What's the best HARDCORE Food Processor/Blender?-making Icing Sugar/grinding Nuts etc

lilibeth

I need to buy a Gadget / Food Processor / Blender that can do the following

1) Be capable of coping with turning batches of granulated sugar into caster/icing sugar. (For cake and biscuit baking 3-4 times a week)
2) Be capable of coping with grinding batches of raw nuts. (a good few cupfuls each week)

I have googled, read reviews, had a look at Lakelands and spent much time looking at the instruction downloads on Kenwood, Krups, Moulinex, and Bamix's websites.

Some of them specifically state not to put dry ingredients in on their own and some even warn against granulated sugar because it damages the plastic.

Anecdotally I know people do both of these things. And I remember my mother processing sugar this way when I was a kid.
But anecdotally I have also heard of people messing up their blades and burning out motors.:eek:

Most coffee grinders seem a possibility for grinding nuts but not the sugar. BUT most are impossible to fully clean so would be a health risk anyway.

I found these threads yesterday on here
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=99029&highlight=icing+sugar+blender
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=349839&highlight=grinding+nuts
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=280746&highlight=grinding+nuts
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=349839&highlight=grinding+nuts

But what I need before I shell out the money is specifics of brands and models.

So long story short if you regularly process sugar this way and or nuts or raw grains, I would be really grateful if you could post the brand and model you use. Also how often you do it and how much you put in in one go.

Thanking you

P.S And no I don't want to bash it with a rolling pin or use a knife. :D

...

lilibeth

I'm willing to beg if necessary. :wave:

Pink.

Hi lilibeth,

I didn't reply because I've already said what I use on one of the threads you've already read. Mine is a braun stick blender with an attachment for grinding and it works well on both sugar (which I don't do regularly) and nuts (which I do all the time). Link to what I have here but mine came without the pyrex dishes and only cost £29.99 reduced to £19.99.

Hopefully you'll get more answers soon.

Pink

Edit: If it's any help, it's one of the few kitchen gadgets that I couldn't live without.

lilibeth

Pink-winged wrote: »

Hi lilibeth,

I didn't reply because I've already said what I use on one of the threads you've already read. Mine is a braun stick blender with an attachment for grinding and it works well on both sugar (which I don't do regularly) and nuts (which I do all the time). Link to what I have here but mine came without the pyrex dishes and only cost £29.99 reduced to £19.99.

Hopefully you'll get more answers soon.

Pink

Edit: If it's any help, it's one of the few kitchen gadgets that I couldn't live without.

Thanks Pink Wings, I appreciate it, in that thread it was mostly breadcrumbs though.:)
What I need it for is a lot more hardcore than bread crumbs and a few nuts to chuck on a cake.
Plus I'm using a stick blender at the moment and it just can't handle the volume of nuts I'm chucking at it (I buy 2kg bags of raw peanuts and also cashews). And it keeps getting clogged and it's messy.

Plus I want to start making my own flour again from raw grain.
And as I said granulated sugar so I can stop buying caster and icing sugar.

So any hardcore users please out yourselves.:D

P.S. Thank you for the link it is very sweet of you

sunset_gold

Hello Lilibeth,

This is a coincidence as I went out to buy more caster sugar yesterday and noticed that it was 15p more expensive than granulated, so there and then in (Mr S) I decided I would buy granulated sugar instead and put it in the wizzer!

I have an old Kenwood jug mixer, one I used to make banana milkshakes in years ago and only use now for bread crumbs and biscuit bases. I has only one speed but it does the job.

I put 500gs of granulated sugar in the jug and let it wiz for 20 seconds, before realising it had turned into powder, icing sugar no less. So as I was after caster sugar I put the other 500gs into the jug and put it on for the count of 10. It is nearer to caster sugar, but still just a bit too fine. Next time I will leave it for just 5 seconds. I hope this helps, really easy, too easy and 15p saved.

lilibeth

sunset_gold wrote: »

Hello Lilibeth,

This is a coincidence as I went out to buy more caster sugar yesterday and noticed that it was 15p more expensive than granulated, so there and then in (Mr S) I decided I would buy granulated sugar instead and put it in the wizzer!

I have an old Kenwood jug mixer, one I used to make banana milkshakes in years ago and only use now for bread crumbs and biscuit bases. I has only one speed but it does the job.

I put 500gs of granulated sugar in the jug and let it wiz for 20 seconds, before realising it had turned into powder, icing sugar no less. So as I was after caster sugar I put the other 500gs into the jug and put it on for the count of 10. It is nearer to caster sugar, but still just a bit too fine. Next time I will leave it for just 5 seconds. I hope this helps, really easy, too easy and 15p saved.

Awwwwwwwww cool:D (I don't have a blender fetish honest )

See this is my reasoning too, I shop online and using mysupermarket really brought home to me the massive difference in price.
It is a good 19p+ per kilo more expensive in Tesco for caster and icing sugar.

What model is it?
And is it a glass or plastic jug?
Do you do nuts or grains in it?

Thank you, sorry for the third degree.

P.S I originally thought Kenwood would be the way to go but when I started my hunt for info on this I saw that on their website they warned against granulated sugar in their online thingys. 'I wonder if the newer models aren't as good. Or maybe they are just being OTT.

sooz

I've got a Bamix swissline silver. Yes - it was expensive :eek: but it's teeny, & since I've got it I've not used my blender or my little food processor at all. Infact, they both went to the charity shop last week, after removing nearly 6 inches of dust off them
If you have a home or garden show on near you try to find some free tickets, as there is nearly always a bamix stand, and it's about £40 cheaper there than online.

I make icing sugar, peanut butter, crush ice amongst many other things. The DSs love it when I make the pudding whip out of skimmed milk and a couple of blueberries, although it whips it so well it does make them rather burpy afterwards

As for quantities, the grinding mill doesn't hold a lot, but it only takes a few seconds to do sugar. Peanut butter takes a little longer, can't remember how long as I'm pregnant & not been allowed peanuts for months now.

adouglasmhor

We have a Sumeet Asia kitchen machine, You can make nut flours and lentil flours with it as well as ordinary grinding, but there is no dealer in the UK at the moment. You can only order them through their hong kong or north american dealerships. http://www.sumeet.net/ http://www.innoconcepts.com/sumeet.htm

freyasmum

lilibeth wrote: »

Plus I'm using a stick blender at the moment and it just can't handle the volume of nuts I'm chucking at it (I buy 2kg bags of raw peanuts and also cashews). And it keeps getting clogged and it's messy.

Plus I want to start making my own flour again from raw grain.
And as I said granulated sugar so I can stop buying caster and icing sugar.

I think this could be just what you're looking for

















Sorry

My stick blender (can't remember the make) and my processor (hinari) have always worked really well for me.

Alfie_E

Hardcore blending? That’ll be Blendtec’s Will It Blend? – as close as you’ll get to food processor pr0n. They’re seriously heavy-duty blenders. Unfortunately, they’re also seriously expensive, even in the US, more so by the time they make it here.

moneysavinmonkey

At the good food show in Birmingham there was a stand for the VitaMix Blender.
It's really high powered, heavy duty blender that could easily do what you are asking.

the price is :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

The website is here...http://www.vitamix.com/household/products/super5000/maxnut.asp

Maybe you could try and get a second hand one?

At the stand they did boast that they are used in Starbucks, Baskin Robbins etc etc. However I checked my local starbucks and they use Blendtec ("Will it blend").

I've been wondering if maybe starbucks used to use Vitamix but have replaced with blendtec, and if so what they have done with all their old vitamixes (lying around waiting for some MSE'r to claim them?:rotfl: )- I don't really go in Starbucks and haven't been brave enough to ask so if someone else has tried this let me know!