Lakeland Microwave Plate Warmers

 

In general, I like hot food to be served on hot plates. I realise I’m a little old-fashioned in this: however, it’s something my grandparents believed in as an absolute, and something my parents and in-laws always followed too. 

We’re not so rigid as our elders: in the summer in Cyprus we really don’t want anything too hot, so we do serve food onto unheated plates when the temperatures are high. But in the winter it can be surprisingly chilly, so I like my food to stay hot as long as possible. 

PRIOR PLATE-WARMING PREPARATION

We already have a kind of mini folding electric blanket gadget which allows us to heat between three and twelve plates quite successfully, so long as we remember to switch it on at least fifteen or twenty minutes before a meal. 

But when there are only two of us at home, this isn’t so useful. We can’t warm just two plates, or the device would overheat. And while we could warm a third and just let it cool down again, it feels like a bit of a waste of electricity... besides which, I rarely remember until I’m about to dish up.  So, more often than not, I used to resort to balancing a couple of plates rather precariously over simmering saucepans to heat them, then having to dry them before using. 

PERFECT PIPING PLATES

Until about a year ago, that is, when we were visiting our son and daughter-in-law. They were busy in the kitchen, then just before we were about to sit down to eat, my son said, ‘Oh! Plates need warning!’  

He went back to the kitchen, and about a minute later we heard their microwave beep. He returned with four warmed plates, interleaved with some black circular disks, which were also warmed. On querying these devices, we were informed that they were Lakeland microwaveable plate warmers. 

Naturally, we had to have some.

PROCURING PACKAGES OF PLATE-WARMERS

These plate warmers are sold in threes, which - thinking about it - seems a bit of a strange number. Each pack cost £10.99 from the Lakeland site, when I looked, so when I made an order last year, I included a couple of packs of these. Perhaps we could have got away with just one, since we can use our electric plate warmer for more than three plates. But we often have just two friends to a meal, sometimes four, and I liked the idea of being able to warm plates almost instantly if I forgot to use the electric warmer. 

They arrived in December, in cardboard packaging telling us that they are actually made by a company called ‘Waveware’.  According to the Lakeland site, they are made of a silicone rubber which instantly attracts microwave heat. That heat is then transferred to the plates by contact. Each one is 15cm in diameter, making them a good size to warm the main, central part of each plate without making the edges too hot - useful when carrying the plates to the table, or passing them out. 

PRIMARY PURPOSE OF THE PLATE-WARMERS

There was a short instruction sheet inside each package, letting us know the different approximate times for which plates should be heated, depending on the number and the power of the microwave oven. This varies from 30 seconds to about two minutes, and there were warnings not to heat for too long, and not to use plates with even hairline cracks, since the microwave heat could cause them to break. 

One plate-warming disk has to be placed on each plate, and then they’re all stacked together and placed into the microwave. This results in plates that are actually pleasantly warm rather than extremely hot, but then my aim is to take the chill off plates rather than to be able to continue cooking the food after it’s served. 

Since the disks themselves retain their heat for a while, they can be placed under the dinner plates (on a regular serving mat) to keep them hot for a little longer.  

POSSIBLE PERKS OF THE PLATE-WARMERS

According to the package in which the plate-warmers were sent, it’s possible to stack three of them together, to use as a tabletop hot-plate. However, as it does not tell us how long they should be heated for, and since our food is usually in hot dishes anyway, this is not something we have tried. 

A further use for these disks is as a non-slip grip for a child’s plate on a high-chair. We don’t have small children any more, but I can see that this could indeed be very useful... if one has a child who wants to use a plate, and who doesn’t like it sliding around.  

These plate-warmers come with a three-year guarantee, and it’s claimed that they are dishwasher safe. However, a quick wipe suffices if anything happens to be spilled on them. Moreover, we have not worked out how we could put them safely in the dishwasher, so this is something else which we have not tried. 

PREPARING OUR PLATES

That evening, we tried our new plate-warmers for the first time. Two plates, according to the instructions, should take 30-40 seconds on full power. While we can set our microwave timer to anything we like, there’s a simple 30-second button which we use the majority of the time, so we tried that.

The plates were, indeed, pleasantly warm after this time, as were the silicone disks. Since they don’t take up the whole plate area, we could carry the plates through to our dining room without using oven gloves, and very much liked the fact that our food stayed hot while we were eating. 

PLATE-WARMING PATTERN

While my husband is not so fussy about warmed plates as I am, he very much likes this system, as it’s so quick and easy. He will often put a couple of plates in the microwave with the plate-warmers just as we’re starting to dish up our evening meal, since it’s so quick and convenient. We’re still using them in April, but will probably use them less as the weather gets warmer. 

In the meantime I very much like having my food stay hot rather longer than it would otherwise do.

Highly recommended. 

http://wave-ware.com is the site for these and similar products

http://lakeland.co.uk is the site where we bought them

2022 UPDATE

These plate-warmers have proved an excellent buy, and we continue to use them during the cooler months every year. Given that they have no moving parts, and we just wipe them clean if necessary, I assume they will continue working forever. Perhaps the silicon will eventually deteriorate, but nearly ten years after buying them they are just as good as they were when new.

They are still available from both the above sites, or from Amazon. Definitely recommended if you like warmed plates and have a microwave.

Lakeland Dehydrator

Living in a hot country, it seems logical to use the sun to de-hydrate food, to create delicious raisins, sun-dried tomatoes, preservative-free dried apricots and more, from locally-grown produce in season, when the prices are good. 

However, hot sun goes with high humidity in Cyprus, so any produce that’s being dried must be brought inside overnight. Insects abound in the summer months, so fine netting must be used to keep them away. And in the middle of the day, the sun can scorch anything left in its glare.

So after much discussion and research, I decided to spend some birthday money on an electric dehydrator. I chose the Lakeland version at £50.99 for several reasons:

1) I trust the brand in general, and their guarantee

2) The price was reasonable - some dehydrators can cost £200 or more

3) Their postage to Cyprus, via courier, is a very reasonable £7.50, for any size order

4) I wanted to order some other items from Lakeland 

5) The majority of reviews on the Lakeland site were positive 

ASSEMBLING THE DEHYDRATOR

A week after my order, the courier arrived. As well as outer packaging, the dehydrator was in its own box, with each part wrapped in plastic. Assembling was straightforward - there’s a round white plastic base with a wire attached, which sits on the work surface. There are five slightly smoked round plastic trays, in the form of grids, which sit on top of the base, with a lid to cover the top one. 

I know from experience that if I put an appliance away I will forget to use it, so wanted the dehydrator out on our counter top. I had to move some of our other appliances around to make room; it’s not small, being about 33cm (13 inches) in diameter, and needs at least a little space around it when in use. 

I read the short instruction guide, skimming the obvious safety information (don’t immerse the base in water, keep away from curtains, don’t let children operate the dehydrator....) and noted that there was a system of notches on each of the trays, meaning that each one had two possible heights, to allow for varying sizes of fruit and vegetables.  

The appliance works simply by blowing air at a temperature of about 85C up the middle and through the trays, gently drying the fruit and letting the water evaporate into the air. There are small holes in the lid to allow it to escape. 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE DEHYDRATOR

I did feel a moment’s disappointment that this appliance felt rather lightweight and flimsy. The instruction guide told me that the trays could be washed in the dishwasher, but my instinct told me that I should hand-wash them; the plastic is slightly flexible, and could, I felt, easily be broken. Besides, they’re rather too big to fit easily in my dishwasher. 

I was also slightly surprised to see how much food preparation was going to be necessary before dehydrating anything, according to the guide. Fruits, it told me, had to be peeled and then dipped for a few minutes into dilute fresh fruit juice. Vegetables, were supposed to be peeled and then blanched in boiling water. I began to wonder if it was going to be more trouble than it was worth.

FIRST EXPERIMENT WITH THE DEHYDRATOR

Saturday rolled around, and I decided to experiment. We had some apples which had gone a bit soft, some plums that needed to be used up, and some bananas that were past their best. I was cutting up a pineapple for fruit salad, so decided to dehydrate a few slices of that, and I wanted to do a tray of grapes, to see whether or not it was worthwhile making my own raisins. Grapes are in season here at present, and raisins tend to be pricey. However I knew that they would reduce quite dramatically when dehydrated, so I weighed them before putting them in.

I did as the guide told me, using some diluted lemon juice to dip everything in - a rather messy process, but I know from experience that fruit can go brown quite quickly if not treated in some way. I peeled, and I sliced, and I laid everything out neatly on the trays. I also had some coconut meal, left from making coconut milk, and knew that it was possible to dehydrate that, to make coconut flour. Since the holes in the tray grid are too big to take coconut meal, I improvised by cutting a hole in a suitable sized muslin square and spread the coconut out on top.

Then I put the lid on, switched it on, and went about my day. 

DEHYDRATING SUCCESS

The aromas filling our house were quite amazing, as the morning progressed. I kept wanting to check what was going on, but of course the process is quite slow, so nothing much happened for the first couple of hours. However, by the time the dehydrator had been running for about four hours, I could see that the coconut looked completely dry, so I turned it off, and took that tray out. The instruction guide had said that it was worth switching the trays around to ensure even dehydrating, so I did that, and then turned it back on again. 

When the coconut had cooled I put it in the blender for a few minutes. Later in the week I used it in a cookie recipe requiring coconut flour, and it came out well. As I make coconut milk at least twice every week, and coconut flour is expensive, I felt that it was worth having for that alone. 

I continued checking every hour or so. After about six hours the bananas - which I had sliced - felt quite firm, as did the apple pieces, so I removed them, let them cool a little, and then tasted them. 

Oh, my!  

The apples were sweet, pliable, and delicious. The bananas were still slightly squidgy - I could have left them for longer to get banana chips, but my husband had told me about slightly soft banana pieces that he remembered from his teens - and these were very much as he had hoped. 

The plums and pineapple took an hour or so longer, and the grapes/raisins longer still. The instruction guide had said that grapes might take up to 24 hours so I was expecting that. I didn’t really want the dehydrator to run overnight, so I switched if off when we went to bed, and on again in the morning.   By about lunchtime the following day they looked and felt as if they were done - and tasted just like luscious raisins. 200g of grapes had reduced to about 40g of raisins, so it’s only financially worthwhile when we can find inexpensive grapes in bulk: but it’s undoubtedly worth it in terms of the flavour, and the lack of any additives. 

FURTHER EXPERIMENTS IN DEHYDRATING

The first dehydrated fruit disappeared rather rapidly, assisted by some friends, so the following day I experimented some more. This time, I decided not to bother with the pre-treating, since we didn’t mind if apples or bananas went brown.  I didn’t peel the apples, either. 

A friend had mentioned that her mother used to make ‘fruit leather’ in a dehydrator, by spreading raw apple sauce or other fruit puree thinly until it solidified. I had some previously-made fresh fruit salad which was starting to go soft, so I used my stick blender to turn it into a puree, cut some greaseproof paper to fit a dehydrator tray, and spread the fruit puree out.  

Once again, everything was delicious. The fruit ‘leather’ took about four hours, and seemed quite brittle when I removed it, but as it cooled it became softer. I cut it into slices with scissors, and we found that it peeled very easily from the backing paper. When I offered a piece to the friend who had suggested it, she said it was exactly as she remembered. The bananas and apples did not seem any browner than the pre-treated versions had, and the apple peel added a nicely crunchy texture. So I was pleased to learn that dehydrating was not going to be as time-consuming as I had feared.

A couple of days later I bought more fruit on special offer, and some tomatoes, too. Once again, I didn’t pre-treat anything, just washing and slicing; I cut some ripe plums into quarters after stoning them, and sliced bananas lengthways rather than crosswise. I used some pears rather than apples, and had more coconut meal too. 

Once again everything came out well. The pears were the least successful. They didn’t have a lot of taste, and felt a little rubbery - but were nonetheless quite edible. The bananas, according to my husband, were perfect. My personal favourite was the plums - I had thought that dehydrated plums would be like prunes, but they weren’t: the flavour is intense, like the best kind of plum without the sometimes squashy consistency. They are decidedly moreish. 

Since then I have run it almost daily, dehydrating several kilograms of plums bought on special offer, more bananas, and a good batch of grapes. All results so far have been delicious, and I have frozen some of the dehydrated plums, to keep for the winter. Theoretically they should keep much longer than fresh fruit, but I can’t guarantee that every molecule of water has been removed, and unlike commercial companies I’m not going to add sugar or any other preservatives.

RUNNING NOISE AND COSTS OF THE DEHDRATOR

One the things that had put me off the idea of a dehydrator for a while was that some people had mentioned that they can be noisy, and expensive to run.  Electricity is highly priced in Cyprus, and we didn’t want to add to our bill too much. So we were quite relieved to learn that the dehydrator is 250 watts in power, meaning that it only uses one unit of electricity in four hours. This is considerably less than many other appliances, and means that the running costs are not excessive.

The noise is not a problem, either. It sounds like a fan - which is, basically what it is! - or a quiet hairdryer. We’re so used to fans, or even air conditioners running here that I hardly noticed it at first. I’m quite noise sensitive, but this was not the kind of sound to be disturbing. Indeed, it’s a good thing that it makes the noise, because it reminds me when it’s still on, now that the novelty has worn off a little and I’m not checking it every hour. 

GENERAL THOUGHTS ABOUT THE DEHYDRATOR

I wish I had bought one of these appliances years ago! I don’t know that it’s going to save us much money, since the resulting dried produce is so delicious that we want to eat most of it within a couple of days.  But I do now have several jars with dried plums, bananas and so on, as well as a few boxes in the freezer, and plan to keep an eye on special offers. 

When apricots and figs are in season, often very cheaply here, as they’re grown locally, I hope to dry some of those, too, to keep for the winter months. We love dried apricots and figs but have been concerned about the preservatives used, and are looking forward to drying some ourselves. I’ve now  used some home-dried tomatoes in a recipe that called for expensive sun-dried tomatoes in a jar, and it came out just fine.  

For anyone who considering dehydrating fruit at home, I would highly recommend this simple Lakeland appliance.  The current price is £50.99 and it can be bought from Lakeland shops, or online via www.lakeland.co.uk. There’s a phone number on the website if there are any problems, or if you prefer to order via the phone. 

2022 UPDATE

Ten years after writing this, our dehydrator is still working, although less frequently than at first. The novelty wore off, and soft fruits were no longer in season. So we packed the appliance in a cupboard to make more room on the work surface. It has emerged a few times each year when there's a glut of inexpensive soft fruit or tomatoes, and I buy a crate costing a couple of euros. The results are good and take up much less room in the freezer than the equivalent product lightly stewed, which is my default.

I did discover that unless dehydrated fruit is being eaten within a few days, it should be frozen. The result is not the same as commercially dried fruit or tomatoes, and we were very disappointed when some of the early experiments, stored in airtight jars, started to grow mouldy. So now I store those we're going to eat soon in the fridge, and the rest in the freezer in small pots. They thaw quickly and don't lose either taste or consistency.

Unfortunately this particular dehydrator has been discontinued, but Lakeland currently offer a different version at a similar price, and with the added bonus of adjustable temperature levels.

Lakeland Electrical Plate Warmer

 One of the maxims of my childhood was that hot food should be put onto hot plates, but that proved difficult when we moved to Cyprus nearly fifteen years ago. There were no hostess trolleys, no double ovens... our only option seemed to be to balance plates precariously on simmering saucepans, or immerse them in boiling water in the sink. 

So, nearly ten years ago, we were delighted to come across the Lakeland plate warmer in use at a friend’s house in the UK. We decided to buy one, by mail order, on her recommendation. 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

When it arrived, I have to admit I was dubious at first. The box looked rather basic, and had been squashed in the post. The plate-warmer itself seemed oddly flimsy. It’s rather like a scarf-shaped electric blanket, which folds into four sections, concertina style, to provide spaces to heat plates when it’s plugged in. 

Inside the plate-warmer is a flexible metallic element which heats up when it’s plugged in; it’s enclosed in a removable green and blue tartan patterned cover. The instructions and safety warnings are, sensibly, on a white label attached to the plate-warmer, so can’t get lost.

WARMING OUR PLATES

The plate-warmer must be put on a heatproof non-glazed surface, as it does get quite warm, so could potentially cause damage. We use ours on the top of a convenient Billy bookcase, and it hasn’t made any marks. It would be easy enough to put a heatproof mat underneath if necessary.

The unit folds into four, giving three spaces for plates. Up to twelve plates can be heated, four in each space, but it’s only rarely that we entertain ten guests. We’ve most often used it to heat just four or six plates, which works very well. With six, I put two in each space; with four, I put two in the middle fold, then just one each in the top and bottom. 

After plugging in, the unit warms up fairly rapidly. Even on a cold day, six plates are pleasantly hot within about fifteen or twenty minutes. However, if I forget to switch it on in good time, even five minutes is sufficient to take the chill off cold plates. 

On the rare occasions when I’ve put twelve plates in to warm, it’s needed rather longer - about half an hour, usually - with some plates warming better than others. I tend to move them around half way through if I have more than six, as the ones in the middle of each individual pile of plates tend not to warm so well. 

LONGEVITY

We’ve had our plate-warmer for about ten years now, and it’s still going strong. We use it regularly during the cooler months. 

CAT-WARMER?

After the plates are removed and the gadget switched off, it takes a while to cool down completely so we usually leave it where it is while we eat. One of our cats was under the impression that we had left a warmed blanket on the bookcase for her benefit, and spread herself out happily on top of it.  Happily, this did not damage the plate-warmer at all, but it did leave rather a lot of cat hairs on it, meaning we had to think about cleaning it...

CLEANING THE PLATE WARMER

Naturally, as an electrical gadget, this can’t be immersed in water. However, the outside can be wiped with a damp cloth, which is what we did after the cat adopted it as an electric blanket.  And the second time, and the third... the plates, after all, go in the middle and the cat was on top, so we weren’t too worried.

However, we don’t use the plate-warmer during the summer. Temperatures here are so high that we prefer hot food to cool down somewhat before eating it, so usually I put it away during the summer months. But one year I forgot to do so. We went away, and the cats apparently slept on it regularly, despite it being at room temperature. And there was a great deal of dust. By the time I wanted to use it again in the late Autumn, the whole thing looked decidedly grubby.

The outer cover is washable, so I followed the instructions to remove it, which proved to be quite simple. I straightened the whole thing out, undid the poppers at the end, and pulled the cover off. I washed it in my washing machine at 40 degrees, and hung it out to dry.

The cover looked clean and fresh, considerably more appealing than it had been. Unfortunately, it was unbelievably difficult to get it back onto the inside heating element! I didn’t want to damage it, and it seemed at first that the cover wouldn’t fit at all. I don’t know if it shrunk slightly in the wash, or whether it was always a tight fit. 

Eventually I did get it on, but it was not an experience I wish to repeat, so we’re now much more careful to put the plate-warmer away when we’re not using it. 

DISADVANTAGES

Other than the tendency to be adopted by cats, and the difficulty of replacing the cover after washing, the only real problem is that it’s too easy to leave it switched on by mistake after removing the plates. We’ve only done this a couple of times, and thankfully noticed within an hour or so, so no damage was done. But there’s no indicator light or on/off switch, so it must be unplugged or switched off at the wall after use. 

It’s also important to make sure that there’s at least one plate in each section of the plate-warmer. That’s fine when we’re entertaining, but when there are just two of us at home, we only really want to warm two plates. But there are three sections; leaving any of them empty would risk letting the thing over-heat. So either we must heat a third plate, or - as is our growing tendency - go against our upbringing and eat from cold plates after all. 

At the other extreme it can’t be used for more than twelve plates, but if we were entertaining that number of people regularly we’d either invest in another plate-warmer of the same kind, or a more solid Hostess-style warmer. 

RECOMMENDED?

If space is limited and you want a simple but effective way to warm plates then I would certainly recommend this. We’ve had no problems with it at all.

On the other hand, I don’t know if we’ll buy another one like this when it eventually perishes. There are many more reasonably-priced plate-warming devices available than there were ten years ago, at Amazon and elsewhere, so we’ll keep our options open. 

But in the meantime, the Lakeland plate warmer works well and we have no need to consider anything different.

2022 UPDATE

Another decade on, and our electric plate-warmer still works without problem. At least, it did so last Christmas, and on one or two other occasions when we entertained more than two guests, and brought it out to use. Not many gadgets last twenty years, even with the limited use that ours now has.

The main reason for its lack of regular use in the past few years is that we now have microwave plate warmers, also bought from Lakeland, which work instantly, can be used for just one or two plates, and have none of the disadvantages mentioned.

I see that this particular model of electric plate warmers is no longer available, but has been replaced by something that works similarly, but probably more safely. If you entertain more than a few people regularly but have limited space, a concertina-style electric plate warmer still seems to me like an excellent idea.