Recipe: Soy Milk in the Thermomix
My roommate got his parents to give us their "Thermomix" on extended loan. I had never heard of such a machine, but apparently it is from Germany, and is quite popular here in Spain. Among English speaking countries, I seem to find the most blog posts and recipes from consumers in Australia and Canada, so it must be distributed there.
These machines are quite expensive - over $1000 I believe -, and are sold directly through salespeople like Tupperware. The main features are that it is a food processor/blender with a heating element incorporated so that it can cook and steam food, plus there is a timer which stops the cooking/mixing, plus a scale so you can measure precisely.
I hadn't been the hugest fan of the Thermomix, as I felt it doesn't chop as evenly as my KitchenAid food processor (not to mention that it doesn't shred or grate), and it doesn't mix cookie dough or bread dough as well as my KitchenAid stand mixer (it has metal blades which I don't like for doughs). Plus, besides the steamer function (you add a steaming tray on top), what are you going to cook in this, besides pureed soups and risotto?
I came around to seeing a big benefit, which is that it makes making soy milk quite efficiently!
Basically, you just have to let soybeans sit overnight. Blend the soybeans for about 45 seconds. Then you can either cook the mixture first.
Or strain and cook after straining.
I tried both ways, along with many variations of time, speed, etc. I prefer the thin consistency of soy milk that is first strained, then cooked. But it's a lot easier in terms of steps and cleaning to strain as a last step. If you strain, then cook, you have to clean the Thermomix container twice.
The worst of my trials was one where I blended the beans for way too long of a time, around 2 minutes. Then it took forever to strain.
Thermomix Soymilk Recipe
100g soybeans
1 L water
45-60g of sugar, preferably rock sugar
1. Wash and soak the soybeans in water overnight
2. Pick out the shells that are floating around, drain, and rinse again.
3. Put the soybeans in the Thermomix, along with 400g of water. Blend for 45 seconds at speed 9.
4. Add in the rest of the water, and cook at 80 degrees for 8 minutes, with speed at 2 reverse (this just gently stirs the mixture).
5. Add in 45-60g of sugar, and continue to cook at 90 degrees for 7 more minutes.
6. Pour the mixture through cheesecloth, and let it sit. This allows more liquid to flow through, and also allows the mixture to cool so you can handle it in the next step.
7. Squeeze the solids in the cheesecloth so that you extract as much liquid as possible.
8. Enjoy your homemade soy milk!
