Operating the Oven
Dehydrating/Defrosting (Continued)
Solving Discoloration Problems
To prevent darkening during dehydration and storage, you should steam blanch apples, apricots, peaches, nectar- ines, pears or foods that will oxidize.
To steam blanch:1.Add one inch of water to a four quart sauce pot. Insert the steam basket and place the fruit in it.
2.Cover the pot and steam for one to two minutes.3.Remove with a slotted spoon and dab with a paper towel to remove excess moisture before dehydrating.
4.Apples, pears, pineapples, and some other fruits will brown or darken during dehydration. To prevent dis- coloration, dip fruits in pineapple juice or lemon juice after steam blanching.
Creating a Candied Effect
To give fruit a candied effect and to help retain color, blanch them in a simple syrup. You can candy the fruits mentioned above as well as figs and plums. The basic ratio for a simple syrup is one cup of sugar to one cup of water. Add these ingredients to a four quart stock pot and bring to a boil. Stir until all the sugar dissolves. Remove the saucepan from the cooktop and allow it to cool. Dip fruit into the simple syrup after it has cooled.
Preventing Tough Skins When Dehydrating
You should water blanch items with tough skins such as grapes, prunes, dark plums, cherries, figs and some types of berries. Water blanching these types of fruit will crack the skins so that moisture can escape and dehydration can be done more effectively.
To water blanch:1.Bring two quarts of water to boil in a four quart sauce pot.2.Drop the fruit in the water for one to two minutes, or until the skin begins to crack.
3.Remove the fruit with a slotted spoon and dab dry with a paper towel before dehydrating. The pit can be left inside or removed half way through the dehydrat- ing process.
Defrosting Tips
•Food that takes an exceptional amount of time to defrost will not defrost well in a convection oven.
•You should not defrost anything that would normally take over two hours to thaw. The food will begin to spoil because the defrost temperature is not high enough to cook the food.
•If you have a partially defrosted turkey, rib roast or other large cut of meat, you may continue to defrost it in your convection oven. If wing tips and legs begin to dry out when you defrost poultry, you may wrap the tips with aluminum foil.
•If you are defrosting a small cut of meat, lay it on a flat cookie sheet with a one inch rim to catch juices as the meat thaws.
•Thick, frozen casseroles such as lasagna will not defrost well in your oven. Instead, defrost accord- ing to the food manufacturer’s suggestions. You may also defrost casseroles in the refrigerator overnight. You should leave the food in its original container and keep it covered.
•You can bake some foods from frozen. Some exam- ples are: pizza, frozen pastries, croissants, cookies, etc. Before baking frozen food, allow the oven to preheat.
Proofing
You can use your range to proof yeasted doughs at a low and
3.Press START.
4.Place the dough in a greased bowl inside of the oven. Cover it with either a damp cloth or plastic wrap coated with a nonstick spray.
5.Turn on the oven light.6.Set the timer for the amount of rise time in the recipe.Sabbath Mode
The Sabbath mode on your oven complies with Jewish laws for use on the Sabbath and Holy Days. This feature allows the oven to perform two types of cooking, bake and Pure Convection.
When the oven is set to Sabbath mode, it disables the following features:•The oven light•All keys, except CANCEL· SECURE, START and the 0 and 2 keys on the number keypad.
note
•As with all other cooking modes, when setting the control panel for Sabbath operation all keys must be pressed within six seconds of each other. Otherwise the control panel will automatically clear.
•Sabbath mode will not work with the meat probe connected (the meat probe symbol will flash).
••In the event of a power outage, the oven will return to Sabbath mode at the temperature it was last set to when power is restored.
•If one or both timers are running, the oven cancels timer operation when Sabbath mode is selected.
•You may want to use a rack thermometer to keep track of the oven temperature.20