Power tools in the kitchen

[Scott Douglas]

How many of you cooks use power tools in the kitchen when cooking?

I just baked a birthday cake for myself, by myself using the Cuisinart. My wife said I could make it all in the bowl. Had to think a tad about the order of things, like grating the carrots before mixing the other stuff.
If it doesn't turn out right I can blame only myself.

Using the Cuisinart sure helped, although it may have 'over blended' some of the ingredients a little too much. We shall see.

The only other power tool is the stand mixer. I wonder if that's what I should have used instead???

[herr_oberst]

I like to bake, ergo, stand mixer changed my life.

[Scott Douglas]

Cake is out of the oven. Wife says "It's not like mine" as it is drier, not as moist.
I don't think it said to add water to the mix....?
I think mixing all the stuff together in the C-art mixed it a little too well. It wasn't 'lumpy' when being poured into the pan.
Oh well, it still smells good to me.
She's going to frost it once it cools down enough, which may not be until tomorrow as it's kind of warm today.

[herr_oberst]

I love carrot cake. I wonder if that will have sour-cream icing?

Timely post. Just pulled banana bread out of the oven for a movie night tonight

[Cajundaddy]

My wife is the baker around here and she does sourdough bread and cakes to die for. No reason to get into that at all.

I do appreciate a good power tool and my latest gadget is the Instant Pot programmable pressure cooker. Most anything I can cook in the oven or crock pot I can do in the Instant pot in 1/4 the time. Pulled pork (shoulder) comes out moist, tender, and delish in about 30 minutes. Rice, stew, soups, pasta sauce, chicken cacciatore... Yum.

[Scott Douglas]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

I love carrot cake. I wonder if that will have sour-cream icing?

Timely post. Just pulled banana bread out of the oven for a movie night tonight

Was there ever a doubt?

[A930Rocket]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

I love carrot cake. I wonder if that will have sour-cream icing?

Timely post. Just pulled banana bread out of the oven for a movie night tonight

I would’ve eaten that pan of banana bread by myself watching a movie!

Carrot cake too!

[Bill Douglas]

I try to minimise power tool usage in the kitchen. I have a large box in the attic full of "used once" kitchen type gadgets.

But while on this subject... Thanks guys for educating me on air fryers. I use it a number of times every week.

[David]

Stand mixer would likely work better for that.

My wife has gone head long into baking recently. She wants to start doing it for a living and that sounds like way too much work for me!

She's outgrown her little KitchenAid standing mixer and wants to get a Ankarsum to better handle dough:

https://www.ankarsrum.com/us/

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

I would’ve eaten that pan of banana bread by myself watching a movie!

Carrot cake too!

I can neither confirm nor deny that I have done same with an extry large glass of cold whole milk.

[wswartzwel]

I occasionally use my buffer and a bit of rubbing compound designed for automotive paint finishes, on the stoves glass cooktop, when it gets some burned on food that won't clean off easily.

[GH85Carrera]

My wife still has a mixer (harvest green) she got in college. It is used for mashed potatoes, and cakes. We have a Cuisinart we use to chop up veggies or raw cranberries. The cranberries go into a desert she makes at Thanksgiving.

And of course a pressure cooker is a power tool. It sure cooks things fast!

[id10t]

Yes, ancient Cuisinart at mom's that is critical for making enough sliced onions for our lentil/rice/onion dish, and shredding enough potatoes to make latkes...

Love it when the wife cranks up teh KitchenAide mixer - that means she's baking something tasty....

[craigster59]

We have the Kitchen Aid stand mixer and an air fryer. My Wife and I usually try and limit things, trying to stick by Alton Brown's recommendation of only purchasing "multi taskers" so that you don't have too many "gadgets".

I do have a motorized meat grinder/sausage stuffer and wouldn't mind having a nice deli style slicer.

https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Commercial-Meat-Slicer-Semi-Auto/dp/B08R7JJF3R/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1DZRVSUMD82XH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.1MHY1_V9v_I9GmccfSuaTAFZFPdxrl10i WRHYcjfp3MBtTNDR1Ybd5QShTHX6WiCT0n5eZopigPo7q6kDgx QuP4UyL5FpBrrPPXZMw94UTpRkVRENPuuIT0OvyIn9U4uMwvOg Xi7PqwnzxZSsT4BS7VMiql_M6As03e3Uamu-9sNkUAC4MHmajqTscghOCma8iAq5_CerSfgIM2T-hrO6Ha06xNgIuGW6zCfxQuR56c.Nl5DvwPOIKSrpq-GTkp6bIyz-Rde8Zhcp8OuuSeB_Qg&dib_tag=se&keywords=vevor%2B10%22%2Bmeat%2B%26%2Bdeli%2Bslice r&qid=1746885704&sprefix=vevor%2Bmeat%2Bdeli%2Bslicer%2Caps%2C165&sr=8-3&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.5998aa40-ec6f-4947-a68f-cd087fee0848&th=1

[craigster59]

And I do use my plumbing torch for cooking as opposed to those little mini torches they sell at Williams Sonoma.

[David]

Originally Posted by craigster59

And I do use my plumbing torch for cooking as opposed to those little mini torches they sell at Williams Sonoma.

+1!!!

Years ago we had friends that were regular Thursday night guests since we didn't work Fridays. One Christmas season they brought presents even tho we didn't exchange gifts. They had me open my present first and it was book on creme brulee. I said I love creme brulee and they said yes, we know! Next was my wife and she got some ramekins; we were starting to see a trend. Last was my son and he got a kitchen torch

Of course we had creme brulee the next Thursday night but I think the little kitchen torch was quickly set aside as I went to the garage and got my push button ignitor MAPP gas torch!

[wdfifteen]

I got tired of cranking the hand crank on our sausage stuffer, so I made an adapter to use a drill motor to crank it.

[Scott Douglas]

Well I tried a piece of the cake this morning.

It's a tad on the dry side which I attribute to 1) my first time trying, 2) I don't think I should have used the C-art to do it all as it mixed it too well, 3) I guessed on the shy side when it came to the raisins.

It still tastes great though, just doesn't have the 'chunkiness' and moistness of a properly assembled one.

[Bob Kontak]

You are too hard on yourself. We all would have heard "Whatever you do don't mix it too much or it will get dry"

What does the boss say you did wrong? Cook too long, cake too shallow, wrong grate in the oven?

[Scott Douglas]

I've been accused of mixing it too much in the past, Bob.
You know, those boxes of corn bread mix that all you have to do is add an egg and oil to?

Yup, I mix them too much, but they sure end up cooking nice and even. I mix the egg and oil before adding the dry mix so it gets distributed evenly through out the mix.