Using metal in combination

I know this might seem a bit odd but you can use metal when using a combination of cooking modes, although you can’t use metal on microwave only. We strongly advise you follow the instructions in the cook book provided  The reasons are as follows:-

1.  You have a minimum of 200g or 7oz of food on combination.  The water molecules in the food keep the microwaves busy.  If there was only a small amount of food the microwaves would have nothing to heat and could end up damaging the magnetron.

2.  The metal accessories provided are smooth.  You cannot use rough metal on combination.  For example you can’t use a loose bottom or springform cake tin (one with a clip at the side), you can only use a solid tin.  If you look at a white cup with a gold trim under a microscope you will see that the gold trim is rough.  This would cause arcing when the microwaves jump from one metal bit to another.  Arcing is sparks or flashes in the microwave.

3.  You cannot use HIGH microwave power on combination.  The highest microwave setting you can use is MEDIUM power which is 600W. 

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Storing Bread

Customers have been phoning in this week asking how they can keep their bread fresh for longer. Our bread contains no artificial preservatives and as such it will not keep for as long as commercially produced bread. Here are a few tips on how to keep your bread fresh for as long as possible;

Before storing your bread make sure that it is completely cool. Wrap it up in tin foil or place it into a sealed plastic bag to keep it fresh. If your bread has a crisp crust this will soften on storage, so it is best to leave the loaf uncovered until it is sliced. After cutting, bread tends to dry out fairly quickly so try and use it as quickly as you can. Breads which contain eggs will dry out even more quickly but the addition of honey or fats will help it remain moist for longer.

If you cannot eat your bread quickly enough the best way to keep it fresh is to freeze it. Put the loaf into a sealed freezer bag and keep it in the freezer for up to 3 months. If you are going to use it for sandwiches or toast its best to slice it before freezing. Thaw the the required amount of bread at room temperature making sure the bread remains sealed in a freezer bag. Never store bread in a fridge as this is the ideal temperature for it to stale quickly.

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Spelt, which program?

A gentleman phoned the advice line this morning asking which program to use for spelt bread recipes. If you have an older machine without a speciality or rye program you can use BASIC BAKE RAPID instead. This is the 1 hour 55min program.

 Another tip a customer shared with us recently is to add two teaspoons of lemon juice with the water when making spelt bread. The results were impressive! The lemon juice increased the volume of the loaves both on the bake rapid, 1 hour 55min setting and the speciality setting.

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CHAOS DEFROST

We have had a couple of our customers asking us to explain the chaos defrost program and when to use it. The CHAOS theory principle is used in Auto weight defrost programs to give you a quick and more even defrost. The CHAOS system uses a random sequence of pulsing microwave energy which speeds up the defrosting process and produces very even defrosting. With this feature you can defrost frozen foods from the categories below by entering the weight.. Chaos defrost or Auto weight defrost has 3 categories.

SUITABLE FOODS

1) Bread Bread and bread rolls

2) Meat items Small pieces of meat, eg. minced meat, chicken potions, steaks, chop

3) Meat joints Meat joints eg Whole chickens, meat joints.

Food should be placed in a suitable dish. Select the category and set the weight of the food. The weight starts from a minimum weight for each category. The machine will beep to tell you to stir or break up the food during the program. For foods not listed in the categories use the defrost mode found on your microwave power pad. Please refer to guidelines in the book for defrosting times.

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Adding A Glaze To Your Loaf

Would you like a golden or seeded top crust to your loaf? Would you like it a little crispier?

Add a glaze.

Milk, oil or a whisked up egg all will give a good colour to the top crust. Why not add some seeds too if you have them.

A salt water glaze will not add colour but it will add a crispness to your top crust.

Lift the lid when the display shows 1:00 hour remaining. The bake time is 50 mins so this will give you a moment to add the glaze of your choice. If you are baking on the rapid cycle then lift the lid 40mins before the end of the program.

Happy baking!

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BREAD NOT RISING

You may have seen on the news or in the papers recently that the growing wheat crop was affected before harvest. Sometimes due to bad weather, the crop may not grow with as much gluten forming properties as it would require to produce flour for making excellent breads.

We have been experiencing problems recently with poor gluten content in the flour. We usually find that poorly risen loaves are caused by poor gluten in the flour. 

We have been running some test using a variety of flour. We have found that flour with poorer gluten content produces a better loaf of bread when using the bake rapid recipe and program. We also had improvements using wholemeal or granary flour when we added 2 tsp of lemon juice to the water.     

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Standing Time

A customer called us today because she was concerned that her microwave might not defrost correctly. She was not allowing a standing time.

Standing time is the period of time that food should be left after the defrosting cycle is complete. It allows the centre of the food to thaw out. The standing time can be anything from 1-2 minutes for a slice of bread, 15 minutes for chops or one hour for a joint of meat or whole chicken.

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Gluten Free Recipe

Please find below a revised Juvela recipe;

Juvela Fibre Mix

Ingredients:

• 325ml water
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp veg oil
• 350g gluten free bread mix
• 2 tsp yeast

Method:

1. Place ingredients in the pan in the order listed above
2. Select the GLUTEN FREE setting.

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More Products Hit By Poor Wheat Harvest

The poor wheat harvest is not just affecting the flour for making bread it is having an effect on many other day to day products.

Weetabix said wheat did not meet its required standards. A poor wheat harvest has forced Weetabix to scale back production of some of its products. The breakfast cereal brand said production of Weetabix Minis and Oatibix Bitesize had been temporarily reduced after last year’s extreme wet and cold weather hit wheat quality. The Northamptonshire-based company said it was working hard to restore production to normal capacity. It apologised to customers and said all other products were unaffected. In a statement, the firm said:

“Unfortunately due to technical issues we have been unable to make Weetabix Minis and Oatibix Bitesize to our exacting standards and have taken the decision to reduce production to resolve the issues. This has meant a shortage of supplies of these products to the retailers. We apologise for the inconvenience that this may have caused our consumers but assure them of our commitment to make great tasting nutritional breakfast cereals of the highest quality.”

The firm said it was committed to sourcing local wheat, weather permitting, but did not confirm whether it would be bringing in wheat from further afield to address the problem.

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