Baking with the HERC Oven… the Possibilities are Endless!

Would you rather risk starvation before attempting to eat what you have in your food storage?

If so, the HERC Oven has come to the rescue!

Besides just saving the day when the power goes out, it can do soooo much more!

Heidi who helped introduce the HERC oven to us last year is back to share a few of the many possibilities that are available with it! She demos that baking with the HERC oven isn’t limited to just casseroles!

Be warned – you might start drooling and make an impulse purchase if you continue reading (at least that’s what I did)!

All right Heidi, take it away…

You don’t need a stove to cook these pancakes!

All you need is a muffin pan and your favorite German Apple Pancake Recipe to whip these up.

It took about 25 minutes to bake these in the HERC Oven and I finished them off with some powder sugar & cool whip!

A friend asked me if I thought the HERC could dry fruit leather. Hmmm… Let’s see…

I have no idea what temperature I’ve been baking things with, and that’s the beauty of all of this! It seems to perform well no matter what I try. The HERC comes with an oven thermometer, but I’m not using one.

I decided to experiment by lighting half of the candles (5) – every other one in the tray of 10. I blended up a couple of canned pears, cut up an apple (simmered in a little water), threw in some ginger, and pureed.

I predicted that it would be done when the 5 candles extinguished themselves. It was actually done in less time than that – about 2 hrs. 40 minutes.

If you try this, of course it will all depend on how thick and/or watery your puree is. My Pear Apple Ginger Roll-Ups taste great!

They were a tiny bit too done around the very edges, so I trimmed them off w/ scissors – which I think would be remedied by lighting 4 candles in the center of the tray rather than 5 every other one – and take out the rest because it melts them all.

Can you believe it? I know, I say that every time. I love the fact that I could make a cute little snack, without wasting money on electricity.

We still have not had an “emergency” (although lots of our neighbors lost power on Wednesday night), but I have been trying to clean out one of my three freezers, and consolidate to only using two.

We don’t eat potatoes all that often anymore, but I had some genuine Idaho spuds from my father in law that I needed to use up.

Since we don’t have a generator, I figured that I’d want to use my frozen foods first if we lost power (although I know you have to be cautious to try to keep the freezer closed as much as possible in such a case).

I guess you could call this “Emergency-Food-Waste-Prevention-Simulation!”

Since I was using the HERC for dinner (again), I discovered a couple of things I wanted to share:

This is how I arranged the potatoes in the beginning (pre-heat for 30 mins first):

Since I didn’t plan ahead (nothing new) except for the fact that I just can’t tear myself away from the little oven, I grabbed the filets out of the freezer, stuck them in a small casserole, gave them a rub, and placed them on top of the oven to speed up the thawing process a bit.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I ONLY DID THIS FOR 30 MINUTES, THEN PLACED THE FISH IN THE REFRIGERATOR (40 degrees or below) UNTIL THE POTATOES WERE CLOSER TO BEING DONE. FOOD SAFETY GUIDELINES WARN OF HARMFUL BACTERIA THAT CAN GROW QUICKLY AT TEMPERATURES BETWEEN 40 – 140 F.

The potatoes were in for 2 hours.

Then I added the fish, and arranged the potatoes like this to still allow air flow. I don’t know if this is the best way; it was a wild guess that seemed to make sense:

Notice the ‘Ove Glove? It’s handy (pun intended) to get things out of the cute little space…

30 minutes later – I wish you could see the steam pouring out of the potato (that’s cheese, by the way, not butter:). Alas, photography is not one of my talents!

Sterno and I have never really gotten along – lighting pink goop on fire has always seemed wrong. So I had an idea:

Place the fondue pot directly into the (preheated) HERC…

While the cheese fondue is heating, place the chocolate fondue ingredients on top of the oven to begin the melting process (everyone needs at least 2 fondue pots):

When the cheese fondue is ready, simply swap the pots, placing the chocolate one inside, and the cheese pot on top to keep warm.

Isn’t this little HERC cute?

Mmmmm……Dinner & Dessert!

Depending on where you call home, you may call it Burnt Cream, Crema Catalana, or Trinity Cream – But it’s all the same to us: Decadently delicious!!

I wondered how the HERC oven would handle this delicate custard…

First, I decided to warm the dishes and ramekins on top of the preheating ovens so that when I added the hot water, they’d already be warm (helping to retain the heat in the water and prevent dish breakage).

While the ovens (to my delight, I now have an XXL!) were preheating, I whipped up the recipe.

When it was time to place them into the oven, I discovered that my 11 X 15 dish would be too large to easily maneuver with the hot water/ramekins already in it, so I did it this way: Dish first, then hot water, then ramekins.

Next time, I’ll use a 9 X 13 dish instead…

40 minutes later (which incidentally is the same time recommended in the “conventional oven” recipe) – Voila! No additional cooking time in either oven, which surprised me.

Now the torch! (Note: No electricity necessary)

Perfect consistency…And it gives me peace of mind that we would be able to lift our spirits in the face of a disaster with a little of this “comfort food”.

One last thing – a tiny food storage tip:

Store THIS: Shelf-Stable Whipping Cream!
Not THAT: Refrigerated Whipping Cream = No power, no good!

Wouldn’t it be fun to invite your neighbors over for warm cookies by the fire and games when the power goes out?

Quick – plug in the electric mixer while you still can!

I usually make (at least) a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, and using a small cookie scoop (to help with portion control), cram them onto a sheet for freezing.

That way, the boys can just pull out a few at a time and bake them – Did I mention portion control? We don’t have to eat a whole batch at once…

When the power goes out, light your candles!

Note the oven thermometer hanging out in the little window? I don’t worry much about the temp. I just let it preheat for about 30 minutes and put the stuff in. I can tell it’s hotter than what the thermometer registers…

Mmmmmm…
I feel like the lunch lady baking Otis Spunkmeyers in the tabletop cafeteria oven! Or, a grown-up girl playing “house”?

Ready to Start Baking with the HERC Oven?

Huge thanks to Heidi for opening up her beautiful kitchen again with us and sharing some of her HERC Oven secrets!

The possibilities really are endless, you just can’t be afraid to try! You can find many of these recipes plus more in the HERC Oven Recipe Cookbook!

Want to get your hands on a HERC oven before Hurricane season gets here and the power goes out? Find them HERE, along with some other amazing alternative cooking and food storage tools!

P.S. Still wondering what a HERC Oven is? Read more about them HERE!

The post Baking with the HERC Oven… the Possibilities are Endless! appeared first on Prepared Housewives.