We are going to blog about one key kitchen appliance which we've come acquainted with through ice-cream making, that is the BLENDER. The blender became one of the prioritised equipment that we have to get in order to start experimenting fruit flavors. This is also how we learnt that kitchen appliances can be even more complicated than computer parts, seriously we never knew there were so many variations!
Firstly, we have to understand what we want to produce then research on the functions of the different appliances to find out which will best suit our needs. So here goes...
Objective:
Find the equipment that can make us fruit puree, which is the most called-for ingredient in fruit ice-cream / gelato recipes
Budget: SGD $100
Firstly, the differences explained...
1. Food Processor
- Use: Chop and Puree vegetables, fruits
- Pros: Comes with multiple blades, has a wider container which allows fruit to have more contact with the - blade.
- Cons: Smaller and cheaper food processors allow for less fruit to be pureed at any one point in time compared to a stand blender. Although there are larger versions with higher power, they come at a higher price of course.
2. Food Mill
- Use: Puree fruits and vegetables
- Pros: Cranks and pushes the fruit through the mesh at the same time so you get a 'sieved' product at the end. Offers more control to the degree you would like the puree to be.
- Cons: Non electricity powered which means you either must have Popeye's strength or you want to develop some arm muscles!
3. Stand Blender
- Use: Chop vegetables, Puree fruits, make smoothies and milkshakes
- Pros: One of the more versatile options, usually comes with a power motor and as long as it's more than 500W it works perfectly well for most denser fruits. And of course it can be used to make other treats like smoothies and milkshakes.
- Cons: Due to the size, this will take up quite a bit of table and storage space.
4. Hand Blender
- Use: Puree, some comes with a whisk function
- Pros: Lightweight and because it is a handheld, it can be used with mixtures that are heating at the same time on the stove e.g. custard. Easily portable as well.
- Cons: Usually less powerful compared to the blender/food processor and tends to work with lesser amounts of mixtures
And then there some slightly more advanced versions, generally called the multi-processors and some up to 5 functions in one. Here are some examples...
But as multi-processors are a lot more expensive (usually costs about $150 and above), which is beyond our budget hence we narrowed our options to...
If you had read our first fruit gelato attempt (the dragonfruit entry), you would already know which was the winner. Yes, the Philips stand blender was our choice for 3 key reasons:
1. At 600W power, it can puree fruits of most density levels.
2. Comes with a filter that can sieve out the seeds if needed
3. Versatile enough to make us some juices and smoothies when we are not chillin ice-cream
And of course, it was at a very affordable price of $79 from Fair Price.
Braun was rejected due to some not-so-good reviews we read online about durability and it was also slightly more expensive at $99 (plastic version).
But to be honest, we were highly tempted by the Viva hand blender mainly because we thought it could've doubled up as a whisk when some recipes call for the cream or custard to be whisked to a certain form. But the disadvantage was that it may not be able to handle certain fruits hence defeating the objective of wanting an equipment that can make puree. So for now, the partner has to continue whisking the cream manually and maybe arm muscles may just result as a not bad by-product. haha!
Finally, kudos to our journey to be a more kitchen-savvy team!
