The very lovely people at Kenwood got wind of the fact that I have been doing all of my baking with just a hand held electric mixer. Now, my trusty mixer has served me well since moving in to my house but they thought that life in the kitchen would be easier for me with a super duper stand mixer and so sent me a Kenwood kMix Stand Mixer to trial. I have given it a fairly good testing already having baked solidly last weekend, and people, I am in love. I'm pretty sure there is a commandment saying some rubbish about people not being allowed to fall in love with inanimate objects but I just couldn't help myself. How is it possible, you may ask yourself, for a beautiful *cough*, young (ish) lady *splutter* to fall in love with a hunk of metal and wire? Well I shall tell ya.
So let's get the sciencey bit out of the way before I give you my findings. This is what Kenwood have to say:
"The kMix Stand Mixer (RRP €499.99) is a classic machine designed to make a statement in the kitchen, boasting a 500W motor, 5 litre stainless steel bowl, electronic speed control and a unique ‘fold’ function. The kMix Stand Mixer comes complete with the iconic K beater, balloon whisk and dough hook. With a wide range of attachments available including a meat grinder, flat pasta roller and spaghetti cutter, you can make mouth-watering meatballs and delicious pasta sheets."
I received the kMix in Peppercorn, a sleek and stylish black finish, the colour above is Raspberry and it is also available in Almond (a cream shade) and this summer a rather fabulous range of stripes as part of a limited edition collection will hit Irish stores. The full list of features of the mixer can be viewed here.
Kenwood kMix in Peppercorn
As standard the Kenwood kMix kit contains:
Stainless steel mixing bowl
Balloon Whisk
K beater
Dough hook
Spatula
Splash guard
Instruction Manual
The function control has settings for 0-min right through 6-max
That little red symbol is for the fold function
5l Stainless steel bowl with handle
Dock for additional attachments
Balloon whisk
K beater
Dough hook
Splash guard and spatula
K beater and splash guard attachments in place
So I think we can all agree that it looks fab, but is it a case of style over substance? No, most definitely not, it packs a punch on both counts. In order to make an informed decision about the performance of the kMix I decided to make some things I had made on plenty of occasions and also something that I found a little labour intensive.
First out of the traps was a firm favourite in this house and probably the most baked item in my oven, meringues. I always make pavlova when my sister comes for dinner as it is her favourite and it is also my last minute saviour as it is so easy to throw together. I have received many compliments for my pavlovas and so have been pretty confident that I have been whipping up top notch meringues for the last few years. They were pretty good alright but when I tasted my first batch mixed up in the kMix I realised I had in fact been making substandard meringues for quite some time. I may have shed a little tear at this realisation so I had to console myself with a second tasting. While they looked the same to the untrained eye the delicate crisp layer was hiding the most delicious marshmallowy pillow of moreishness. A definite improvement on my hand held mixer.
These meringues were a gift for my neighbours,
following the obligatory taste test I found it quite difficult to hand them over.
Next up I couldn't wait to try out the K beater to see it in action. I decided on a simple everything in one bowl batter and it was an absolute dream. Madeira cake is easy enough to whip up anyway but using the kMix meant it pretty much mixed itself. I simply measured out the ingredients and added them to the bowl in stages and in no time I had a perfect Madeira batter ready for the oven. If I could find one negative point about the kMix and in the interest of a fair and honest review I think I should include this it is that to add eggs to the mixture I had to stop the motor and raise the mixer head to avoid spilling some egg down the outside of the bowl. Now that's me nit picking as it is the only negative I could come up with after a serious round of baking and lets face it that's hardly a minus point at all. I usually make plain Madeira cakes but as this one was a Mother's Day gift for my mother in law I decided to dicky it up a bit with some butter cream frosting. I added the butter and icing sugar to the bowl and mixed until smooth and then added some milk, vanilla and food colouring. After that I just set my oven timer for 5 minutes and left the kMix to do it's thing. I loaded and unloaded the washing machine and came back to perfect light and fluffy butter cream. Result! The cake and icing were actually so easy to make with the kMix I made them two days in a row.
A gift for my mother in law but I did manage a little taste
before decorating. Sssssh, she'll never know.
Finally, I decided to make a variation on the Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Bread that featured on the blog recently. The dough for this bread is very moist, so moist that I found I needed to add additional flour to make it possible to handle it. The dough was also a little labour intensive to make using just a hand held mixer, so much so that I did think about chucking it in the bin but as this blog is about baking successes and failures I thought it was only fair to see it through. The result however was delicious and so I decided I wanted to try it again but with a chocolate twist. This was the perfect opportunity to test out the dough hook attachment for the kMix. The kMix actually exceeded all expectations for me on this front, it effortlessly mixed a beautiful silky smooth dough, much better than I have ever achieved with my hand held mixer or by hand kneading in the past. As the dough formed a ball on the hook I did worry that I might have a bit of a job on my hands removing it but with a little nudge it slid right off and into the bowl.
This was an adapted recipe and needs a little tweaking but I
will most definitely be making it again soon as it was so easy with the kMix.
I have had a 'new mixer' fund on the go for quite a while now but I kept dipping in to it in favour of pretty things that I needed *cough*. Having used the kMix pretty solidly for the past two weeks I actually don't know how I have been baking for so long without one. Mr. Boo is quite taken with how stylish it looks adorning our kitchen worktop in all of it's glory, and when I gave him a crash course in how to use it the other day he was even more impressed with the fact that it is a pretty hefty piece of machinery. This one is not just for girls you know. The bowl and attachments have been in and out of my dishwasher without issue, and a quick wipe with a damp cloth restores all of the shiny glory to the body of the kMix. It has coped with all tasks thrown it's way effortlessly, the motor is not any louder than the smaller and much less powerful hand held mixer I had been using, which surprised me for such a powerful machine. The splash guard is my new best friend, I no longer cough and splutter in a cloud of flour or icing sugar when making a cake and the clean up of worktops is pretty much non existent thanks to it. The most important factor though is that the end result of everything I have baked using it tastes so much better. I think this is down to the fact that the plate into which you insert the attachments rotates, as opposed to just the attachments themselves. This means that every area of the bowl is reached during the mixing process so ingredients are incorporated evenly and air is added to the mix. I have honestly been surprised by the difference it has made and have tasted seconds or thirds of everything to make sure that I am not imagining it. I am nothing if not thorough. If you are planning on investing in a stand alone mixer or are looking for a way to improve your baking results I can 100% recommend the Kenwood kMix, it has most definitely revolutionised my baking.
If you would like to purchase a Kenwood kMix you can do so in Arnotts, Brown Thomas, DID Electrical and other select stores throughout Ireland. The RRP is €499.99. You can also purchase direct from Kenwoods online store for delivery to Ireland.
