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Hello!
On this, our last pre-Christmas email, I’m sharing a bit of a mixed bag that I like to call cranberries and Christmas.
Keen readers will have seen the cranberry sauce directions I gave to Insider Bronwen in last issue’s AMA section. But then I was lucky enough to stumble upon frozen cranberries the week after writing those details. They are very hard to come by in my part of the world, and I was pretty excited! So, I’ve made and detailed a proper steam oven/sous vide cranberry sauce recipe for all of you. I hope you’ll enjoy it on your Christmas table.
Then, because I had extra cranberries, I made the most beautiful orange and cranberry loaf cake. I love it, I think you will as well. It’s the perfect antidote to rich, over the top Christmas desserts and we’ve been snacking on it for brunch-ish morning tea here.
We’re also revisiting a favorite Insiders share from this time last year, all about last minute gifts you can make in your steam oven. I have cooked from this list a lot; if you haven’t taken a look before I really encourage you to pick one thing and give it a go.
Finally, a little housekeeping: my little team and I will be on break from December 23 through January 3. Dec 30 is the only 30th of the year where you won’t get an Insiders newsletter, but I hope you’ll still turn to your Insiders dashboard for cooking inspiration in that post-Christmas and pre-New-Year week, where all the days become Blursday. I can’t wait to be back in January, with lots of steam oven cooking plans for a delicious 2025.
I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year with your loved ones, and that it’s full of food prepared with joy and excitement.
Emily x
New to Learn (reboot): Easy Homemade Food Gifts from your Steam Oven
This is my own go-to list of easy homemade food gifts that can be done in a steam oven. Some of the ideas will be familiar to those of you who’ve followed me for a long time. Others are fun and interesting takes on classic food gifts. The best part: most of these gifts can be whipped up at the last minute, and they’ll take far less hands-on time than going shopping for a gift.
Just because they’re food gifts, that doesn’t mean you can’t make them for yourself. In fact, I hope you will.
New to Cook
If you have access to fresh or frozen cranberries where you live, make sous vide cranberry sauce! It’s far superior to any bought sauce, with a freshness and tartness that just doesn’t exist in a heat-sealed, shelf stable version.
Orange cranberry cake is a welcome addition to your holiday table, with its texture punch from juicy frozen or fresh cranberries and a cinnamon-spiked crumble top. Using frozen, fresh or dried cranberries, the cake has a moist crumb and a perfect balance of sweet and tart flavors.
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A Thing I'm Loving
Anova have just released the next generation of their countertop steam oven, the Anova Oven 2.0. I’ve been lucky enough to play with an early release model, and can confirm it’s a HUGE step up from the first generation version. The control, cooking capability and precision of the oven are all fantastic, and the app connectivity and features have improved greatly as well. I believe the first run of the new oven has already sold out, but if you’re in the market for a new countertop steam oven, I’d highly recommend checking it out and getting on a waitlist for the next production run.
Ask Me Anything (AMA)
Here’s your opportunity to ask me anything you like related to combi steam cooking!
I really encourage you to submit questions, and will do my best to answer as many as possible. Though I may not be able to get to every single question, I will carefully curate ones which are relevant and represent a variety of topics. We all learn from each other, and I often learn new things based on questions from all of you!
If you have an AMA question, please email it to emily@steamandbake.com. Make sure you include the phrase INSIDERS AMA in the subject line so I can collate and read all your submissions.
From Cathy
Q: I FINALLY made the potato rolls for Thanksgiving (along with some cinnamon honey butter) and wondered WHY I waited so long to try them. My question is about timing. Could I make the dough, for instance, in the morning; refrigerate the dough after the first rise and finish them closer to dinner? Or get them into balls in the pan, refrigerate, do the second rise and bake nearer to dinner time?
A: Oh, those rolls really are the best, I’m glad you’re now a convert! Yes, you can absolutely make the dough ahead of time so they work in with your schedule better. I would refrigerate at one of the following points:
The first option is immediately after making the dough (for the first rise). Cover and refrigerate for 8-12 hours, then remove from the fridge, knock down the dough and form your rolls. Do the second rise and bake.
Your other option is as you mention above; do the first rise and form the balls, then refrigerate the ready-to-bake rolls and bake when you’re ready. If you do this, I wouldn’t leave them proving in the fridge for more than a few hours. They tend to overprove and the texture isn’t as good when you leave them too long.
From Teresa
Q: I will be making both a porchetta and a turkey on Xmas morning. Would like to use the porchetta recipe you provided me with last year which turned out beautifully. My question is , could I still manage to cook both in the steam oven and am wondering about timing etc.
Alternatively, I also have a wolf M series oven and was considering possibly making either one in that so that things are ready at the same time? Or could I start one off in the steam oven and then transfer to convection in the M series oven?
A: In this instance, I think I’d follow the steamed-then-baked turkey method (this blog post details it in depth for you). You can do the steaming part of the turkey in your steam oven, then switch the bird into your convection oven and do the porchetta using combi steam. You’ll get the best of both worlds! If the turkey cooks first and needs to be held while the porchetta finishes cooking, just cover with foil and let it rest in the turned-off convection oven.
