Thermomix Update
I've had the Thermomix for over a year now, so I feel I should do an update on how my expensive appliance is going.
Actually I've mostly forgotten the cost now. I only remember occasionally when I neglect it's care in some way, then give myself a mental kick and remind myself I can't afford to replace it if I damage it.
It's in regular and growing use. Not so much for actual meals, I've yet to find anything other than the risotto and meatloaf that I don't prefer to do the old-fashioned way. But I've started using it for prep, turns out that using it to fine-chop an onion and garlic is worth the clean-up effort after all.
I suspect I can get rid of my old blender, every time I think something will be easier in there, it isn't. Milkshakes & smoothies, breadcrumbs, pastry, the Thermomix is at least as easy to clean as the blender and no shaking required to get things in contact with the blades.
Regular items now include the weekly pizza dough, bread dough (since our breadmaker became unreliable), peanut butter, porridge and yoghurt.
I seem to have got the hang of bread now and can produce some extremely nice, light loaves. Bub and I both prefer the home-made peanut butter and can't go back to bought stuff now. The yoghurt took a few goes to master, mostly because none of the recipes I looked at were at all clear about the process. Once I realised they needed to be kept warm in a thermos while they set we were all… set. Ahem.
The yoghurt makes most of a liter of nice pot-set yoghurt, which Bub eats in the space of a week (with a little help from me if I'm quick enough). I get 5 pots for about the price I'd otherwise pay for 1, so that's quickly adding up to a good saving there.
During recent hot weather it got used for a mango smoothie, and I tried their ice-cream recipe. The latter has way more sugar than I require, but the process seemed to work ok. A little icy, but I suspect I took it out for the final mix too soon so worth trying again.
Previously it has been very successful in producing the custard base for my usual ice-cream recipe, so next I'll try my usual recipe with the Thermomix method, and see if I still need the ice-cream maker or not.
It's great for doughs of all sorts, including my gingerbread and cinnamon buns. I still tend to over-knead them though, I'll adjust eventually. (Last year I said it was no good for the gingerbread dough, apparently my technique has improved, or something).
So where I used to regard making bread as something very like hard work, I am now fearless in the face of dough.
I continue to use it successfully for things like white sauce, and make a fairly good chilli in it a little while back. Haven't bothered trying to mince meat again after the first failure - turns out I can buy mince meat for less than the cheap cuts separately packaged so I'm not sure why I would bother. Even if I buy a side of beef, the price doesn't actually change if I ask for the cuts to be minced for me.
I always make icing sugar in there now, and sometimes the icing as well. This is particularly handy because I had a terrible habit of only finding out I was out of icing sugar when everything else was ready to go.
Have actually started using parmesan cheese regularly as it grates up so nice and quickly in there. Breadcrumbs from frozen crusts are easy, and it recently did a good job of grinding up my whole cardamon and cloves. Experimenting with hotter spices probably won't happen until Bub is a lot older.
I have actually ended up making a few cakes in it. Turns out mixing in seconds rather than minutes is a bigger win than I would have thought. I still prefer less processed cakes, but making one in the beater yesterday seemed to take far longer than it had any right to. I find myself questioning whether it's really all that much better. At some point I want to try the steamed cupcakes they showed us, but haven't got around to it yet.
Haven't had the chance to try making marmalade yet either, the kumquat tree hasn't been very productive. Suspect the water-logging problem we had for a while has upset it a bit. I could buy fruit, but that kind of spoils the point for me.
Still don't much like the digital scale, but have learned to live with it. It's not like I ever bothered with accuracy before anyway, it's just the principle of the thing.
The only other problem I have is that it's pretty noisy and Bub has turned out to be a light sleeper, so I don't dare use it on any but the lowest speed settings when he's asleep despite being at the opposite end of the house.
Finally, while I don't often make dips or salads, when I do, the Thermomix is great for making short work of it. I've started to take it for granted that as long as I check ingredients I can otherwise just forget about it until the morning I need it and figure out what I'm doing then. Previously these rare items required much more prep time.
In summary, it's definitely the sort of thing you need to allow yourself time to get used to. In my case I don't have time to just play and experiment with it so it's taking a long time, I'm sure by next year I'll be using it even more.
With practise it becomes much easier to use reliably and clean quickly, and I also trust it more to do it's thing without my supervision now :)
Actually I've mostly forgotten the cost now. I only remember occasionally when I neglect it's care in some way, then give myself a mental kick and remind myself I can't afford to replace it if I damage it.
It's in regular and growing use. Not so much for actual meals, I've yet to find anything other than the risotto and meatloaf that I don't prefer to do the old-fashioned way. But I've started using it for prep, turns out that using it to fine-chop an onion and garlic is worth the clean-up effort after all.
I suspect I can get rid of my old blender, every time I think something will be easier in there, it isn't. Milkshakes & smoothies, breadcrumbs, pastry, the Thermomix is at least as easy to clean as the blender and no shaking required to get things in contact with the blades.
Regular items now include the weekly pizza dough, bread dough (since our breadmaker became unreliable), peanut butter, porridge and yoghurt.
I seem to have got the hang of bread now and can produce some extremely nice, light loaves. Bub and I both prefer the home-made peanut butter and can't go back to bought stuff now. The yoghurt took a few goes to master, mostly because none of the recipes I looked at were at all clear about the process. Once I realised they needed to be kept warm in a thermos while they set we were all… set. Ahem.
The yoghurt makes most of a liter of nice pot-set yoghurt, which Bub eats in the space of a week (with a little help from me if I'm quick enough). I get 5 pots for about the price I'd otherwise pay for 1, so that's quickly adding up to a good saving there.
During recent hot weather it got used for a mango smoothie, and I tried their ice-cream recipe. The latter has way more sugar than I require, but the process seemed to work ok. A little icy, but I suspect I took it out for the final mix too soon so worth trying again.
Previously it has been very successful in producing the custard base for my usual ice-cream recipe, so next I'll try my usual recipe with the Thermomix method, and see if I still need the ice-cream maker or not.
It's great for doughs of all sorts, including my gingerbread and cinnamon buns. I still tend to over-knead them though, I'll adjust eventually. (Last year I said it was no good for the gingerbread dough, apparently my technique has improved, or something).
So where I used to regard making bread as something very like hard work, I am now fearless in the face of dough.
I continue to use it successfully for things like white sauce, and make a fairly good chilli in it a little while back. Haven't bothered trying to mince meat again after the first failure - turns out I can buy mince meat for less than the cheap cuts separately packaged so I'm not sure why I would bother. Even if I buy a side of beef, the price doesn't actually change if I ask for the cuts to be minced for me.
I always make icing sugar in there now, and sometimes the icing as well. This is particularly handy because I had a terrible habit of only finding out I was out of icing sugar when everything else was ready to go.
Have actually started using parmesan cheese regularly as it grates up so nice and quickly in there. Breadcrumbs from frozen crusts are easy, and it recently did a good job of grinding up my whole cardamon and cloves. Experimenting with hotter spices probably won't happen until Bub is a lot older.
I have actually ended up making a few cakes in it. Turns out mixing in seconds rather than minutes is a bigger win than I would have thought. I still prefer less processed cakes, but making one in the beater yesterday seemed to take far longer than it had any right to. I find myself questioning whether it's really all that much better. At some point I want to try the steamed cupcakes they showed us, but haven't got around to it yet.
Haven't had the chance to try making marmalade yet either, the kumquat tree hasn't been very productive. Suspect the water-logging problem we had for a while has upset it a bit. I could buy fruit, but that kind of spoils the point for me.
Still don't much like the digital scale, but have learned to live with it. It's not like I ever bothered with accuracy before anyway, it's just the principle of the thing.
The only other problem I have is that it's pretty noisy and Bub has turned out to be a light sleeper, so I don't dare use it on any but the lowest speed settings when he's asleep despite being at the opposite end of the house.
Finally, while I don't often make dips or salads, when I do, the Thermomix is great for making short work of it. I've started to take it for granted that as long as I check ingredients I can otherwise just forget about it until the morning I need it and figure out what I'm doing then. Previously these rare items required much more prep time.
In summary, it's definitely the sort of thing you need to allow yourself time to get used to. In my case I don't have time to just play and experiment with it so it's taking a long time, I'm sure by next year I'll be using it even more.
With practise it becomes much easier to use reliably and clean quickly, and I also trust it more to do it's thing without my supervision now :)