Kitchen Aid vs. Kenwood

Accomodation, House and Garden
21
Hasn't your mum shown you yet she sounds about my age and swapped a wooden spoon a long time ago (unlike me, lol).

22
Mix stuff and stuff.

23
Mixing flour for chapattis here. An almost daily event in South Asian households

24

Tollhouse cookies.

Made with brown sugar, of course.

Actually, the KitchenAid gathers dust most of the year, but 'round about now comes in mighty handy, what with the mountain of Weihnachtsguetzli I seem to feel compelled to make. Ah, tradition...

25
That's what I thought probably happens with most people's.

I've just never thought, "I wish we had a mixer to make things easier".

I suppose using one to make zabaglione or something like when you need to whisk for twenty minutes or so would be useful but we don't have eat that sort of thing every week.

I'm not knocking them but was curious whether people actually used them much.

26
Bread dough mostly. Mine will come in very handy in Friday when we've got 250 'bonhommes' to make for St Niciolas to distribute to the village kids.

I make bread at least once a week and once a fortnight on Fridays I make fougasse for the village school.

Also pizza dough and sponge cake mixes. You can't get anywhere near as much air into a sponge mixture by hand as you can using a mixer.

Oh and meringues ( although I very rarely makes those as OH is diabetic and neither I nor the boy have a sweet tooth)

I don't tend to use it for biscuits though as I find it just as easy to use a wooden spoon for those.

27
for me, its a little workhorse with the attachments

grinder - coffee, rice buckwheat bulgar flours

goblet - tahini, peanutbutter, 'nut oat linseed' flours

mixer - seitan

cutting thingys - those elcheapo carrots potatoes onions and apples don't cut themselves you know.

meat grinder - cheap naturaa meat into hamburgers, the stronger machines you can use it to make nut butters.

28
I also thought I never needed a big mixer, was happy with my little handmixer.

Then along came Kenwood Chef - and I could not live without it now!

Mixes 2kg of bread dough with no problems.

Attachments used for grinding beans and seeds, making pastes like Tahini, Humus, etc. Stone thingy for grinding down corns for breads, etc etc etc.

It does have its own slide-out drawer to live in - would hate to have it cluttering up counter tops. But oh does it make life easier!

29
Bought my Kitchen Aid here from an EF member, for a good price and together with food processor. Never regret having it

30
When I first bought it I used it ALL the time. Then I stopped and I lost 20kg.

I can whip up desserts in less time than it takes to clean the thing.

31
Thanks for all of your suggestions. I decided I'll wait till the KA blows up. I also have a food processor and a blender. I think when the mixer dies, i'll look at a kenwood. The big problem in Switzerland with KA is that the attachments and replacement parts are freakin' expensive - yeah, i know everything is, but KA seems especially so.

32
What a question! Just look at this, below.

You know what they say: once you've tried pavlova, you'll eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.*

*Rough translation.

33
We've got a handheld whisk and a grinder.

It's not that we don't cook, it's just that a mixer would probably gather dust in a cupboard.

This week:

I made pesto with a pestle and mortar.

Tahini with the grinder.

The kids made the christmas cake and pudding and cookies by hand.

Edot: Sorry to hijack your thread!

34
i used a hand whisk for a while but got sick of spending time whisking stuff and got an electric whisk. even with that you have to hold the thing for several minutes. it would be nice to have a gadget that you can leave to get on with it, but i generally dislike kitchen gadgets and don't like them taking up space.

35
That's the way I look at it.

We have one thing on our work surfaces, and that's an espresso machine.

The rest are clear for cooking.

36
I recently acquired me old Ma's kenwood chef which is one of the earliest models, prob abt 40+ years old. It's had some hammering over the years to cater for a family of 7 but still works brilliantly and the blueprint of the basic models has hardly changed. I can still buy all the attachments I need and it is powerful enough to cope with all my domestic goddess(?) moments.

I love my KC!

37
If it's in the cupboard it most certainly won't gather dust.

There are a few different types of "grinder" attachments for the Kenwood. That's the most fun part! I can't wait to get the potato peeler and the pasta extruder! (even though I don't eat potatoes or pasta...)

There are some cakes you just can't make by hand. They need to be whipped or they won't rise. (don't even go there.....)

38
I have a kenwood major titanium it makes good cakes and bread but I really can't rate the food processor or blender - they are rubbish in comparison to something like a magimix

39
On the other hand, I love kitchen gadgets. My new fave thing is my microwave egg boiler. Perfect medium soft eggs in 7 min 30 sec, easy to peel, rinse out with water and $12, U.S.

I hijacked my own thread.

But yeah, some cakes need a mixer.

40
pan of water. perfect eggs 4 mins from the boil.