Operating Your Oven - Deluxe Features

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 1 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 1 to 2 minutes.

3.Remove with a slotted spoon and dab with a paper towel to remove excess moisture before dehydrating.

Apples, pears, pineapples and some other fruits will brown or darken during dehydration. To prevent discoloration, dip fruits in pineapple juice or lemon juice after steam blanching.

Creating a Candied Effect

To give the 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 2 quarts of water to boil in a four quart sauce pot.

2.Drop the fruit in the water for 1 to 2 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.

Proofing

You can use your oven to proof yeasted doughs. The oven uses bake element for this process. This mode allows dough to rise more quickly in a warm, draft-free environment.

1.Adjust the racks to the appropriate level.

2.Touch Upper or Lower Oven Menu to select the oven to be used.

3. Touch Proof on the main menu.

4.Touch Start.

5.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.

6.Turn on the oven lights.

7.Set the timer for the amount of rise time in the recipe.

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