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Post by clarencebunsen on May 26, 2014 8:28:32 GMT -5
While reading a blog about bread making I saw a photo which gave me a "Why didn't I think of that?" moment. The author was using a Kitchen Aid stand mixer and the paddle blade shown had two silicone inserts to scrape the bowl while mixing. Kitchen Aid doesn't fool around with their design. Ours is about 35 years old and except for color looks identical to the one my son bought 2 years ago. They are very durable but anyone who has ever used one knows that you have to stop and scrape the bowel in order to incorporate all the flour or cake mix or whatever. Not a big deal but a minor inconvenience. The solution in the picture looked simple and elegant. It took one search on Amazon to determine that there are 2 competing designs. In the review section Amazon had a link to a Youtube video in which a woman had compared the two. Based on the video I decided to order the $15 model rather than the one for $25. My wife used it to mix a cake yesterday. Her entire review: "Works good, be careful not to run it too fast at the start." I just checked out the web site of the blade manufacturer www.beaterblade.comIt looks like they have a couple other product which interest me. |
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Post by Clipper on May 26, 2014 9:29:45 GMT -5
I bought Kathy a Kitchen Aid mixer when we first got together. She loves to bake, and the bowl scraping thing is her only complaint about her mixer. We have had ours for 16 yrs and never had any problem with it. I am debating whether I want to purchase the pasta machine attachment for it, or to buy a separate unit to make pasta. I am really wanting to try some home made ravioli, and I imagine that it would work well for Kathy's perogi dough also. A friend has an ice cream making attachment. They make all sorts of toys that can be attached.
I definitely will be buying one of those beater blades. I looked on-line and there is a kitchen store 15 minutes away in Kingsport Tn that carries the item, and so does Bed Bath And Beyond. Thanks for posting the information Clarence. Hope you are enjoying the holiday weekend.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2014 11:14:46 GMT -5
My Mom would make homemade ravioli. She would mix the dough by hand and then roll it out with a special roller called a broom stick untill each section of dough was real thin . Then she would fill a section in with her ricotta mixture cover each ravioli and we kids would press them closed with a fork. It was a lot of backbreaking work for her and maybe that is why she made a ton of them on Easter. Delicious. And they would melt in your mouth. My Dad bought her a hand cranking pasta machine once she put it in the closet and never used it. This was all done before Amazon was around or computers.
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Post by Clipper on May 26, 2014 15:20:57 GMT -5
Kathy rolls her perogi dough by hand with a small dowel like rolling pin. I asked her once why she didn't use the same heavy rolling pin that she uses for pie crust and she told me that her grandmother used dowel like roller so she uses a similar one. We have never made ravioli, but it looks so good when I watch them make them on TV that I want to try making it. I HAVE purchased hand made raviolis from the farmer's market. They were filled with ricotta and spinach and were delicious. The vendors are an Italian couple originally from Baltimore if I recall correctly. The also sell home made fetuccini and linquini. They make it fresh, then freeze it for sale at the market. They grow the long green Italian style hot peppers. They are wonderful. I buy them a couple of times each summer and use them on keilbasa sandwiches, mixed with sweet peppers.
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Post by clarencebunsen on May 26, 2014 23:25:05 GMT -5
I have considered the pasta attachment but they are so darn expensive. If I bought one as a gift for Barb, it would really be for me. I'd be willing to spend that much on her but not for myself.
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Post by Clipper on May 27, 2014 7:39:59 GMT -5
Everything Kitchen Aid makes is expensive, but the money is well spent when purchasing their products. They last forever. The price is what has me hesitating as to whether to purchase the pasta rolling attachment or to purchase a separate pasta machine. It is a matter of how often I would actually use it. The cheapest I have seen it was on Overstock.com. It was on a special for $149.99. Sears had it at one time also, but it was $199.00. Heck that is almost as much as I paid for the mixer back when I bought it. They are also advertising a "ravioli maker attachment" but there was little specific information listed as to how it worked or if it could be used to simply make pasta dough.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2014 15:15:43 GMT -5
I have considered the pasta attachment but they are so darn expensive. If I bought one as a gift for Barb, it would really be for me. I'd be willing to spend that much on her but not for myself. Oh go ahead and buy it for your wife. You can always sit next to her in the kitchen as she is busy making her homemade pasta. Just smile a lot when she is doing it. |
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2014 15:19:32 GMT -5
Kathy rolls her perogi dough by hand with a small dowel like rolling pin. I asked her once why she didn't use the same heavy rolling pin that she uses for pie crust and she told me that her grandmother used dowel like roller so she uses a similar one. We have never made ravioli, but it looks so good when I watch them make them on TV that I want to try making it. I HAVE purchased hand made raviolis from the farmer's market. They were filled with ricotta and spinach and were delicious. The vendors are an Italian couple originally from Baltimore if I recall correctly. The also sell home made fetuccini and linquini. They make it fresh, then freeze it for sale at the market. They grow the long green Italian style hot peppers. They are wonderful. I buy them a couple of times each summer and use them on keilbasa sandwiches, mixed with sweet peppers. The only thing I make homemade is gnocchi. It is easy and I LOVE them either with tomato sauce or in a butter sauce with sage. I make the potato ones because I tried doing the ricotta one and it is a little tricky. I tried the sweet potato one's but did not like it. |
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Post by Ralph on May 27, 2014 22:20:08 GMT -5
Thank you!!! That's been one of my biggest complaints (not that I have any with ours) and this looks like it will solve it.
Also solve the beater tearing the scraper out of my hand and swinging it around the kitchen.
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Post by clarencebunsen on May 28, 2014 5:03:30 GMT -5
Thank you!!! That's been one of my biggest complaints (not that I have any with ours) and this looks like it will solve it. Also solve the beater tearing the scraper out of my hand and swinging it around the kitchen. I know the feeling. It would be so embarrassing to be impaled by the flying scraper and have to explain the mishap at the ER. |
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Post by Clipper on May 28, 2014 9:11:40 GMT -5
I might suggest shutting the mixer off to scrape the bowl.  My mom tried to scrape the bowl with the mixer running. She was whipping heavy cream with the wire wisk beater. She used a silicone spatula with a stainless steel handle. The thing ended up standing straight up with the handle protruding above the bowl. It caught on the main body of the mixer and bent the wires all to hell before finally ripping the silicone part off the handle. I was able to bend it back to a reasonable facsimile of what it originally looked like, but the silicone spatula was a total loss.  My sister still has mom's mixer and says she thinks of mom every time she uses that bent wisk beater. |
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Post by clarencebunsen on May 28, 2014 9:59:05 GMT -5
Obviously that's the correct way to do it but it's always tempting to think, "I can knock down that one little bit of flour & be done."
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Post by Clipper on May 28, 2014 10:41:28 GMT -5
Not much of a hazard with the paddle mixing attachment. My mom was using the wire attachment. She also managed to get a stainless steel spoon entangled between the beaters of her old Hamilton Beach stand mixer. The blades turned in opposing directions and it sucked the spoon right between them, mangling the beaters as well as the spoon. lol
While mom was an extremely intelligent and talented person, who had served as executive director of several non profits, as well as spending several years as a congressional aide, her culinary skills were not one of her stronger points.
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Post by Ralph on May 29, 2014 1:24:17 GMT -5
I tried exactly what CB had in mind.........snapped the wooden handle on the scraper like a toothpick! Only thing damaged was my ego. Won't ever try that again!!!!  |
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Post by chris on May 29, 2014 8:28:06 GMT -5
They have a sausage stuffer attachment also. Makes making sausage a breeze. I love my Kitchen aid (red)
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My mom tried to scrape the bowl with the mixer running. She was whipping heavy cream with the wire wisk beater. She used a silicone spatula with a stainless steel handle. The thing ended up standing straight up with the handle protruding above the bowl. It caught on the main body of the mixer and bent the wires all to hell before finally ripping the silicone part off the handle. I was able to bend it back to a reasonable facsimile of what it originally looked like, but the silicone spatula was a total loss. 
My sister still has mom's mixer and says she thinks of mom every time she uses that bent wisk beater. 
