Gourmia One Touch Automatic Cake & Bake

I recommend the Gourmia Cake Maker. It is great looking and can make delicious cakes as well as stir fry, roast and candy nuts, incubate a large batch of yogurt, mix and heat home made icing along with also doing other things. It automatically goes to keep warm mode after cooking. Quite fantastic. I like the smell of cinnamon sugar, etc. Rather than lighting a candle or using other means I found to infuse my home with baking scents I can start a cake in the morning and let the smells slowly waft through my home all day until I take the warm cake out for my evening dessert. Besides the functions that are listed, I have discovered and invented other applications that can be done. One is a fondue maker. Spray the pan with canola oil then place the fondue makings in the Gourmia on stir fry. When blended and heated transfer to a fondue warmer to enjoy. The stir-fry setting is also a great candy maker. Spray with the canola and add small pieces of baking chocolate, etc., etc. I have already used its stir-fry function to prepare fried rice effortlessly. The Gourmia can also be used for small batch home made beer and sake utilizing the stir and yogurt modes. I was disappointed with Gourmia’s yogurt mode as it should have been able to heat the milk then beep when it was cooled to 113 degrees to let me know to add my starter. It could have eliminated a pan or other appliance this way. I am particular so I prefer home made cakes or cakes from those who bake according to my highest of standards. I am very into organic and low fat type cooking so the Gourmia is handy to me since I know what ingredients are in my cakes rather than purchasing an organic cake at Whole Foods where I might not know the precise butter content for example. The easiest thing to do when using the Gourmia is to use low fat organic high quality mixes and modify the additional ingredients egg substitute instead of egg, etc,. then make sure there is no more than 36 ounces in total of all the ingredients and they come no higher than 2/3 of the way up in the pan and set the Gourmia to Basic then press (touch) start. I already invented a Non-Dairy Scrumptious Moist Chocolate Cake recipe to use with the Gourmia: Whole Wheat Scrumptious/Guiltless/ Non-Dairy/ Vegan Chocolate Cake by Julie Sands Ingredients: Canola Oil Spray 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I used Hemisfares Val di Mazara) 3 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract w/Bourbon (I used Kirkland) 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon Soy Lecithin (I used Bob’s Red Mill) 8 ounces warm Organic Soymilk (heat in microwave 40 seconds)-I make my own using GJS Gourmet Soymilk Maker and Organic Bob’s Red Mill Soybeans) 2 teaspoons Organic Lemon Juice 9 Tablespoons Water *(omit if using Nulaid or other liquid egg replacer) 3 Tablespoons Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer *(or ¼ cup liquid egg replacer) 3 ounces Pure Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (I used Trader Joe’s) 1 ounce Carob Powder (I used Bob’s Red Mill) 1 1/3 Cups Sugar in the Raw (I get it in bulk on Amazon) 1 Cup Organic Whole Wheat Flour (I recommend Bob’s Red Mill) 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder (Bob’s Red Mill) *Note I used an electronic scale and measuring spoons for exact measurements, as the pan will look pretty full. Please make sure you have an electronic scale before making this recipe yourself. Put in wet ingredients first, starting with spraying the pan and lid with canola, then adding the tablespoon of Olive Oil to the bottom of the pan, etc. Then when finished adding the wet ingredients, add the dry, with the baking powder last. Level your ingredients with a knife or spatula before placing the lid on the cake pan. Place in Gourmia on Basic, Touch Start. Now for the topping: Obviously, you can use a chocolate icing recipe, but here is a great, easy, quick, gourmet alternative that will most likely impress. Homemade Chocolate Liquor Icing: Ingredients: 4 ounces Monin Organic Chocolate (syrup) 8 ounces high quality Vodka Flour or Cornstarch to thicken if desired Blend Vodka and Syrup in Blender, then add thickener if desired Next, to show you how to cook healthy with Gourmia and never gain weight, in the following recipe I wrote I am using a mix for Monkey Bread. I have rewritten this recipe for Pelican Bay’s delicious Monkey Bread Mix adapting it for the Gourmia and lower fat cooking while maintaining its deliciousness. Know I am a size 2 and around a 24 inch waist and have spent years perfecting how to do these things and remain super svelte. So I am sharing with you my Monkey Bread adaptation which I call Julie’s Monkey Cake. By studying it and my Chocolate Cake Recipe which has zero butter, you will learn how to adapt your own and other’s recipes while maintaining the taste but lowering fat/and or sugar if they were originally too high in fat, etc. Realize that large amounts of butter and eggs were originally used not for the taste but to help ease the difficulty of kneading or mixing by hand. By drastically lowering the amount of butter and using egg substitute, you will NOT notice any loss in flavor. You can also greatly lower sugar content without even using sugar substitutes. The rule of thumb I use is to keep lowering the amount of sugar in the recipe slowly each time I make it until I can discern any difference in sweetness from the original. When I do, I use the last measurement where it tasted as sweet The instructions in the Monkey Bread Mix told me to use 2 sticks of butter. NO WAY! Instead, I sprayed the pan and lid lightly with Canola Oil (expeller pressed) spray. Then I added 1 tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. (I do this also in my bread machines, it is very healthy and a great lubricant for the machines to easily move their paddles, etc.) I then added the other wet ingredients. In this instance, the instructions on the mix said to add only water. NO WAY! See I reduce my butter drastically, so to make sure there is plenty of moistness and creaminess where I cannot tell by taste I did this I always add milk. I add my home made organic soymilk; if you decide to add regular milk to yours I recommend using non-fat organic only. You will not taste a difference. To prevent weight gain and also to help my machine mix the ingredients that much easier I add in a teaspoon of soy lecithin (often also used as a workout supplement to reduce body fat.) It is also a mild preservative. I use Bob’s Red Mill Brand and store it in a vacuum sealed container (I recommend Foodsaver,) in my refrigerator to preserve freshness. This particular Monkey Bread Mix (Pelican Bay) tells me to add ½ mix of their caramel sauce packet. I added it in on top of the melted butter (I only used 4 tablespoons instead of the 2 sticks they recommended) and soymilk. (Use wet ingredients first, then dry in the Gourmia.) Then I added the bread mix packet and the cinnamon sugar packets in increments and leveled them out with a spatula. I close the lid, place the machine on Basic, and touch start. After the Monkey Cake (I call it that because it will not have the dough balls of the regular monkey bread nor the interior stickiness but will be moist and with the same flavor and you will not have to roll dough balls, etc.,) is finished I take it out and place it in the oven to warm. I open the Gourmia, let it cool down, and make sure the pan, lid, and paddle are washed while it is cooling off and resting. When the Gourmia is cool I make the topping I invented with the last half of the caramel sauce packet in this mix. First, I spray the pan with a light coating of the expeller pressed canola oil. Then I place 2 tablespoons of water in the pan. I take 12 ounces of almonds (I can substitute pecans, walnuts or any other nut I choose of course,) and add them in. Lastly, I pour the remaining amount of the caramel sauce mix. I put my Gourmia on the stir fry setting, touch start, and move the dial left so there is only 20 minutes on the timer. I touch start again. In 20 minutes I have delicious caramel, candied almonds with sauce to top my Monkey Cake with making it look much fancier and also omitting the butter that was suggested, using instead the added protein, vitamins and very healthy fat in the unsalted nuts. I placed the left over almonds on parchment paper to cool and am using them as candied snacks and in other recipes and to top low fat ice creams, etc. At the time of this writing, my spouse and I have only had our Gourmia for a few days. I am certain sometimes on weekends my spouse will also be making us cakes and utilizing it as well. This morning we enjoyed cakes. This afternoon he is breading and frying some of our gorgeous eggplant we grow in our garden. I know it takes effort, no matter how easy, to make food. Let’s face it, we do not like the process of cooking (and clean-up,) we just want to enjoy eating! It is a tedious task to prepare food in my opinion, but it is something both spouses must do to avoid resentments. The Gourmia helps make it a lot less annoying to make yummy cakes as well as minimizes clean-up. I recommend putting aside funds to buy in bulk organic baking items. Get together a list and buy in cases. If you are going to use carob powder get a case, that way you do not have to constantly keep track of what you are running low on, thereby saving a huge amount of time spent at the store restocking. You only have to order a few times a year and are very organized and never run out. Be mindful of the large delivery though and make sure you are on hand to help the delivery person, and even have a dolly or cart available. Do not take their word for it that they can carry it. Use kind logic, and make sure you are there to assist them with the delivery if you do this. Recycle any boxes. UPDATE: My spouse and I now own two. We run them often simultaneously. I have lost count of the many recipes I have invented with the Gourmia Cake Maker. Here is the quickest, easiest way to make GOURMET low fat Italian Polenta in the Gourmia Cake Maker. I find Polenta delicious even at breakfast with a soft boiled egg. Top the Polenta with some fresh vegetarian Parmesan cheese. Recipe by Julie Sands Copyright 2017 based somewhat on a Bob's Red Mill Italian Polenta Recipe Ingredients: Organic Olive Oil Spray 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1 teaspoon salt 1 dry measure cup of Bob's Red Mill brand Organic Italian Polenta (I HIGHLY RECOMMEND USING THIS BRAND POLENTA FOR A PERFECT RESULT-IT WILL NOT TASTE LIKE GRITS) 2 1/2 cups water Directions: Spray Gourmia Pan and lid add 1 tablespoon extra virgin high quality olive oil add other ingredients Put lid on Gourmia pan Place in Gourmia and put on Stir Fry setting for 45 minutes ENJOY PERFECT POLENTA-Top with Parmesan or butter To store any leftovers I recommend using 1 quart wide mouth mason jars and vacuum sealing using a foodsaver system with the wide mouth mason jar lid sealer accessories. Then store in the fridge for later-microwave it will be as fresh as when first made. UPDATE 5/2/19 My (Julie Sands the award winning Filmmaker’s) Recipe Peanut Butter Dog Biscotti Biscuits Ingredients Use dry Measurements: 28 grams unbleached flour (white) 5 grams cinnamon 5 milliliters extra virgin olive oil 114 grams water 128 grams no sugar added non gmo pure peanut butter or organic peanut butter 114 grams Freekeh grain or other hard grain like chia, etc. 60 grams non gmo soy flour 29 grams raw sugar (unprocessed) 5 grams baking powder Place in Gourmia on Basic, Medium Crust -take out of Gourmia and shape by hand or using dog or other biscuit cutters-Even though they are moist DOGS and even most humans and other critters love them-the grains are placed in the Gourmia uncooked and most stay so crunchy they effectively clean their teeth as well as those hard, dry, almost tasteless dog biscuits-tell the dogs what ingredients are in them and that they are eating a vegetarian dog biscuit recipe-you will see that your dogs will display even more of their intelligence and respect if you bake these type biscuits for them-they are impressed if you serve it to them warm and on a plate-Julie Sands -note these can also be baked on a cookie sheet but I am not sure of the recipe time - if you do just take them out when they are crisp looking and moist, and smell great probably 45 minutes-they are so good humans can even dip them in a cup of Earl Grey or other tea.