If you thought that delicious cakes were off the menu – think again. Miele has come up with a way to make baking healthier – as demonstrated by chefs at Steam Patisserie - the world's first patisserie where everything is cooked with steam.
The Steam Patisserie was part of a pop up event which took place in July on Regent Street. Rachel Khoo showed off some of her super healthy patisserie techniques using Miele combination steam ovens. Proving that baking doesn’t need to be unhealthy, she cooked up a delicious selection of cakes, brioche and tarts to show just how easy it was to steam cook sweet treats.
Cooking with steam means that there’s no need for cooking oil or fat and so the resulting cakes are much lighter. This method of cooking also helps to retain the nutrients in food that some cooking methods can destroy.
In combination steam ovens like the ones used at the Steam Patisserie event, the steam comes from the humidity setting, which can range from 0-100%. There are three ways you can use it:
• Keep the humidity at zero and use it like a conventional oven.
• Switch off the ‘oven’ function and only use the ‘steam’ function – making it into a steamer.
• Use both the humidity and oven functions to get a combination steam oven.
The resulting cakes and pastries received a vote of approval from the bloggers and testers, including Su-Yin from the Bread et Butter blog (well worth a look if baking is your passion) and Rachel was keen to point out that cooking with steam didn’t result in any loss of flavour – in fact she thinks that steam cooking can actually improve their taste. She explained;
'Steam ovens are perfect for delicious patisseries and breads - anything where 'rise' is important.
'The moisture injection function helps not only to create lift and rise, but also produces a lovely thin, light crust together with the lightest pastry imaginable.'
Miele’s marketing director, Dominic Worsley added that he thought cooking with steam was a real innovation.
'Steam is a powerful tool in the kitchen and it's not just for cooking your vegetables. There's virtually no limit to what can be cooked in a combination steam oven.'
(image from http://breadetbutter.wordpress.com/)
