Table-top halogen ovens

foodjunkie

Hi. just got one on friday. It cost £39.99 and came complete with all the additions that you paid extra for.:T

jpscloud

I've just tried apple crumble - being a gas cooker user for 12 years, I'm having to retrain with electric! I got a basic recipe using three medium cooking apples (given to me from mum's tree) and added some chopped walnuts, ground nutmeg and oatmeal to the topping. I sprinkled a bit of cinnamon on the apples, with sugar (the topping was a bit heavy on sugar as I'd forgotten to reserve some for the apples and had to use extra!), popped them in a large pyrex bowl and put the topping on.

In the halogen oven, I put the low rack on the bottom to stand the pyrex bowl on, and used the extender ring as well.

I set the halogen oven at 180 degrees and 40 mins. After about 10 mins I had to put foil on the top as the topping was going brown too quickly. After 40 mins the apples weren't soft, so I put it in for a further 30 mins. After that time the apples were only just softening so I bunged it in the microwave for 10 mins, then back in the bottom of the halogen oven (no extender ring or racks) on 180 for ten mins to crisp up the topping again.

It was really delicious - wayyyyy better than anything I've ever bought. However, the halogen oven cookbook that came free with my cooker has an apple crumble recipe (much same weights as I used) that says give it 25-30 mins on 180! I guess the extender ring must have made that much difference, but I am certain the top would have burned before the apples cooked if I did it the way the book says.

I think next time I'll microwave the apples before putting the crumble on, then it should cook just right in the halogen oven.

chanie

I just made chicken thighs for tomorrow in my Halogen (which I got from Costco yesterday).

So far, it all seems to be going well, although the chicken is a bit dry.

To give you an idea of energy usage - when I use my oven, my energy monitor was 29p/hour. When I put the halogen on, it was 16p/hour (although I also have other stuff on as well) so a fair saving, espeically because when it gets too hot, it turns itself off (saving even more money).

jpscloud

That is quite a difference Chanie! I'm very pleased with mine overall, just need to experiment a little to get things right.

jpscloud

I've got what can only be described as a giant biscuit cooking in the HO at the moment! I adapted a recipe for shortbread to include nutella, oatbran and some chopped walnuts. I plonked the dough in the middle of the round non-stick tray and spread it out a bit, not all the way to the edges, and it's getting about 50 minutes on 165 degrees. It has now spread to the edges and risen slightly (although it's plain flour with no raising agents). It smells lovely, hope it turns out ok. Will update to let you know!

jpscloud

After 50 mins the top was beautifully done but there was a circle in the middle on the bottom that was not baked. I have turned it upside down and placed it on the aluminium hole-y tray and rebaking for 40 mins. I will then call it biscotti (the bits I've eaten are really nice!)

OberonSH

I've been doing casseroles in in recently (haven't used the oven since I bought my halogen!) but I put it in a casserole dish on the low rack and the top still gets too crispy & well-done before the rest heats up. I could lid the casserole, but I like the sauce to thicken up a bit. Any tips? Would using the extender ring help keep the direct heat away from the top?

jpscloud

That's my experience too Oberon, I think it might be the drawback with these ovens. I always use the slow cooker for casseroles and the like so the HO is more of an oven/grill for me, which it really excells at.

For the apple crumble I now microwave the apples to cook them before adding the crumble, then put in the halogen oven to bake the crumble. After about half baking time, I needed to use tin foil (I had to put the high rack over the top to stop the foil flying off with the fan!)

chanie

I'm still experimenting with mine. I made some brownies but my dish was slightly too big for the oven as the dish kept on leaning to one side. I put the high rack in and they did cook, but the bottom was still undercooked.

So that was a bit of a disaster.

However, I made some jacket potatoes in there at lunchtime and they were lovely and crispy.

jpscloud

I've just had a look at the HO cookbook that came free with mine. The directions all seem to be to cook in layers, as it were... so for a crumble, the fruit goes in and cooks, then you take it out and put the topping on. For casseroles, the meat goes in first, browns for a while then the vegetables go in. There's a recipe for (strangely) pheasant casserole - you brown the meat with the shallots first, while cooking the sauce/gravy in a saucepan. Then you add that to the pheasant and do the main HO cooking for 50 mins. Then you add the potato topping, and cook that in the HO.

Looks like we just have to get the knack of doing things in the right order!