Darienne

March 8, 2009

The 6-speed Hamilton Beach mixer received a "not recommended" in Cook's Illustrated's equipment test, as did Dualit Professional and Farberware Preferred.
KitchenAid 7-speed, Braun Multimix 4-in-1, and Cuisinart 7-speed all received "highly recommended".
Black and Decker PowerPro and Oster 6-speed were "recommended".
I'd return your HB and get the B&D or Oster--both should be in the same price range.
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Thank you so much for that information. The mixer has not been used yet and I'll tell my DH what you said. We had only Consumer Reports to go by and that information was not in it.

We can't get Braun, Cuisinart or Oster in Moab, and I am not sure which B&D model it is which is available. (That's the one which just burnt out after one year. I think I was not aware of just how restricted in use these hand mixers are)

Price is not the problem with the KA...if it is the 7 speed one...DH does not like the amperage thing.

However it plays out, thanks so much for the information. :smile: I'll note the "Cooks Illustrated" from now on. CR is not the best for kitchen stuff. Its ratings criteria are not always really applicable.

March 8, 2009

Any thrift stores in town? The old GE hand mixers will last forever!!
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True, at least in my case. My GE is at least 25 years old. I'd like something less homely, but it just won't break.
.6 amps @ 110 volts = 66 watts, such a small number (in comparison the the competition) that it's no wonder that KA wants to disguise it. On the other hand, these are all describing power consumption, not power output, which, as a cook, is what should concern you. Much depends on the efficiency of the mechanical design. It's very possible that a KA could outperform any of the others, for the same reasons that a 189 hp Lotus can beat the pants off a 300 hp Mustang GT.
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If there is one thing Moab has that is wonderful, it's the thrift stores :wub: ... However, in all the years visiting Moab...or our home town in Ontario, I have never seen even one second hand hand mixer. Stand mixers...a few ancient ones...but nary a hand mixer. I think hand mixers just die a lonely unmourned death.

I did as much research on this one as I felt it deserved, and then the DH went out and bought me a Hamilton Beach hand mixer for $24.99. 6 speeds...more than sufficient. 275 watts...who knows? A pig in a poke.

Waiting for me at home is new 1000 watt 7-quart Cuisinart. DH likes big. :biggrin: Not much point in fighting it. :wink:

ps. as noted earlier, we also have a very ancient hand mixer at home which also refuses to die.

March 7, 2009

If you weren't in such a hurry, I'd suggest the KitchenAid factory outlet: www.shopkitchenaid.com and click on the "outlet" tab.
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Amazingly enough we found more handmixers than we thought possible :wacko: : KA, Proctor Silex, Black & Decker, Farberware, Hamilton Beach, West Bend, and a couple of basically no-namers.

All the mixers were $15 - $27 ...except for the KA which was $70. HOWEVER while all the inexpensive mixers listed their wattage from 125 at the bottom end to 275 at the top, the KA did not, but listed .6 Amperage which my DH says is nada. A West Bend stand mixer on sale for $70 listed its amperage at 3 amps. Now, says my DH, that might be worth buying.

I borrowed my next-door-neighbor's ancient Sunbeam for last night's dessert=dinner, and she offered to lend it to me the entire time we are here. Funny how the ancient ones just keep plugging along and the new fandangled ones burn out over mixing water it seems. :angry:

I don't know what to do... :sad:

March 6, 2009

All I can say in defence of my Black & Decker is that it is the most powerful of the cheapies...but then I have to add that I have burnt out two of them in the last year. Whereas our very old...can't remember what it is...one is ugly and unloved but it keeps on going. It's at home...

So I shall look for a Kitchen Aid mixer. Today. Need it for tonight's dinner=dessert. Cheese Blintz Souffle.

Thanks to you both.

And if I can't find a KA, will buy one when we get home again. :wink:

March 6, 2009

I am in deepest Utah in a town without too many shopping options...that's why we love Moab...and my Black & Decker handmixer just gave up the ghost. :sad: I have a 7-quart Cuisinart standmixer at home. This is my traveling mixer.

Within a day or two at most I must buy another hand mixer. Any suggestions? Keeping in mind that there are not many brands of kitchen appliances to be found here. No Wal-Mart, just an Alco and an idependent called Walker Drugs. :rolleyes:

Thanks for any help. :shock:

March 2, 2009

Thank you both. In the meantime I found a recipe for the same thing called Semiya Payasam which is very popular in the Kerala area. It has long been a favorite of my DH and we used to make it at home long ago. Now we do it again.

Thanks again. :smile: Darienne

March 2, 2009

Different kinds of baked goods have different ratios: get Corriher's Cookwise to begin or her subsequent Bakewise if you really want to learn about the topic. Depending on the leavening (chemical, yeast) and the fats (oil, butter, shortening), and even the kind of sugar (corn syrup, granulated sugar, honey), the results will be different. You can generalize about pound cakes, butter/genoise, sponge cakes, angel food--in other words, within certain cake/baked good types.
Many recipes work as written, but may contain excess leavening, or sugar, or water, etc. When the recipe is halved or doubled, a small excess or insufficiency is magnified. It takes quite a bit of baking chemistry knowledge to eyeball a recipe and figure out whether it is efficiently written--you have to know all sorts of stuff about acidity (pH), temperature of ingredients, temp of baking, kind of leavening, kind of flour, how the fat is incorporated into the flour, and so on and so forth.
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I did. I did. :wub: I got Corriher's Cookwise and every second page I am declaring...'I didn't know that'. Amazing book. I am really going to have to earn some money soon to pay for all the Amazon purchases I am making. Oh, I didn't know about books on Amazon either until January. :wink:

March 2, 2009

I looked back over several years in this sub-Forum and found little about desserts.

I am looking for a recipe for a wonderful dessert noodle pudding. The noodles are the size of angel hair and I recall sugar and milk being the other two main ingredients. We had a house fire in 1995 and I lost all my notes, this pudding being in it.

Thanks. :smile:

March 1, 2009

"Crunchy Hazelnut Praline" is one of my most popular truffle flavors:
6 1/2 ounces blanched hazelnuts, Toasted
6 1/2 ounces sugar
8 ounces butter, Room temperature
16 ounces Milk chocolate, Tempered
I carmalize the sugar, pour it out on a Silpat, then break it up and run it through a burr grinder on a coarse setting (rather than a whirly grinder). This gives me uniform cruncy bits and no sugar dust.
Recently I've started using Bob's Red Mill Hazelnut meal/flour instead of grinding whole nuts. Either way give it a nice toasting in the oven to bring out the flavor.
Then temper the chocolate, wisk in the butter, add hazelnuts and crunchy bits and pipe into molds. This recipie will fill about three trays of the standard Geodesic mold.
I like to call this "micro-crunch" as you get lots of little crunches in each bite, but no jaw breakers. I haven't done a scientific test to determine how long the crunch lasts, but so far it all the truffles have been consumed well before failure.
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If I understand correctly, you caramelize the sugar only, with no hazelnuts in it. The crunch is sugar only. I'll look in the grocery store for the Hazelnut meal next.

Thanks. :smile:

February 28, 2009

Darienne, I would really consider chocolate with praline (caramelized nut paste) with feulletine. It is great. I make dark choc with hazelnut praline and feulletine, mikl choco with hazelnut praline with bres(caramelized hazelnuts tiney pieces) and white choc with almond praline with nibs. They are one of my favs. You slab it, cut it and dip. If you want like in Kerry's picture, whip up gianduja and then add the crunchy things and then pipe onto your discs. I need to get piping tips and learn how to pipe like in that picture!!! I put coffee grains into my gianduja in my picture on that thread with cocoa covered nuts on the top.

It all sounds and looks delicious :raz: (this little face does not mean 'raz'; it mean 'yumm')

Thank you for the information and the inspiration. Oh my, one more thing to put on the list of things to make!!! :blink:

February 28, 2009

Thanks Lisa and Lior for further posts on this tricky subject.

No, I have not tried the butter ganache yet, but will today if I can. I will also try just plain tempered chocolate.

What I am trying to do is two-fold.

- an experiment, more or less, with each ingredient or pair of ingredients to work out the 'crunch factor' not only theoretically, but also for my own satisfaction.

- want to make a gianduja ganache with crunchy praline bits in it to use as a filling for a pair of dark chocolate discs. Kerry Beal posted a photo of this confection on Lior's thread on 'Using Gianduja'. (I don't know how to bring something from one post to another.)

Mostly I just crawl/lurch along trying this, trying that, having a series of minor failures as I try each thing, repeat it with better success, etc. I have so little context in which to put any of this, never having spent any time baking in the decades of my marriage. Did not grow up knowing any of this at my Mother's knee. This is all new and exciting to me. So I learn, learn, learn... I had little idea that this world existed.

February 28, 2009

The butter factor still outweighs the chocolate factor in the ganache because the water is still present, and, depending on the recipe, the water still represents 3% - 10% of the mass of the finished product.

But if the butter is still an important factor and crunch is not supported by the presence of butter, then why is it that the crunch of fueilletine is preserved in a butter ganache?

Am I missing some point here?

Thanks. :smile:

February 27, 2009

You're trying to make a barrier against moisture, which can come from two sources: other items in your products, or, the environment.
Butter doesn't work, unless it's clarified, or anhydrous, because butter is approximately 20% water. Cream cheese is full of water, so is cream.
Cocoa butter and chocolate make good barriers, as long as your item isn't stored above their melting point. Some ice cream makers use this as a barrier -Breyer's has a flavor with chocolate covered toasted almonds. (although I gave up on eating Breyer's since they started using gums in the formula, so my info may be old)
Commercial ice cream makers may be using waxes, alternate sugars like isomalt, and oils to coat their product. Some of these work longer than others.
Good luck with the chocolate, it should hold up for a while if it's tempered.
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Thank you for the information. :smile:

Now this is too funny. Just now I googled 'barrier substance crunch' and guess what I got? This thread and your answer. :biggrin:

Added: but what about the butter ganache? Does the chocolate factor overrule the butter factor?

February 27, 2009

You can coat the crunchy bits in barrier substance.
I dipped carmalized bits of sugar in cocoa butter when I made a "Creme Brulee" truffle and it preserved them. Next time though I would just use a very thin dark chocolate as pure cocoa butter isn't needed and doesn't taste all that great if it is thick.
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Thank you. I like that...a barrier substance.

February 27, 2009

I have been going back looking through every post I can find about putting crunchy bits: praline, feuilletine, etc, into other ingredients and retaining the crunch factor. The answer has been that only a butter ganache will do this.

So, I have been experimenting with crushed pecan praline in cream...sog (as expected) cream cheese...sog :hmmm: ; and now the latest, butter...sog. :sad: I did not expect sog in butter. A butter ganache is supposed to preserve the crunch factor.

My next step is to put the praline into chocolate only. It should stay crunchy? Yes?

Also my next-door neighbor/landlady/friend says to me...'well, how do they keep the crunch in speciality ice creams?' I sure don't know. :huh:

All comments and advice gratefully accepted. :smile:

(Oh, I am working up to making a gianduja butter ganache and sandwiching it in between chocolate wafers, but in the meantime am fully occupied with playing Ice Cream Lady with my new Cuisinart toy.)

February 25, 2009

Two more for me. O Amazon! Where have you been all my life?

Ice Cream: The Whole Scoop by Gail Damerow (just got a Cuisinart Ice Cream maker)

La Dolce Vita: Enjoy life's sweet pleasures with 170 recipe for torte, biscotti, etc, etc, by Michele Sciciolone

Both oldies, but goodies. :wink:

February 25, 2009

Wow! :blink: So much excellent and useful information in this topic now.

And we all do like our ice cream (and chocolate) different. I found the Cuisinart premium Vanilla Bean recipe way too rich for my taste. And now I have made a Coconut Ice cream for my friend, which I found way too sweet and way too much coconut. Interesting. She and my DH both loved it.

What I am really going towards is making frozen yoghurt which I prefer to ice cream anyway, and to date that's speaking only of the commercial stuff, both ice cream and yoghurt.

The little Cuisinart booklet has some yoghurt recipes and I'll try them next. Has anyone any do's and don't' s specifically for frozen yoghurt that I should know about ahead of time?

Thanks. :wink:

February 24, 2009

So as I recall these are made by beating gianduja in the mixer, while you heat a bit with the heat gun on the outside. Wybauw added some powdered lavender to the mix. I might add a bit of essential oil myself.
You can crystallize them or just put them between the two discs.

Hi Kerry,

The gianduja in this recipe, is it a Wybauw recipe? Is it a ganache? I now have the disc molds and I have some Barry milk chocolate gianduja. Alas, I have no recipe for a gianduja ganache. I have had the Wybauw on ILL request for almost three weeks now with no result. They can get it: they got it for me before.

Can you help me out in some way? Should I just make a simple gianduja ganache using heavy cream? It's so soft...what proportion would you suggest?

Thanks, as always, Chocolate Doctor, She Who Knows Just About All. :smile:

February 23, 2009

I bring my custard mixtures to around 182F before straining them into a bowl set above an ice bath. A portion of the cream is set aside and kept cold so that the mixture cools that much faster once the custard is added. The only times I have had any clumping whatsoever was when I brought it up to even slightly higher than 182 and/or waited too long to add the custard to the ice bath. This is more likely to happen with smaller batches. I'd invest in a Thermapen (or a knockoff) to guarantee consistent results.
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Thanks. Learn, learn, learn.... :wacko:

February 23, 2009

I just read your original post about this in the chocolate ice cream thread...you gave the bit of information that you are missing in this query: you were cooking your custard and it separated. The separation didn't happen after the custard had set up, correct?
If this is the case, you (very likely) overcooked your custard and made scrambled eggs. So, while blending the mixture smoothed it out, it likely would not have had the same mouthfeel as custard which had been cooked to the proper consistency would have had. Egg proteins are pretty sensitive and when they are overcooked, they tighten up and squeeze liquid out, therefore looking separated. When a creme anglaise (or custard base) is cooked to the proper consistency, the egg proteins have expanded and have trapped liquid in their matrix, thus thickening the liquid. With ice cream bases, you can let them sit in the fridge overnight and you'll probably notice that it will be a little thicker after the aging. That's because the egg proteins continue to expand or absorb liquid for a little longer. That's one good reason to make an ice cream base ahead of when you need to freeze it. When making an anglaise it is also a good idea to have an ice bath as part of your mise en place, so you can cool your mixture down immediately after taking it off the heat. There's a fine line between done and overdone when working with custards. I usually strain through a chinois (very fine mesh strainer) directly into a clean container set into my ice bath) and stir frequently during the cooling process both to prevent a skin from forming (may happen with rich bases) and to help redistribute the heat during cooling. I never remember the actual temp, I go by feel and look, but it is somewhere around 170F. The sugar in the mixture allows the temp to go a little higher than you could with plain eggs.
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Hi Alanamoana,

Thanks very much for your explanation. I do realize that I overcooked the custard. Now. Had no idea. :huh:

Almost everything I make, I make for the first time. An incredible level of novice. Funny, it is in one sense, one 'failure' after another as I learn how to make things. But then with the help of the good folks on this list, and an evergrowing selection of books, I am learning how to do it all. It's never too late.

Thanks again. :smile:

February 23, 2009

Thanks for the answers to my questions. :smile:

February 23, 2009

Both of these are really good. One of my tasters called the fig gelato "addictive". As for the burnt milk gelato, "burnt" is not a description I'm usually happy to see in a food context but I think this may be my new favorite flavor. An amazing, multi-layered depth of flavor that I intend to capture in other types of desserts as well.
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Hi Tri2Cook,

Were you able to make the gelato in your Cuisinart Ice Cream maker? I seem to recall reading in a gelato recipe that you needed a special gelato maker to make gelato.

Thanks.

February 22, 2009

Looked this one up but couldn't find anything.

My custard separated and I thought it might be because I had used previously frozen whipping cream...sorry :huh: it is true.

So I wandered around Google trying to find an answer and came up with this: "Sometimes, in spite of every precaution, the custard separates."

Fascinating. No possible precautions are listed and I am left wondering how to rectify my error.

BTW, the ice cream was fantastic anyway. :wub:

February 22, 2009

Everything I've posted in the "Frozen Desserts" thread was done in my "frozen bowl" machine because I was doing really small test batches and it seemed silly to bother with anything larger.

Hi Tri2Cook,

I'm not very experienced in looking up things on this list, and I could not find a thread marked "Frozen Desserts". Could you please give more specific directions, should they exist.

I just 'came into' a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker and have made one batch to date, Rich Vanilla. No crystals. Maybe beginner's luck. Next I am going for Coconut Ice Cream and then Peach (my neighbor has some fresh-frozen peaches and is salivating.)

A whole new world opens up..... :wub: :wub:

Edit: Could it be the thread: Francisco Migoya's Frozen Desserts ? Thanks

February 22, 2009

Today I made my very first ice cream ever in one of those Cuisinart Ice Cream makers which I came into just yesterday: Vanilla Bean, on the same page as the chocolate one made by Wannabechef.

The ice cream was a great success although I feared it would not be. I used previously frozen whipping cream and the cooking custard separated in the pot. I used the hand mixer on it and hoped for the best. And the best it was.

I am so grateful to have found this thread BEFORE I attempted the chocolate. :rolleyes:

I am going to enjoy this little machine :wub: and so will my DH.

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