But then I figured what the heck and bought one. It was a present for Ken, although I use it more than he does (yeah, one of those presents). That was nearly fifteen years ago and I've never regretted it. It comes in very handy for lots of things. First and foremost, it's the best egg-white beater ever. You just get 'em going and leave 'em till they're done.I like to make pizza, and the mixer with its dough hook is tops for kneading. Anyone who's hand-kneaded bread dough will know what a chore that can be. The mixer takes the hard work out of the process and makes it much easier to say, "I think I'll make pizza today !" It does a good job of kneading home-made pasta dough, too.
Cake batters are a cinch in the mixer as well, especially thick ones like when I make zucchini bread. One year we got ourselves a grinder attachment that lets us grind meat and vegetables for a variety of recipes. I'm actually surprised at how often we use that.
And it's not hard to clean up. The shiny stainless bowl washes up in no time, and the parts go right into the dishwasher. No fuss, no muss. I've read in other blogs that these mixers last forever. Like I said, ours is nearly 15 years old. Since it's an American model, we were worried that we wouldn't be able to use it here in France due to the power differences. But I wasn't willing to give it up and we brought it along. Luckily we found ourselves a sizable power transformer for the kitchen (via the internet) and we can run our imported Kitchen Aid, espresso machine, and food processor just fine.
I'll bet there are a lot more uses for this appliance. What do you use it for ?
Forget about the mixer! Tell me what kind of dog that beautiful little puppie is! I bet you're counting the minutes until she comes home.
ReplyDeleteJayne, she's a Border Collie, and now she has a name : Callie. Callie the collie !
ReplyDeletePS : I've been enjoying your blog. Thanks for visiting !
Hello again! I LOVE my mixer. My mother gave me one as a Christmas gift about 5 years ago. I make most things in it, except bread. I find it relaxing to knead bread. I do, however, use it to knead pasta dough. I was wondering, though, if I could get some advice on the pasta dough. Whenever I make it, and extrude it through the pasta plates on the pasta attachment, the pasta sticks together when it comes back out. Do you know how I can stop this. It is frustrating to make spaghetti pasta, for it to just clump back together at the end
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day!
Tony gave me my KitchenAid for Christmas 2000, along with Bernard Clayton's Bread Book. He wanted me to start baking bread again! When we had small children at home, I made all our bread, but never could get the knack of working with 100% whole wheat dough. It's a cinch with the mixer, and I make 2 loaves of whole wheat every other week.
ReplyDeleteWhen I tried to use the mixer to knead pasta dough made with 500g of semolina (the quantity the Wednesday crowd of three adults and two small kids can eat in one meal), there wasn't enough dough for the hook to work with.
Oh GOD, now you have me missing my mixer... and my cuisinart...my All Clad pots and pans and... odd... I don't really miss much other stuff, but all the kitchen gadgets I left behind... ahhhhh.
ReplyDeletempabner, I don't have a spaghetti attachment for the KA mixer. I use a pasta machine (and crank). I'm no help !
ReplyDeletechris, small children at home and still enough energy to make bread ? And you lived to tell about it !
papa, leaving kitchen supplies behind was not an option for us. Priorities, man, priorities !
I bullied D into getting a Kitchenaid more than 15 years ago, and I bet it is used every two or three days for bread, pizza dough, etc. etc. etc. And extravagance that has become, well, almost a necessity!
ReplyDeleteI wanted one for my wedding, but the only affordable one in France isn't the best one. In the US, you can get refurbished ones. I even called kitchaid to check on rewiring or using an adapter but they didn't suggest doing it because it wouldn't work right. So I got the blender instead...
ReplyDeleteis yours rewired or have an adapter? and it works here?
tut-tut, once you've got one, you don't know how you managed without it !
ReplyDeletereb, mine isn't rewired. We bought a heavy duty transformer (on the internet) for about 50 euros that we keep in the kitchen (hidden behind the microwave). It's pugged into the wall, then we have a power strip plugged into that and we plug the kitchen aid and other american appliances into the power strip with the help of american-to-french plug adaptors (from LeRoy-Merlin). Works like a charm !
good news! Guess what my mother will be dragging over for me this summer!
ReplyDelete