Kids Cooking - Chocolate Brownies in the Thermomix

My daughter really wanted to whip up a batch of brownies because she had found a recipe in one of her 'Princess Cooking' books.  I thought she might like to have a go at using my Thermomix.

 Measuring ingredients carefully.  I hadn't converted the recipe so we were still using 'cups'.

Measuring flour before we level off with a knife.

 Into the Thermomix it goes.

Smoothing out the brownies before baking them in the oven.

Sorry, no after photos.  They were the slightly crunchy on the outside type, and were devoured 10 mins after coming out of the oven.

Apricot Muffins - Easy Lunch Box Snack

Using my recipe from here: http://denleydiaries.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/apple-and-prune-theromix-muffins.html, I decided to omit the other fruit, and add a handful of dried apricots instead.

I blitzed the dried apricots in the Thermomix until they were little chunks, then added the rest of the ingredients.

This time I turned the mixture into miniature muffins so I could freeze them for school lunches.  These muffins ended up nice and crunchy on top.  Mmmmm!  There was enough mixture to make three large muffins as well.

They freeze really well, and are a fantastic thing to grab out of the freezer if you need breakfast on the go.

Thermomix Chocolate Frappes

I blame Phil for this one.  He loves the chocolate Frappes they sell at McDonalds.  Complete with creme etc.  They're a little too icy for me - very cold drinks trigger my asthma, but I do like their frappes after an hour ;D


I thought I would treat the kids to one just before they return to school (bittersweet - I enjoyed having them home these holidays).

 Mmmm don't they look delicious!

This is what I used to make them:-

• Three handfuls small ice cubes
• Drinking chocolate (I used Cadbury's, of course)
• Cream
• Milk
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar/blitzed raw sugar

How to put together:-

• If you're using raw sugar, blitz 2 tablespoons raw sugar on speed 9 for 30 seconds.  If not, omit this step
• Fill the bottom of the Thermomix up with ice cubes, until it comes level with the top of the blades.  Don't turn on yet.
• Add in milk until the ice cubes are just covered.
• Throw in your icing sugar if you're omitting step 1.
• I probably used about 1/4 cup drinking chocolate (or perhaps it was 1/3 cup...I love that stuff!).  Cocoa powder would probably work better - perhaps only 1/8 of a cup - but I didn't have any left in my pantry cupboard.
• Add about 2 tablespoons cream
• Okay, now you're ready to blitz away.  Speed 6 for 10-15 seconds.  Check that all the ice has been crushed up.
• Pour into glasses, top with whipped cream and more drinking chocolate if you wish.  Enjoy!

Serves 4 or three if hubby is absent, and a daughter has three glass fulls of the stuff!  My son and I had two glasses each.

It's like a chocolate slushy.

If you want it more icy, add more ice.


You may not want the sugar in it either.  Omit if you're unsure, you can always add it at the end and blitz for 10 seconds.


I'm going to try and melt some 'real' chocolate, then add the other ingredients once the chocolate has cooled a little, but not today.  I think my body needs a break from all the rich foods!

Saucy Tuna Pasta in the Thermomix

I can't take full credit for this recipe.  I got the basic one from my Home Science teachers back in High School.  So I guess it's a big thank you to Mrs McKenzie and Ms Johnston for giving me this recipe and teaching me how to cook so I could practice on my Dad ;D

You'll need:-

• 50 grams butter
• 50 grams plain flour
• 1/4 capsicum (de-seeded)
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 small can corn (drained)
• 1 large can tuna in brine (not drained)
• pre-cooked pasta *(I added in about 4 cups of macaroni)

1. Chop capsicum on speed 4 for 4 seconds.
2. Place butter, plain flour, and milk in Thermomix.  Speed 2.5 at 90 degrees C for 5 mins.
3. Add tuna juice and cook for further 3 mins on speed 2 at 90 degrees.
4. Add tuna chunks  and mix on speed 2.5 for 30 seconds.
5. Add corn, then cook on reverse speed, 90 degrees for 6 mins on speed 1.
6. Add cooked pasta and chopped basil.  **Taste and add seasoning if you think it needs it.  Mix for 2 mins, 90 degrees on reverse at Speed 2.

*You possibly could add raw pasta at step 2, but I already had some cooked leftover pasta in the fridge that had to be used up.

**I love the fact that the biggest hint for this dish from Mrs McKenzie was to add the tuna juice.  It adds its own salt to the dish, and intensifies the flavour.  I don't add any more salt but you are welcome to.

 My kids informed me it looks a little runny, but they devoured it!

I added a little Parmesan cheese to each bowl once served

You could add other herbs and veggies to this dish.  Grated carrot, zuchhini, peas etc.  My kids don't like capsicum, but they didn't even know it was in there!  Mwahahahah :D

Apple and Prune Thermomix Muffins

I love these for a quick Sunday brunch.  They're really easy to make, and are pretty much failproof.  I can even do it with my crazy new oven that I really don't like, but will have to get used to.

The recipe is here:-

• 1 apple (cored and peeled)
• 1/4 cup prunes
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups self raising flour
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

I haven't put the Thermomix 'weights' of the milk or flour as my Thermie is not as reliable with measuring as I would like. It probably has slightly dirty feet.

Method:-

1. Throw apple and prunes into Thermomix.  Blitz away until chopped to your liking (I do speed 6-7 for 5 seconds).
2. Add to Thermomix all other ingredients.  Mix on speed 3 for 10 seconds.  You may have to scrape down the sides a little after you finished mixing it, but that's fine.
3. Spoon mixture into a greased muffin pan and into a moderate oven (180 degrees C) for 10-15 mins or until golden brown.
4. Serve hot with butter.

Makes 12 muffins.

These muffins are great to freeze individually and put in school lunchboxes.

*Instead of the apple and prunes, you could drain a bottle of berries, pat dry and fold them into the mixture at the end.

Thermomix Churros

I woke up this morning with a craving for Churros.  I had them at Dreamworld on our family holiday and I enjoyed the one I had, although I thought it was tad dry.

After a Google search, I found a recipe I could adapt from allrecipes.com

I have varied and adapted it though, and it goes something like this...

You need:
- 1 cup water
- 2 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

- Oil in a deep fryer ready to be switched on.

- Plate with absorbent paper read to go.

- 1/2 cup white sugar and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon mixed together on a plate ready to go.

- Piping bag or plastic tubey thing that I have in my pictures below.

Method:-

1. Into the Thermomix goes your water, sugar, salt and vegetable oil.
2. 100 degrees C for 5 mins on gentle mix speed.
3. Let it cool to 80 degrees (whilst waiting, turn your deep fryer on and set the temperature so the oil will reach 190 degrees by the time you're ready to pipe). Add your plain flour and baking powder to the liquid in the Thermomix.
4. Mix on gentle mix for 1 min, then turn up to speed 4 for 20 seconds.
5. Mixture can now be piped into a piping bag, then pipe the mixture carefully into the hot oil in the deep fryer.
6. Fry until golden brown.
7. Take out and place on absorbent paper, then roll whilst still hot in sugar and cinnamon.

Serves 4 (or two very hungry children).

 Frying away happily. They smell good!  I piped two at a time.  I thought they would stick together if I piped more than that in.



 The mixture is really sticky.  I had already taken 3/4 of it out by this point.  It's a good thing Thermomixes can self clean (well, mostly...)



 My piping 'Thing'  I didn't put a nozzle on it, I was too lazy but I think I will the next time.



 Cinnamon sugar

Yum!

The only thing I would change is to pipe them a little smaller (with a nozzle on my piping 'thing').  The inside was probably a little too moist but still nice.  The outside was really crunchy and delicious.  It was a big hit with the kids who informed my they looked like "doughnut sausages" then promptly devoured them.

I'm going to have to make another batch on the weekend so Phil can enjoy some too!

Oh and no, this didn't end up being breakfast ;D  It was an afternoon snack.

Chocolate Chunk Mud Cake

I have made this cake a few times, and it comes out differently each time.  Once my Thermomix didn't have 'clean feet' so it didn't measure out the butter properly.  Too much butter in a mud cake isn't a good thing, it turns out.

Another time it ended up being a bad cake because my son burnt it.  Long story.  It wasn't worth eating.  And that's saying something folks!

The other three times it has been DIVINE!!!

The cake batter was certainly edible enough.  I wasn't sure if there was even going to be a cake.

I freaked out a little when I pulled it from the oven.

You see, mud cakes like to collapse on me.  Maybe it's because I don't like turning the oven down quite so low and having to wait 2 hours for them to cook because I want to eat them NOW.  I admit, I was worried about this one.  I didn't want to overcook it, but it was gooey.  I took it out of the oven and the middle sank.  I waited for it to cool - just cool enough to smother Betty Crocker Frosting on it, had a piece and it was okay.

Put it in the fridge overnight, and that's where the magic happens.  I had forgotten, that's what I did with the first one as well.  YUM...the cake just merges together in all its chocolatiness and ends up tasting like the perfect mud cake, even if it didn't look cafe worthy.  I think that means it has 'set'.  I should write that on my recipe.

See the collapsed middle?  That's 300 grams of good quality chocolate in that cake.  It tastes much better than it looks from this angle.

Served up with some fresh strawberries, and I'm in Heaven!

*Sigh* Someone has to eat all that mud cake now!

Here's the recipe, from the Thermomix Forum (http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=3583.0):-


"This is a recipe I found in a magazine - I think it was a Food Ideas one but not sure.


Ingredients

- 200g butter
- 300g cooking chocolate - good quality
- 1/4 cup hot water
- 20g cocoa
- 1 tspn vanilla extract
- 200g castor sugar
- 3 eggs - at room temperature
- 120g SR flour


Method

Preheat oven to 160C. Grease a 20 cm round cake pan and line it with baking paper.


Place butter, 200g of chopped chocolate and hot water into TM bowl. Melt for 5 mins at 37C on Speed 1.


Add cocoa to warm chocolate mixture and stir for 5 secs on Speed 4. Add vanilla, castor sugar and eggs. Mix for 10 secs on Speed 4.


Sift in flour and stir on for 1.30 mins on Speed 2.


Pour half the mixture into prepared cake pan. Chop remaining chocolate and sprinkle half over the batter. Top with rest of the batter and chopped chocolate.


Bake cake for 55 to 60 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre has moist crumbs clinging".


Note: I found my Thermomix doesn't like to measure butter properly, so I used 170 grams of butter instead.

It took about an hour and a half before I gave up and pulled the cake out of the oven.

Herb and Parmesan Cheese Toast

This is fresh out of my garden, and what I like to blitz into near oblivion to serve up in my Parmesan Cheese and Herb Toast (if you count spinach as a herb!  I grabbed whatever the bunnies hadn't gotten to.)

I had a craving for the stuff they serve you at Sizzler.  It is golden and crunchy on top, but super soft inside...you get the picture.

So this is what I decided to do:-

- Baked my own loaf of bread (LOVE my bread maker!)
- Picked some greens from the garden - see above.  You can also use sage, oregano or chives.
- Throw the above greenery into my Thermomix (use a food processor if you have one, or chop chop chop away!
- Once the greens are pulverised blitzed, add 125 grams of butter and grated Parmesan cheese - I threw in the entire contents of a snack sized sandwich bag of frozen grated Parmesan cheese.

Note: If your food processor can handle butter cold and hard, go ahead and throw it in.  Most like the butter at room temperature though.  My Thermomix crushes ice easily, so no dramas there.

- Blitz until it looks like greenish butter and smells cheesy.
- Layer on thickly on fresh bread and grill until golden and crunchy.

YUM!

The verdict?  It is WAY better than what they serve at Sizzler!!

And sorry, I couldn't take pictures of the finished product.  It got eaten way too fast.

Dip recipes

Here are some of my favourite dips that are so easy to make:-


French Onion Dip
Mix together 1/4 sachet of french onion soup mix and one 300 gram carton of sour cream. Refrigerate for a few hours prior to serving.


Corn Relish Dip
Mix together one jar of corn relish and one 300 gram carton of sour cream. Refrigerate.


Feta Cheese and Sundried Tomato Dip
In the food processor, blend some sundried tomatoes, fresh basil, a drizzle of olive oil and feta cheese together. Drizzle in a little lemon juice. Should come out a lovely orange colour. If you are not a fan of feta cheese (hubby dislikes it immensely), you could use cream cheese instead.


Note: You can vary the French Onion dip by adding in a little blue cheese.
Add onion flakes/finely diced cooked onion to the Feta Cheese dip.


I added a little bacon to my feta and sundried tomato dip. Was VERY nice!