Christmas again - win a book

Well it's Christmas again and time to get everything ready for the New Year/New Decade. It really doesn't seem that long ago that we were worried about the Y2K bug and now we are leaving the Noughties.

I have spent some time adding some of the blogs that have developed during the last year to our list.

There is so much activity at the Thermomix Forum that we have neglected this site.

There are more blogs starting up each month and so lots of new ideas.

Tenina continues to have the Monthly Mouthful competition at Thermomix Australia and we need your help to support her. To encourage people to vote we are giving away a copy of "Lotus: Asian Flavours" signed by the author, Teague Ezard.

All you have to do is check out the December Monthly Mouthful post and make a Comment - You DO NOT have to vote for any of the dishes, just make a comment.

After the competition has closed one of the comments will be chosen at random - not based on content - and the winner will receive the book.

The following recipe is one that was given to me last year to post here, but I hadn't taken a photo and Christmas came and went, so I forgot about it. There is another version on the Forum Thermomix site too by Ingrid in the UK - so it must be good.

Based on a recipe from Delia Smith’s Christmas. This is a luscious and luxurious dessert, so only small helpings.

Chocolate Truffle Torte

Ingredients:

75 g Amaretti biscuits

600 ml whipping cream

450 g cooking chocolate (70% cocoa), cut into chunks

5 tablespoons liquid glucose

125 g Grand Marnier, Rum, Whisky or Amaretto

Cocoa powder for dusting

Method:

Grease a 23cm springform cake tin with oil, and then place a circle of baking paper in the base.

Place biscuits in TM bowl and crush for 30 seconds on speed 9. Spread these over base of the tin.

Insert Butterfly over blades and place cream in TM bowl. Beat for 20 seconds on speed 4 or until it starts to thicken, it does not need to be firm. Remove to a large mixing bowl and set aside in the fridge. Remove Butterfly.

Without cleaning the TM bowl, place the chocolate into the TM bowl and chop for 10 seconds on speed 7. Scrape down the sides and top and add the liquid glucose and liqueur and then melt the chocolate for 3 minutes at 50°C on speed 1. Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then add some of the lightly whipped cream. Mix for 15 seconds on speed 3.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then add some of the lightly whipped cream. Mix for 15 seconds on speed 3. Carefully fold chocolate mixture into the remaining cream in the large bowl.

Once mixture is smoothly blended, spoon into prepared cake tin and tap gently to even the mixture out. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate overnight.

To serve, use a knife to loosen the edges of the torte and undo the springform sides. Place a serving plate on the torte and turn upside down, so that the amaretti biscuit crumbs are now on top. Dust with sifted cocoa powder.

It may be prepared a couple of days before serving and freezes well.

Christams Cooking

The Christmas Thermomix Recipe Competition has been underway at Thermomix in Australia's blog. If you haven't voted then please look at the recipes and think about making them and voting.

I have recipes that had been sent in and didn't make it, but we can share them here with you. I will try them out and publish with pictures, hopefully. Christmas is only 1 week away though - Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh !!!!!














The first one is pretty simple and the intro goes like this:

In the Northern Hemisphere, egg nog is a very traditional drink at Christmas. This is a cool variation that is suitable for our climate.


Chilled Rum (or Sherry) Sabayon

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks
50 g caster sugar (made in Thermomix)
3 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons rum or Pedro Ximenez sherry

Method:

Insert Butterfly over blades in Thermomix and add egg yolks and sugar. Cream yolks and sugar for 4 minutes on speed 4.

With the Butterfly still in place, set Thermomix for 7 minutes at 70°C on speed 4. Gradually add the orange juice and rum (or sherry) through the lid.

The mixture should be thick when cooked; you may need to increase the temperature to 80°C and cook slightly longer.

Place mixture into a bowl, cool, cover and chill in the fridge thoroughly before serving.

The sauce is best made on the day it is to be served as it tends to separate.

The second recipe is an extension of the sabayon or zabaglione above and the intro is:



Champagne and berries say it all at Christmas. This is a dessert that can be prepared in advance. The egg whites in the dish help stabilise the sabayon.









Christmas Berries in Champagne Sabayon

Ingredients:

400 g mixed berries, hulled and cleaned
2 tablespoons kirsch or Grand Marnier
2 teaspoons sugar
3 eggs, separated
Pinch of cream of tartar
100 g caster sugar (made in Thermomix)
250 ml champagne

Method:

Drizzle the berries with liqueur and sprinkle with sugar. Leave to marinate, overnight if you like.

Insert Butterfly over blades and place egg whites and cream of tartar in TM bowl. Beat for 3 minutes at 37°C on speed 4 with MC out of lid.

Set TM for 1 minute and 30 seconds at 37°C on speed 4 and slowly introduce 50g of the caster sugar. Remove resulting meringue to a bowl and place in fridge.

Clean bowl fairly well and insert Butterfly over blades. Place egg yolks and remaining 50 g of caster sugar in TM bowl and cream yolks and sugar for 4 minutes on speed 4.

While yolks and sugar are creaming, drain berries and strain juice through a fine sieve. Keep berries aside and measure the liquor. You will need about 1/2 a cup, if needed add some champagne to make up to 1/2 cup.

With the Butterfly still in place, set Thermomix for 8 minutes at 70°C on speed 3. Gradually add the liqueur/champagne mix through the lid.

The mixture should be thick when cooked; you may need to increase the temperature to 80°C and cook slightly longer.

Place mixture into a bowl and allow to cool. Once cool, gently fold into the meringue mixture.


To serve: Reserve a few berries for garnish, then place remaining berries into dessert glasses, cover with cold champagne and top with the sabayon. Decorate with reserved berries. Merry Christmas.

Shortbread

time to start making some goodies for christmas gifts...

step one was to try this shortbread recipe. posted on Forum Thermomix by CarolineW, it originally came from lobstersquad (though i can't work out how to go back to her older posts to find it there). oh, silly me, caroline already had posted the link

300g flour
100g sugar
200g butter (cold)
pinch salt

Preparation: Put flour into TM bowl first, add everything else on top, including any extra flavourings you want to use, eg lemon rind, pecans, etc. Blitz for 20 seconds on speed 6. Turn out crumbs and either press into a cake tin (loose bottomed or lined so can get it out again) or wrap in cling film and leave to rest in fridge for 30 minutes, after which you can cautiously roll it out and cut simple shapes.

Bake for 20 mins at 170 degrees C, until pale gold colour. DO NOT TRY TO TAKE OUT OF TIN until it's cooled for at least 10 mins. I say this from bitter experience! After that you can carefully transfer it to a cooling rack.

brazen's notes: i added macadamias but next time i will add them at the end on reverse as they just became powder and didn't add a lot of taste or any texture.
I will also try ann's idea of replacing 50g of flour with rice flour (which you can make in the tmx of course) as i always preferred shortbreads with rice flour in them.
when you line your tin i suggest leaving overhanging ends to make it easier to get out of the tin, and leaving it in the tin til it's cold! otherwise it is very hard to get out!

it's been very popular in my house with everyone except ryan (who loves bought shortbread biccies but won't even touch it to taste lol). think it will look lovely in cellophane with ribbon tied on it.

Christmas Cookies

I wanted to bake some cookies today to try to get a photo for our christmas cards done. Ryan also had his friend I coming over, along with I's mum & sister. so I decided to combine the two and let the kids decorate some cookies. (i decorated the ones for the photo shoot though lol)

I used this recipe, which had pretty good feedback.

Ingredients:
* 250g butter, softened
* 65g icing sugar (or make your own as per the instructions in the tmx book)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 egg, at room temperature
* 440g plain flour
* 75g cornflour

Method:
1. mix butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. speed 4, 40-60 seconds. you might need to scrape down the bowl half way through.

2. Add egg and mix on speed 5 for 5 seconds.

3. Add flour and cornflour to butter mixture. Mix for approximately 60 seconds on the knead setting .

4. Divide in half. Press each half into a disc. Wrap each disc in baking paper. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Roll each disc out between 2 sheets of baking paper to 3mm-thick.

6. Using biscuit cutters, cut dough. Place onto trays. Roll leftover dough together and repeat. Bake for 15 minutes or until light golden. Stand on trays for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

7. decorate with icing (approximately 1 cup sifted icing sugar, 1 tspn butter or marg and a tiny bit of hot water, plus drops of food colouring until you get the colour you want) and desired decorations - we used sprinkles / 100's & 1000's, some little candy hearts and silver cachous

Strawberry Sauce

brilliant christmas gift idea!

posted on forumthermomix

500g Strawberries, washed & hulled
250g sugar
1 lemon, peeled, seeded & quartered
optional - 1/4 cup alcohol such as brandy or vodka or
optional - flavours such as vanilla essence

Preparation:
cook for 35 mins on 100'c speed 1.
placing the varoma over the top instead of the measuring cup will prevent splattering (thanks pam!)
pour carefully into sterilised jars or bottles and refridgerate

serve over icecream or crepes

source:
originally in the everyday cooking for every family cookbook as strawberry jam

Lemon Curd

originally posted on my blog


another great idea for christmas gifts.

originally posted on forumthermomix by caroline

Lemon Curd
makes 1 jar

75 g caster sugar
juice and finely grated zest of large, juicy lemon (i used 2 medium)
2 large eggs
50 g unsalted butter
i also added a small amount cornflour but not sure it was necessary

1. Put all the ingredients in the TM bowl. Mix 15 seconds on Speed 6.
2. Scrape down the sides with the spatula
3. Insert the whisk. Cook 4 minutes at 80'C on Speed 4
4. If it hasn't thickened enough, continue to cook for 1 to 2 minutes more.
5. Pour into sterilised jars and seal.

Tips/Hints: I got this recipe from the UK Fast and Easy Cooking book. I made a double batch, and it took an extra 3 minutes of cooking time. Great recipe if you like to really taste the lemon. If you prefer a sweeter lemon curd, use the Australian recipe

according to the google i did lemon curd is good on scones or with gingerbread :)