Hand Held Blender

Legacy_user

I am looking to buy a hand held blender, just to use on cake mix and things and wondered where the best place is to get one? I've seen one for £4.99 in Argos but then also there are some for around £40/50 - any advice please? Thank you.........

ScoobieGirl

I went for a £50 one for my Mum for Xmas. It was really well made, a Braun I think. And although some of the extra money went to the oh so useful ice crushing attachement, what really had me sold (conned?) was the shaft was metal so you could use it on hot soups etc.

kittiwoz

You can use the plastic ones on hot soups. You have to be careful using a stick blender on hot soup though because you tend to get a bit of spatter. I think you get more attachments with the more expensive ones which might be useful. I have the £4.99 one from Argos and have found it works fine and I get good use out of it but I still whisk eggs and cream by hand with a coiled wire mini whisk and a firm wrist which is a bit laborious so I think it would be good to have a whisk attachment. The more expensive ones normally also have a higher wattage and because they are more powerful they can chop harder things (like ice) and make smoother textured soups. I find my Cookworks blender will handle solids, including nuts, provided they're roughly chopped first using a knife but a more powerful blender would probably do a better job. Also you can get a lidded beaker with the more expensive ones which is good for doing breadcrumbs. With out they try to fly off everywhere so you have to wrap a tea towel round the shaft of the blender and drape it over the bowl to keep the crumbs in. I think if you would use it a lot and would use it for chopping solids a more expensive model might be worthwhile but if you are talking more occasional use for stuff like cake mix the cheap one is fine. Having said that, personally if I was going to spend £50 I wouldn't buy a stick blender at all, I'd get this 900W Kenwood food processor.

System

Thank you for your advice, I might look into the the ones for approx £50 if you might get more use from them. There is so much choice, in the past I have mixed cakes by hand aswell, but so many gagdet's these days!

JoeyEmma

I had a plastic one and over time it melted when I whizzed up hot soup.

I replaced it with a Rosemary Connolly one that was reduced from £50 to £25 in the sale just over a year ago. It does come with a mini chopper attatchment and a balloon whisk as well as the metal blender attatchment. I must say I use the mini chopper thing quite a lot as I often need to blend the odd onion or make a marinade with chilli and garlic.

I wouldn't spend £50 on one, but I do think that its good to have a metal stick and the mini chopper is handy.

System

Thanks for the tip!

System

I just wondered if anyone has got the Argos or Tesco hand blender that are about £4.99 - only really need it to mix cake mix.... already have a breadmaker so maybe I can just make it in this?

tawnyowls

Are you actually talking about the hand mixer at £4.99 rather than the hand blender at £4.49? If you're actually just doing cake mixes, go for the hand mixer - blenders tend to break up the starch grains in the flour and make the mix very chewy.

System

Hi tawnyowls, yes I mean the hand mixer - I thought it might be better to just get one of these as they are sold for about £5 by tesco, argos, sainsburys, etc..... and I don't need it for much else to be honest! Just love a nice homemade cake!

tawnyowls

In that case, I'd say yes, get the mixer. Mine is also a Cookworks, and it's great. I didn't want one with dough hooks because I let the breadmaker make dough, so I just needed one with cake whisks. The whisks are fast and efficient - make very light cakes, whip cream very quickly, and it's quite well shaped; there's a sort of curvy bit on the bottom that allows it to sit on the edge of a bowl, so I can leave it to do its thing (unless it's cream, because it whisks so fast it turns to butter if I'm not careful).

Jake'sGran

There is one I detested and I think it is in a bag in the potting shed. San't remember who bought it. It's heavy, made by Braun I think. I found it to be the most heavy cumbersome mixer/whizzer ever. I much prefer the one with a good grip in which you have to place two whisks