after sous vide braising explaining why it is necessary to sieve the meat juices before making a sauce.

NOTE:
I used ChefSteps Time and Temperature Guide
For the water displacement method ChefSteps Simple Sous Vide Packaging
A must read: How to Cook Food Perfectly and Cheaply with a DIY Sous Vide Machine
An interesting read: How to sous vide in the oven with or without water

Disclaimer: Other oven brands are available but #boughtformebyme. Please be sure to do your own research if you are using this method regarding temperatures and timings because I take absolutely no responsibility for anyone reading this post and falling ill!