With burgeoning food prices, look forward to more savings by making these store worthy DIY food gifts using your Thermomix® by checking out these curated edible gift ideas for the gifting season ahead!
Chocolate Bark: Combine melted chocolate and crushed toasted nuts for a sweet treat. Break the bark into pieces and place them into a clear bag with ribbons and viola a pretty and yummy gift treat is done. With 100g costing $18 onwards, make up to 8 pieces of 150g chocolate barks with the same price using your Thermomix® at home!
Watch how to get this done.
Cookies: Let your Thermomix® handle any cookie dough and you’re in for a lot of creative fun whether you are making classic gingerbread cookies or shaping and icing Christmasy shapes or even piping creamed butter cookies for festive designs. With popular bakery cookies costing $50 a tin, make your many more tins with only $10 (the main cost will be butter)!
Gourmet Granola: Add toasted oats, seeds, and mixed nuts with dried fruits and a sweetener like maple syrup or honey into your mixing bowl for a quick mix to get gourmet granola that will give store bought ones a run for their money. You can customise the mixture and ratio according to what the recipients like to create unbeatable thoughtful gifts. Check out the most popular Granola Cookidoo recipe here. With gourmet granola costing over $20 per 250g, it is definitely much cheaper to make your own!
Homemade Jam & preserves: Utilise your Thermomix® to create flavourful jams that can be fill in decorative jars for gifts. Explore Cookidoo® for a wide range of recipes. Here’s a flavoursome Berry Compote recipe you may try.
🍓Berry Compote
Ingredients
- 250g fresh berries
- 1 tbsp lemon juice Zest from 1/2 a lemon
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
Preparation:
- Place berries, lemon juice and zest into mixing Bowl.
- Cook 7mins /98degC / Sp 0.5 / Reverse with the measuring cup on
- Stir in maple syrup and store in covered pre-sterilised jar(s) inside your chiller
Chocolate Truffles: Blend chocolate ganache effortlessly, roll into balls, and coat in cocoa powder or chopped nuts for elegant truffles. Try this Chocolate Truffles recipe and save when you make your own with Thermomix®! Costing $3 per chocolate truffle, its no wonder, homemade chocolate truffles using choice chocolate remains one of the most popular homemade gift item as quality couverture chocolate only cost $40 per 2.5kg!
Herb Infused Oil: Infuse olive oil with common garden herbs like basil, rosemary or shallots using your Thermomix® for a sophisticated culinary gift.
Try this Basil infused oil by Nouri restaurant’s Chef Ivan Brehm. Make your own infused oil gifts with far less budget if you have your own fresh herb supply from your garden!
Basil Infused Oil
- 200g basil leaves (no big stems)
- 300g grapeseed oil (or another neutral tasting oil)
Preparation
- Add both ingredients to the Thermomix. Blend on high speed, occasionally stopping the blender and with the help of spatula, pushing the herb paste back down. You might have to repeat this process a few times until mix is no longer chunky.
- Once herb is pureed blend on speed 9 for 2 minutes. Push once again with the help of the spatula.
- Turn the thermomix to 80 celcius, and spin with the lid on for 3 minutes.
- Pour the herb oil mix with the help of a spatula onto a colaner lined with cheesecloth or a clean kitchen cloth, into a bowl. Tighten the cloth and allow it to drip in the fridge.
- Decant (separate the basil oil from the brown water that will have appeared). Reserve till needed in the fridge or freeze it for later use.
Gourmet Sauces: Foodies will always appreciate a gourmet sauce like homemade XO sauce, or a flaming hot sauce like sambal belecan or a chilli paste like home cooked tom yam. Sauces are very versatile for foodies who cook as adding these can be wonderful shortcuts to cooking dishes that’s full of flavour. You will not need to look further than seeking inspiration from our evergreen sauces and condiments from the Thermomix® Asian Flavour Mixes collection in Cookidoo®. Homemade always taste better since we can adjust the salt and sugar and avoid preservatives while using choice ingredients!
Thermomix®XO Sauce
Ingredients
- 260g cooking oil
- 5 dried chillies, deseeded, soaked to soften
- 60g shallots
- 1-2 bird’s eye chillies (chilli padi), adjust to taste
- 25g garlic cloves
- 50g dried shrimp, soaked for 1hour, drained
- 50g dried scallops, soaked for 2 hours, drained
- 30g Chinese ham, rinsed
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing Hua Tiao)
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 20 g dried chilli flakes
Preparation
- Place cooking oil, dried chillies, shallots, bird’s eye chillies, garlic cloves, dried shrimp, dried scallops and ham into mixing bowl, blend 8 sec/speed 6. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl with spatula.
- Add brown sugar, light soy sauce, rice wine, fish sauce and chilli flakes, saute 30 min/120C/Speed 2 or until the sauce is aromatic and oil is released. Serve as condiment or pour into a jar for storage in refrigerator for up 1 month.
Tip: To prolong shelf life of XO sauce up to 2 months, steam dried scallops and Chinese ham for 30 min/Varoma/speed 2 before blending in step 1.
Homemade Madeleines: These are so expensive store-bought but so easy to make at home! For $10 only, you can make 3 trays that would cost up to $4 each piece in bakeries and patiseries. Try this foolproof Thermomix® recipe that makes authentic French Madeleines with the signature big humps! Check out our Thermomix® Madeleine tutorial and recipe below :
Madeleines recipe for Thermomix® users
Ingredients
- 120gm sugar
- 2 lemon zest
- 150gm + 20gm(brushing) salted butter(room temp)
- 20gm honey
- 150gm self raising flour
- 165gm eggs (3eggs+ 1 yolk)
- 2 gm of vanilla bean paste
Preparation
- Place sugar n lemonzest in mixing bowl. Pulverise for 10sec / Sp10. Transfer it to a clean bowl and set it aside for later
- No need to rinse the bowl. Put butter & honey in mixing bowl and mix 4min / 50c / Sp2
- Remove 20gm melted butter to grease n dust with flour n remember to flip out excess flour.
- Preheat oven 180c for 15min
- Add flour, eggs, reserved lemon sugar & vanilla bean paste. Mix 1min / Sp4
- Transfer out n put in freezer for 20min.
- Bake for 13-15min (monitor at 13m as different ovens may bake and brown differently)
- Transfer to a cooling rack.
- Optional : Replace lemon zest or brush baked madeleines with 1 tablespoon of rum or orange blossom water for a French twist. These morsels are best eaten fresh, when just fresh out from an oven. They keep well for 48 hours and lose their crispy exterior after a while.
Flavoured Butter : Also called compound butter, you can make these easily by blending butter with herbs, spices, or flavour bombs like porcini mushrooms or/and roasted peppers in your Thermomix®, to create custom-flavoured butter that may be eaten as a bread spread or used for cooking! These can be wrapped in environmentally green reusable waxed paper and stored in sterilised jars as jar butter gifts. Try this well-received Thermomix® recipe below.
Thermomix® Jalapeno Honey Butter
Ingredients
- 2 fresh jalapeño chillies, trimmed (see Tips)
- 50 g honey
- 2 pinches sea salt
- 120 g butter (see Tips)
Preparation
Preheat a barbecue to high heat or place a grill pan over high heat on the stove top. Place jalapeños onto barbecue or pan and grill, turning frequently, for 5-10 minutes, until charred on all sides. Set aside to cool.
Place charred jalapeños into mixing bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 5. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl with spatula.
Add honey, salt and butter, then mix 10 sec/speed 4. Roll the butter into a sausage shape to make butter rounds, form into a rectangular shape or spoon into an airtight container. Place in the fridge or use as desired (see Tips).
Watch the steps to make these gourmet butter – Sundried tomato butter and Miso butter.
Christmas Stollen : Enjoyed during the Christmas season, Stollen’s rich texture, combined with the sweetness of fruits and subtle spice notes, makes it a beloved and indulgent part of festive traditions. Make your stollen in smaller “muffin” sizes to give-away! Get MasterChef Sharlene’s stollen recipe here.
Cheesecake : Cheesecakes are expensive because the main ingredient is cheese which is costly. Divide a recipe to bake in small muffin cups as food gifts to many or bake a large one for a festive party because it is so easy to make from scratch with the Thermomix®. There are a variety of different cheesecake recipes in Cookidoo® – search “cheesecakes” for over a hundred cheesecake recipes in English.
Try this soft cotton Japanese cheesecake, popular as it is less rich and dense compared to traditional baked New York cheesecake. Watch the tutorial for baking instructions and tips from Thermomix® guru Mavis Ong, who is most famous for her competition winning pineapple tarts, cakes and bombolonis.
Soft Japanese Cotton Cheesecake
Ingredients
(A) Cheese batter
- 250 g Cowhead American Cream Cheese, room temperature, cut into pieces
- 70 g vegetable oil
- 50g caster sugar
- 100g fresh milk
- 40g freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
- 6 egg yolks (63-65g)
- 60g cake flour (low protein flour)
- 20g corn flour
(B) Meringue
- 6 egg whites
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
- 100g caster sugar
- Butter, to grease
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 150°C. Grease and line the base and sides of a round springform cake tin (20 cm) with baking paper. Place tin on a sheet of aluminium foil and fold up the sides to seal base of tin. Place tin into an ovenproof baking dish (24 cm) and set aside.
- Place cream cheese, oil and 50 g of the sugar into mixing bowl, then mix 3 min/60°C/speed 3.
- Add milk, egg yolks and lemon juice, then mix 30 sec/speed 3.
- Add cake flour and cornflour and mix 10 sec/speed 4. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl with spatula and mix for a further 10 sec/speed 4. Pour mixture into a large bowl. Thoroughly clean and dry mixing bowl.
- Insert butterfly whisk. Place egg whites and remaining 100 g of sugar, then whip 3 1/2 min/speed 3.5, without measuring cup, adding cream of tartar through the lid hole while whisking and adding sugar in gradually
- Stop at 3min to check the texture and scrape down. Continue to whisk for another 30sec. (NOTE : do not exceed 4min) Remove butterfly whisk.
- Lightly fold ⅓ of the egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture until well combined. Add another ⅓ of the egg white mixture and fold in gently, then fold in remaining egg whites until mixture is smooth, taking care not to over mix. Pour into prepared cake tin. Add approx. 3 cm of boiling water to baking dish to create a water bath. Carefully place in oven and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes (150°C) or until golden brown and firm.
- Turn oven temperature off and leave door ajar. Leave cheesecake in oven for a further 15 minutes to cool, then remove cake tin from water bath and set aside to cool completely. Gently remove cheesecake from tin and place on a serving plate before dusting with icing sugar (see Tips).
Hints & Tips
• Cheesecake can be eaten warm or cold. If you eat the cheesecake while still warm, the texture is at its fluffiest. If you put the cheesecake in the fridge, the texture becomes creamier.