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On not using a stand mixer

Shel_B

By Shel_B
in Pastry & Baking

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Shel_B

Shel_B

Posted
Posted

Allow me to preface my question(s) by saying I know very little about baking. Over the years here I have learned a few things, but I'm still very much in the shallow end of the pool.

 

My new friend likes cheesecake and I'd like to try this America's Test Kitchen no-bake (key) lime cheesecake as a treat for us somewhere down the line. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Iz475ygAEM

 

Julia uses a stand mixer when making the cheesecake.  I don't have such a machine.  I do have a very old and poorly designed electric hand mixer and one of these:

 

eggbeater.jpg.1c085d9d207027de2e163c58042f8cae.jpg

 

Is it possible to make Julia's cheesecake with only the egg beater and by hand, with a mixing spoon, whisk, or something similar?  I am not even considering using the electric hand mixer that I have as past experiences with it (two attempts) were awful.  I am, however, considering buying a good electric hand mixer, maybe in time for the cheesecake, maybe not. So, could the recipe be made with an electric hand mixer? 

 

What would I need to do, or be aware of, if I went fully manual (egg beater, mixing spoons)?  What would I lose, or gain, by making the recipe totally by hand?

 

Tangentially, I like mixing things by hand even if it takes longer or is harder work.

 

 

 

 ... Shel


 

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JeanneCake

JeanneCake

Posted
Posted

I think you can use the egg beater, it will take longer obviously; as long as your cream cheese is very very soft and you add it in pieces beating well after each addition you shouldn't have any lumps.

 

Theoretically you could mix the softened cream cheese and sugar by hand (the sugar will soften the cheese even more as you are mixing it with a spatula and you can press out any lumps) and add the softly whipped cream and then mix the other ingredients (I stopped watching after the lime juice) and pour into the crust.

 

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AlaMoi

AlaMoi

Posted
Posted

a hand mixer will do the job.  not gonna' count all the stuff I did with a hand mixer before DW Xmas'd me a KitchenAid lift bowl....

done it with hand mixers that had 'flat blade' thingies and those with 'wire blade' thingies.

just takes more time and arm work.

 

I suppose one could also do it with the hand-crank egg beater gizmo. 

gonna' need some aspirin following that event tho . . .

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Katie Meadow

Katie Meadow

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I agree that a good hand mixer would be a useful purchase. We don't make elaborate pies or cakes and   until last year an electric hand mixer was all we had in the house. My husband has been baking bread for years without a stand mixer, but his ambition lately has been to learn to bake brioche bread, and the stand mixer is very good for that, since it requires a lot of kneading. It's been decades since I had one of those hand-crank gadgets.. I think my mother gave me one about 55 years ago when I left for college. 

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donk79

donk79

Posted
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I prefer to whisk whipped cream.  The cream cheese definitely sounds like an additional challenge but...

 

11 hours ago, Shel_B said:

 

Tangentially, I like mixing things by hand even if it takes longer or is harder work.

 I think you could do it!

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liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted

Given cheesecake has been around since Roman times, long before electricity, I'd say mixers of any kind are not necessary, even if more convenient.

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 
Before we work on artificial intelligence, why don't we do something about natural stupidity?

 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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Katie Meadow

Katie Meadow

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, haresfur said:

My father was adamant that the egg beater was the only way to whip cream, I guess so you didn't over whip. I hate those things with a passion. I'd use a whisk.

Thank you for reminding me that "egg beater" is the proper name of that thing. I might never have pulled that up from the lower depths of my murky brain.

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Alex

Alex

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Posted

Buy the good electric hand mixer. You've earned the right to own technology that makes your life easier. Which one do you have in mind? For lower cost, Consumer Reports likes this Hamilton Beach. And Amazon has a great discount now on this KitchenAid model (eG-friendly Amazon.com link).

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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Shel_B

Shel_B

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
14 hours ago, Alex said:

Buy the good electric hand mixer. You've earned the right to own technology that makes your life easier. Which one do you have in mind? For lower cost, Consumer Reports likes this Hamilton Beach. And Amazon has a great discount now on this KitchenAid model (eG-friendly Amazon.com link).

The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of a good hand mixer!

 

I suppose if I really  wanted one, I'd have one by now.  I'm still undecided.  However, I've looked at the KitchenAid before, and at this point that would be my first consideration.  I think there's a 5-speed version as well.

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 ... Shel


 

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Katie Meadow

Katie Meadow

Posted
Posted

@Shel_B My suspicion is that you wish to be talked into a stand mixer. Use your old egg beater every day to whip up egg whites or heavy cream and soon you will be strong enough to carry the stand mixer around the kitchen. Unless you have unlimited counter space and money burning a hole in your pocket, in which case you will have to throw yourself off the fence.

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Shel_B

Shel_B

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
7 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

@Shel_B My suspicion is that you wish to be talked into a stand mixer. Use your old egg beater every day to whip up egg whites or heavy cream and soon you will be strong enough to carry the stand mixer around the kitchen. Unless you have unlimited counter space and money burning a hole in your pocket, in which case you will have to throw yourself off the fence.

@Katie Meadow ... you're mistaken about my desire to own a stand mixer.  I passed on a free one a couple of years ago when Sweetie gave hers away.  There are many things I think about having, but never have I thought about a stand mixer.

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 ... Shel


 

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Shel_B

Shel_B

Posted
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Posted
38 minutes ago, TdeV said:

Actually, I thought @Katie Meadow was talking literally of throwing yourself off the fence. I thought it was a form of ritual hari kari.

😜

I had/have no idea what "throw yourself off the fence" means.  As for "ritual hari kari," well, I don't do that any more. Once was enough.

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 ... Shel


 

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