Hi, I'm new to Thermomix. After an international move we have almost no kitchen machinery so I wanted to learn. A friend lent me her TM31, along with the 2011 edition of the Australian "Everyday cooking". She's gone on holiday so I can't get advice from her.

The first thing I tried was cauliflower soup, following the recipe scrupulously. The texture was excellent but when we tasted it before adding the Parmesan the flavour was spoilt by a strong taste of raw flour (like flour and water paste). Adding the cheese partially masked this.

Next day I tried the béchamel sauce recipe. Again I followed it exactly, but after the prescribed 7 minutes at 90C on speed 4 the bowl just contained a soupy liquid that tasted exactly like flour and water paste. Since the recipe said "...or until desired consistency is achieved" I gave it five minutes more, still at 90C on speed 4. This gave an excellent consistency but the taste was still dominated by the "raw flour" taste.

So I cooked it longer, for a total of 20 minutes. The result had lost a little of the "raw flour" taste but didn't taste like the white sauce I'd make on the stovetop using exactly the same ingredients. Adding strong cheddar, mustard powder and paprika masked but did not eliminate the taste.

Is there some trick that the recipes don't mention, or is this just how things are?