Kenwood Chef - do I/don't I?

lapis_lazuli

absolutebounder wrote: »

2nd to my wife it is the tops in kitchen appliances

Oh, I know they're amazing. However my parents were paying for the food and electricity when I was last using one. Since then I've moved to the other side of the world and I'm about to move into a flat for the first time with other flatmates. I'm not trying to be stingy, but they are expensive and it would be a shame to discover that I was spending an unreasonably large amount on food to justify the Kenwood's keep in the kitchen. That said I've been eating rather poorly recently...

Edit: what does "OS" stand for, seraphina?

seraphina

lapis_lazuli wrote: »

Oh, I know they're amazing. However my parents were paying for the food and electricity when I was last using one. Since then I've moved to the other side of the world and I'm about to move into a flat for the first time with other flatmates. I'm not trying to be stingy, but they are expensive and it would be a shame to discover the chef cost more to run/buy ingredients for than it was actually worth, if that makes sense?

Edit: what does "OS" stand for, seraphina?

OS: Old style

If you're worried about running costs/temptation for overuse (and it's not just your wallet that can suffer - think of the waistline with all those yummy treats :eek:) then you might be better off for the time being with a hand mixer? They tend to run at 300W whereas the Chef (well, mine anyway which is the KM001) is 1000W, so obv. costs more to run.

If you make cakes etc. already then the Chef will be a brilliant addition and you'll soon wonder how you did without it. If you are new to it all then it might take you a while to get the full benefit of it.

And with regards to cost of ingredients, not all home baking has to be from the Nigella school which uses pounds of butter, cream, sugar, 70% cocoa solids.... you can make great HM treats from cheap and simple ingredients.

lapis_lazuli

seraphina wrote:

If you're worried about running costs/temptation for overuse (and it's not just your wallet that can suffer - think of the waistline with all those yummy treats :eek:) then you might be better off for the time being with a hand mixer? They tend to run at 300W whereas the Chef (well, mine anyway which is the KM001) is 1000W, so obv. costs more to run.

That's a fair point, however I'd prefer the Kenwood for its bread handling capabilities (plus I'm a gadgets fan if I'm honest!). A good loaf of bread here in NZ costs between $3 -$4 but a 2.5 Kg bag of flour costs $7, So for the cost of three loaves of bread from the shop, I can enjoy 6 loaves of home-made bread, and I can always use some of that dough for pizzas if necessary. That sounds like moneysaving to me. then again it's only saving $48 a year (about 24 pounds) assuming 6 loaves per week.

A couple of other questions:
1) Did the electricity bill go up significantly when you got your 1000W chef?
2) I've got conflicting info about the Major model. On amazon for the KM020 one review said they whisked just 2 eggwhites into a froth good enough for two pavlovas, but when I had a second-hand Major for about 1 week a few years back, small quantities (4oz sponge cake) weren't mixed well at all. Have things improved or was I just unlucky? I'm pretty tempted by the major if it will handle two egg whites as it'll give me greater scope for when I need to bake larger cakes, and I think I can make a regular excuse for that.
3) Kenwood say the KM001 - KM006 and other models have all-metal gears, but no comment either way is made for the KM010, KM020, or KM023. Does anyone happen to know?

seraphina

lapis_lazuli wrote: »

That's a fair point, however I'd prefer the Kenwood for its bread handling capabilities (plus I'm a gadgets fan if I'm honest!). A good loaf of bread here in NZ costs between $3 -$4 but a 2.5 Kg bag of flour costs $7, So for the cost of three loaves of bread from the shop, I can enjoy 6 loaves of home-made bread, and I can always use some of that dough for pizzas if necessary. That sounds like moneysaving to me. then again it's only saving $48 a year (about 24 pounds) assuming 6 loaves per week.

A couple of other questions:
1) Did the electricity bill go up significantly when you got your 1000W chef?
2) I've got conflicting info about the Major model. On amazon for the KM020 one review said they whisked just 2 eggwhites into a froth good enough for two pavlovas, but when I had a second-hand Major for about 1 week a few years back, small quantities (4oz spo
nge cake) weren't mixed well at all. Have things improved or was I just unlucky? I'm pretty tempted by the major if it will handle two egg whites as it'll give me greater scope for when I need to bake larger cakes, and I think I can make a regular excuse for that.
3) Kenwood say the KM001 - KM006 and other models have all-metal gears, but no comment either way is made for the KM010, KM020, or KM023. Does anyone happen to know?

Your point about the loaves is a good one - it might not be the cheapest of the cheap option to do it yourself but the value for money (ie you'll get a great loaf for the lowest price possible whey you do it yourself with a Chef) can't be beaten.

Didn't notice a massive increase in electricity bills since I got the Chef - but increased oven useage would be a bigger cost increase than the electric used to run the Chef.

With regards to the Chef/Major debate, probably the biggest mix I've done in my Chef is about 5 lbs of Christmas pudding mix, which was probably as much as I'd want to do without taxing it too much (Xmas pud mix is very stiff). It can easily cope with my 2x 2lb loaf bread mix (I think the dry weight dough limit given by Kenwood is 2.2kg). The Major is substantially bigger but it's rare that I'd use that much capacity. Given it's bigger size I'm not surprised it has trouble with small amounts of egg white- I'd probably stay with the Chef unless you think you'll be doing lots of high-volume baking. I know two people with Majors - one has 7 children and the other uses it in a commercial setting (wedding cakes). I do think you'd be struggling to get the most out of a Major in day-to-day domestic use.

Pitlanepiglet

You don't need a Kenwood Chef to be Old Style and having one isn't going to make you any more Old Style or save you any money.

Having said that, I love mine and I use it quite a lot but I don't regard it as a money saving gadget at all.

I looked at a Major and was of the view that there was no way that I could handle the bowl, it was much too big. I've not ever been in a situation where my ordinary sized Chef hasn't been big enough to cope with what I'm doing and if it was I'd just mix things in two batches.

You can do most of what you want to do by hand and/or with a hand mixer. In fact my friend with three kids who bakes a lot and makes cales for sale, makes everything by hand - her 5 year old had no idea what my Kenwood was - he's perfectly accomplished at whisking eggs by hand himself.

So...have one if you want it, but don't think it's going to save you money

angeltreats

My Kenwood is only 700w, but it's very seldom on at full speed. If I'm making bread it's only on speed 1 or 2, so presumably this doesn't use the whole 700w. I can't honestly say I'm overly frugal with electrical appliances - I turn out lights when I leave the room and don't leave the telly on standby but other than that I don't take much notice, but my bills really aren't very big at all and I use my Kenwood several times a week so it can't be that expensive to run

Re the Major, I've never used one but I've heard they're just not as good. In particular the stuff at the bottom of the bowl doesn't get mixed properly.

katholicos

I use a breville mixer that i bought for £30. I've used it many times of almost every week since i had it about 8 years ago. I knead my dough in it and then i let i put it in bread tins or shape it how i want and then leave it to rise and bake it. Also I make cakes and cookies with it etc and it is adequate for my needs and those of my family. Mine is like this one->HERE.

Mine was on sale in Debenhams though.

ifonlyitwaseasier

tbh i love mine, and my mums (mine in store atm) i couldn't make most of my baking without it!

and my mums is now 30+ yrs old and still going strong so i look at it as an investment rather than a massive spend

Lily-Lu

I doubt a Chef will bump up the electric bill by more than a couple of pence a week. Even when making bread, it's only going to be on for about 10 minutes. 1000w for 10 minutes should only cost a couple of pence. The electric increase will come from baking all the goodies in the oven.

I have a Chef (got a brand new unwanted present from Ebay for £35:T)
I still tend to make most things by hand (bread and cakes), but the Chef is my saving grace when it comes to mixing flour and fat together for pastry). Because I still choose to make most things by hand, it wouldn't be worth me buying a new one if mine went bang.....But I'd still not part with mine, and when it eventually does go bang, I'll be looking for a cheap secondhand one.

Penelope_Penguin

As this has fallen from the front page of OS, I'll add it to the exisitng thread to give you more opinions