THERMOMIX NEWS

With a heavy heart I have decided to hang up my Thermomix Consultant Apron for a while. We have some great new consultants in the area now, which leaves me to re-adjust my priorities.
My original goal was to introduce families in NE Vic to Thermomix and offer a easier way to provide good, wholesome and nutritious food and give the kids a really good start to life. Now with more consultants in the area and the word is spreading like wild fire, I feel comfortable knowing that we're in good hands.
Thermomix has offered me an amazing journey and has opened up a whole new world to me and the adventure of "real" food!! To anyone interested in becoming a consultant, I would highly recommend it.
I'm happy to still be contacted for any queries or can point you in the right direction to some other wonderful consultants.
Happy Thermomixing and thank you so very much for your support and encouragement!
Joelene xoxo



Sunday, December 6, 2009

Get into that Christmas Spirit!

We've been having fun experimenting with Gingerbread decorations at our place. I have an adapted Gingerbread recipe which doesn't rise as much as the recipe in the Festive Recipe - making it pefect to keep it's shape for decorations.

Ingredients:
450g Plain Flour

165g Brown Sugar
1 tbsp ground Ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground clove
185g Butter, chopped coursly
200g Golden Syrup
1 Egg

Royal Icing
1 egg white
200g sugar

Stained Glass Windows
Boiled Lollies – sorted by colours

Method
Pre heat oven to 180ÂșC.
Place all ingredients into TM bowl except the egg white and mix for12 seconds on speed 6.
Set dial to closed lid position and knead for 50 seconds on Interval setting.
Tip gingerbread mixture onto lightly floured Silpat baking mat and knead into a smooth ball.
Place the mixture into a covered bowl and put in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Between two pieces of baking paper roll out the gingerbread mixture to approximately 4mm in thickness.
Remove top layer of paper and cut the gingerbread into desired shapes, e.g. gingerbread men, stars, hearts etc.
Place onto lined baking tray and bake for approximately 10 minutes, depending on size and shape. Place on cooling tray when cooked.

Ginger Bread Christmas Tree

Make Gingerbread recipe as above.

For each tree, you will need 2-3 each of 5 different sized star shapes cut out of ginger bread (3cm, 5cm, 6cm, 7cm and 9cm or there abouts).
Bake stars (smaller ones only require 10 minutes, larger ones require 12 minutes). Meanwhile make Royal Icing.
To assemble, join the 9cm stars with Royal icing, then the 7cm stars, then the 6 cm stars and so on (refer to picture). Decorate trees by joining cachous to stars with tiny dots of royal icing.
Dust with icing sugar.

Royal Icing
Add egg white to a clean and dry TMX bowl and beat on speed 4 until stiff peaks form. Add icing mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time until all added in.




Stained Glass Gingerbread Decorations
Crush each colour of boiled lollies seperatly. Place in Thermomix and crush on speed 9 for 5 seconds. Remove to a smaller bowl.

Follow directions as per Gingerbread recipe above.

Cut Christmas Tree Shapes using a larger cutter, then using a smaller cutter, cut out small Christmas Tree shape or use small star shapes. Using a skewer or a sharp knife, remove dough from the smaller shape.
Using the blunt end of a skewer place a hole in the top of the biscuit to use to thread ribbon later.
Bake in oven as per instructions above for 7 minutes. Remove and fill windows with crushed boiled lollies of chosen colour and return to the oven for another 3-4 minutes. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes before transferring.
When cooled, thread with ribbon to decorate a Christmas Tree.

Other ideas:
You could use any Christmas shape for this, such as an angel with a heart cut out and filled with red candy.



General Tips
If using the gingerbread for decorating your Christmas tree use a drinking straw to punch a hole in an appropriate place before baking so a ribbon can be threaded through for hanging. Reform holes with straw while hot if needed.

4 comments:

  1. What a beautifull Christmas decoration. I made those special gingerbreads with the candies last year and they were delicous.
    Have a lovely xmas season
    Barbara (from Portugal)

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  2. Thanks Barbara. Wishing you a wonderful Christmas too!

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  3. Nice to see you are getting into the Christmas spirit ILB. A lovely thing to do with your beautiful daughter - bet you had fun!

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  4. Good work - hope they last til xams day. Our cat and dog would find ways to get them off.

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