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Dehydrating Tips (cont.)
Solving Discoloration Problems:
To prevent darkening during dehydration and storage, you should
steam blanch apples, apricots, peaches, nectarines, pears, or
foods that will oxidize.
To steam blanch:
Add 1 inch of water to a 4 quart sauce pot. Insert the steam
basket and place the fruit in it.
Cover the pot and steam for 1 to 2 minutes.
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 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 1
cup of sugar to 1 cup of water. Add these ingredients to a 4 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
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:
Bring 2 quarts of water to boil in a 4 quart sauce pot.
Drop the fruit in the water for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the skin
begins to crack.
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 dehydrating 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 2
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 1-inch rim to catch juices as the meat thaws.
Thick, frozen casseroles such as lasagna will not defrost well in
your oven. Instead, defrost according 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 examples are:
pizza, frozen pastries, croissants, cookies, etc. Before baking
frozen food, allow the oven to preheat.
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Operating the Oven
Proofing
You can use your range to proof yeasted doughs at a low and
draft-free temperature using the bake mode.
Press the BAKE key.
Enter the temperature of 100°F on the keypad.
Press START.
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.
Turn on the oven lights.
Set the timer for the amount of rise time in the recipe.
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