Andrew James premium halogen oven plus accessories: a review
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Kitchen equipment, Reviews | 61 comments
The top of the lid of our Andrew James halogen oven
I want to introduce you to Andrew. He is our new kitchen assistant. When he arrived he was given the night off but in the morning was up early to cook a perfect full English breakfast. It took the same time to cook as using the conventional oven but instead of using two hob rings, the grill and the fan oven Andrew took care of the sausages, hash browns, tomatoes, mushrooms and bacon. Leaving me to make the fried eggs and work out how much electricity we were saving.
Andrew is quite chunky. With his 12 litre bowl he takes up a fair amount of worktop space. The one drawback is the instruction manual. I thought that Andrew was wearing a natty stainless steel belt until I realised that it was an extension ring that gives him an extra five litres capacity. Apart from the skewers the rest of the accessories had me flummoxed. A trip to the Coopers site revealed all. The 36 recipes are not great either as they are poorly translated and inconsistent. You can download a free recipe book from the Internet. I also invested in the The Halogen Oven Cookbook
On Sunday Andrew roasted a crown of duck and lots of potatoes. He was still wearing his extension ring as a belt so I had a bit of a problem fitting everything in. Again it took the same time as a conventional oven with the exception of the preheating time which is about 25% less in Andrew. Browsing other halogen oven manuals on the Internet I discovered that I was using much lower temperatures than a lot recommend. So I need to experiment with this. It’s easy to see how your food is cooking through the glass bowl rather than opening the oven door – this saves on electricity too.
The accessories – once you know how to use them – are handy too. A lid stand is a must as the lid does get very hot and might damage a work surface. Apart from the extension ring they can all be stored in Andrew’s bowl when not in use. The one drawback is that if you are not going to cook directly in the bowl you need round dishes for things like pies and casseroles. Luckily I inherited several from my aunt and now they are really coming into their own. The 12 litre glass bowl is quite heavy too so I wouldn’t recommend it for people who are not reasonably strong.
Although the instruction manual is poor, the Andrew James premium halogen oven cooker
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Hello
really liked reading what you had to say and found the informention helpful,I am thinking of buying one of these to take abroad to use and I need to know the voltage I know it is 240 volts but is it 50hz or 60hz I need to know this before I buy.
Thank you
Colin Wills
Thanks so much for introducing me to Andrew! We’re just eating the first cake I’ve made with ours and I’m looking forward to trying your recipes. When we used him for the first time a couple of days ago our (very greedy) Lab was captivated by Andrew’s lights going on and off, illuminating the sausages inside!
hi just bought a halogen oven from the factory shop for 40quid and has all the extra’s lid holder two trays extender ring and loads of other bits and pieces its great.
Hi Lu
What a bargain!
I am contemplating getting one of these to use in our caravan as the oven has seen better days but will be hard to replace due to its size.
Bit worried about how hot they get so I have been looking on a caravan forum and spotted this link for a recipe book so thought I would share it with you. 🙂
http://www.idealworld.tv/common/downloads/Halogen_Oven_Recipe_Book.pdf
Morning Fiona, many thanks for the above link re: cup cakes, didn’t realise that there were so many halogen oven books.
Much appreciated,
Odelle X
Hi Maureen,
Thanks for your feedback re:e-bay purchase of halogen oven,much appreciated.
I too am keen to use the oven for baking cakes,bread,pies so would be interested in any recipies you may find/try,sucess or mishaps(happy accidents I prefer)that you may encounter during the process save avoiding the same.
Happy accidents can be rectified easily,soggy cake?Steam/cook little longer,serve with custard/cream as dessert.
Overcooked cut away burned edges,ice with buttercream,or if lg cake cut into smaller cakes,coat with buttericing or chocolate moistens whilst ‘hiding’any kind of accident.
Look forward to hearing from you,
Odelle X
Hi Odelle and Maureen
I’ve done a bit of research on the Internet and found a recipe for cupcakes in the halogen oven. This lady has experimented with baking cakes in her Andrew so it might be a good place to start. Scroll down the page for the cupcake recipe http://cherrymay.com/thehalogencookbook/
Hi Guys,
I would like to try making a cake such as walnut or carrot cake in Andrew but cannot find a recipe anywhere. Has anyone got one I could try pleaae?
Any simple cake would be welcome.
Thanks
Maureen
Hi again Odelle
Forgot to mention I also bought halogen cook book on ebay.
Maureen
Hi Fiona,
Excellent savings to be made on the cost of electricity, thankyou, great ideas and recipies for Andrew that you’ve included.
If I can get into town I just may have a look in W.H.Smiths myself to have a pre-view so to speak on the halogen cookbooks.
Should check out the dictionary, just realised spelling error to my note to Maureen! LOL
Apologies Maureen, I’m hopeless sometimes, my hands don’t work as effeciently as I’d like.
Lv Odelle X
Maureen,
Mant thanks to you for the e-bay advice, what a bargain purchase you made, free delivelry, can’t be bad!
Shall be checking out e-bay now, never even gave it a thought!
Durham is not far from me, a beautiful city, I live in Co.Cleveland, amazing isn’t it?
Many thanks Maureen, take care, until next time,
Odelle X