I hope you enjoyed reading - and - watching! - my experience with the Hamilton Beach Hand Blender! I also received the Hamilton Beach Oven Toaster Grill (model 31103-IN) with rotisserie and convection with the hand blender.
Here is the follow up post as promised!
I always longed for an oven toaster grill - but somehow never got around to buying one. I used to feel a wee bit sad each time I saw a fab recipe that said " Preheat oven to... " because I didn't have one. So I'd either improvise on the recipe or ditch it.
We do have a microwave oven and I love it - but nothing compares to conventional baking, right? The aroma at home, the joy of baking and the excitement of how the dish is going to turn out - and finally - the family's enjoyment - pure bliss!
Needless to say, I was pretty thrilled that I received the Hamilton Beach Oven Toaster Grill (model no.31103-IN)- with rotisserie and convection. I am busy fantasizing turning out a variety of healthy dishes!
First, I unboxed the oven. And here's the video getting that baby outta the box!
It was double packed with the product packing inside the outer box - so here we go - let's look at whats inside!
Considering that I am a type 2 diabetic, I was keen on easy healthy recipes. I decided to try a chocolate cake first, with a twist. We do not eat eggs and that would have seemed like a challenge, except I knew how to work around that. I had bananas at home and wanted to inlcude them in the recipe. Finger millet flour (Ragi) is protein rich and a highly recommended grain for diabetics. Also, I figured it would make a nice healthy treat for everyone at home considering my folks love dessert.
Let me take you through my first baking experience in an oven toaster grill!.
Banana Ragi Chocolate Cake
I am calling them dry and wet - because dry goes into one bowl and wet into another.Dry ingredients
1 cup multigrain flour (I use it to make rotis - Indian flat bread)
1/2 cup ragi flour (Finger millet flour)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Wet ingredients
The recipe asked for 3 eggs. As we do not use eggs I decided to use 1 cup thick yogurt.
I used 1 1/4 cup organic natural jaggery instead of 1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup milk
1 cup oil
1 cup mashed banana
I preheated the oven to 180 degree Celsius (after keeping it on for 10 minutes at 240 degree Celsius to get the smell out of the new oven)
I also kept the baking pan greased and brushed with flour, and then cut a butter paper to size to line the bottom.
I put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and sifted them well.
In another bowl, I added the wet ingredients and beat them with the Hamilton Beach Hand Blender. It was easy, and did a good job!
Then, I added the mixed and sifted dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients, followed by the cup of mashed bananas combining it into a "batter" until its consistency was smooth.
I poured this "batter" into the baking pan and placed it on the rack in the oven to bake for 30 minutes after setting it in the convection mode. I read somewhere that it takes less time to bake in that mode.
30 minutes later, the cake was done with a "ping" from the oven. There was an oven-ly - nah - heavenly aroma in the air.
I switched the oven off and removed the pan. After checking to see if it was done by inserting a knife in it - which came out clean, I freed the sides of the cake with the knife. Then I carefully placed a rack on the pan and turned it upside down - and the cake came off. The pan was clean, thanks to the butter paper lining.
Waiting for it to cool was perhaps the hardest part as we were eager to taste it.
My son had gone to music class and when he returned, was thrilled, sniffing the air. We enjoyed the cake. It was a little dense - but very tasty and my folks loved it.
Yes. Happy about my first effort.
I am looking forward to a lot of baking with my Hamilton Beach Oven Toaster Grill!
Notes:
- Before preheating, I forgot to put the rack in, as the manual instructed. Ah, lesson learned.
- I didn't buy any utensils, thinking I'd use the trays that came with the oven. But I realized I needed a bread pan, a cake tin, muffin cups and so on. Luckily, while browsing online, I came across a cake tin that looked a lot like my pressure cooker utensil - and I quickly checked my trunks in the attic and found it! Nice size, good job!
- Those oven mitts? Got them in 1982 from my cousin. Kept them safe...who knew their time would come after all these years!
- I do have a tendency to tweak measures - but it almost always happily works out!
