Food Processor/Mixer advice

Nicki

My DD managed to break the mixing bowl of my Braun Multiprac food processor today. I know I could get a replacement bowl but was considering whether this might be a good time to upgrade my equipment anyway, as I've had this one since I got engaged about 20 years ago.

At the moment I mainly use the food processor to chop, grate and to blend large amounts of soup, and to mix the mixture for biscuits. It's rubbish at making cakes because no air gets into the mixture, and I would quite like something that I could use for this (as I have been eying up some Kenwood mixers like my mum has for some time)

Does anyone have any recommendations as to what I should be looking for. I don't really mind having two separate bits of equipment if that's necessary, although I don't have loads of storage room in my kitchen so if I could get by with just one that would be a bonus.

seraphina

You need a Kenwood Chef:rotfl:

I have a Chef with a blender attachment which I use for soups, cake, pastry etc. I know there is a processor attachment for the Chef, as well as a whole host of cutting/shredding attachments, which might suit your needs. However from what you describe you may be better off with a food processor - I'm not sure how big the processor bowl is on the Chef attachment.

You can get good second hand Kenwood Chefs on ebay for reasonable money, and I should think if you want to get a stand alone food processor, Kenwood will do a reasonable one for around £40.

As I don't have a processor attachment for my Chef, I have a medium sized food processor that I use for hummus/dips/chopping etc. It's a nice size - bigger than the micro food processors you see, but takes up less space on the counter than a full on food processor. Horses for courses:-)

maryb

I have a Braun multipractic which I probably use for much the same things as you (substitute pastry for biscuits) and a Kenwood chef and while they are both usefull I could more easily do without the Chef than the Braun. I broke the bowl on mine and while I was waiting for the replacement I found life really difficult.

recovering_spendaholic

I have a 20+ year old braun and find it invaluable, even though I have lost the grating discs - I use it for all manner of things and find that it makes okay cakes too. I also have a Kenwood Patissier (like a chef but looks more like a Kitchenaid) and find that I don't use that as much at all. I would love to get a Magimix but I would have to win some dosh first!

rach

not quite what you were asking but i wouldn't be without my stick blender for whizzing soups in the pan - best £10 i ever spent!

Penelope_Penguin

Hi, Nicki! My vote is for a Kenwood Chef, too. I treated myself to one with my redundancy money 13 years ago, and it's been in constant use ever since. There's lots of threads on the Complete Kenwood Chef Collection.

If you fancy looking at other mixers, you may well find them here - Complete Kitchen Equipment Collection.

HTH, Penny. x

snow

Kenwood Chef might be good enough for cakes but if you need to make a shortcrust pastry or blend a soup nothing can beat a food processor with a big mixing bowl. Once I tried to blend a soup in a medium size bowl, it was a pain!Everything was splashing around! So I ended up blending it part by part. And in my opinion a stick blender cannot blend so smoothly as a food processor..But I agree that its a good value for money.
So my suggestion is : bring a new bowl for your food processor and get Kenwood chef for cakes, meringue, whipping cream!;)

Nicki

Toxic_Lemon wrote:

I can recommend you lots of mixers but the important question is: what's your budget?

I am prepared to invest in this, though I did gulp when I googled last night and saw how much the Kenwood Chef was new! Having said that I'd rather pay that amount for something which will last for the remainder of my cooking days (I'm just under 40 now so I hope I have a fair few left) rather than have to keep replacing something cheaper every 5 years or so. (Mind you I did get 20 out of the Multiprac so perhaps I shouldn't complain).

I do have a stick blender but it's not great for doing big quanitites.

What's the Food Processor attachment of the Kenwood Chef like in practice? It looks very small on the pics I've seen!

seraphina

I've never seen the Chef food processor attachment in person - it does look small in the pictures.

If I were you and money were no object :rotfl: I would buy a Chef + blender. Then I would get the slicing/grating attachments for the Chef, which would give you the slicing functionality you use in your food processor. You can do pastry etc. in the main bowl of the Chef. Not sure how good it would be at chopping though. It depends on how much you use your food processor for chopping.

The blender on my Chef is excellent - large capacity and the whole thing splits into two bits - goblet and chopping bit - which makes for easy cleaning.

saving-grace

I treated myself to a Kenwood Chef last year (this was a WANT not a NEED!) and it came with a liquidiser and a food processor.
I would say the processor is on the small side especially if you're cooking for a family. Its also more fiddly to assemble than my old stand-alone Kenwood processor. I think you would probably be disappointed with it if you use a processor on a regular basis.
Why not get a nice new large food processor and get a hand mixer for making cakes? I used a hand mixer for 30 years before getting my Chef and TBH it was perfectly adequate for most cake mixtures. Also useful for whipping cream where it sometimes seems silly to be using the big bowl of the Chef.

Edit: Just looked up instruction booklet for processor attatchment for Chef. It says, maximum capacities: pastry (flour weight) 300g(10oz), meat 340g(12oz) HTH