Welcome Back
Today I’d like to share a picture of a little wonder of science and engineering and what may just change your life, like it did mine. Introducing the Kenwood Chef!
Kenwood Chef
Here’s the thing, between various health issues, what little baking I once did, I am no longer able to do. Result, I’ve been stuck on processed stuff for too long. It’s not great but there weren’t options. Then after a life laundry, I sold a bunch of archery equipment that had been sitting in the loft for YEARS since my dexterity first failed a bit over ten years ago. The budget this created, I used to purchase this little Kenwood gem, the Kenwood Chef KM336, thanks Amazon for GREAT pricing!!!
I am not the next Delia (after a nasty incident trying to make gnocchi! Took ages to get potato off the kitchen units grrr!!) but a budding Lorraine Pascal perhaps or maybe an Express Nigella! I’m looking for basic, filling and EASY, not posh n fancy stuff. I have made a lovely crumble mix that would have taken ages to create (and locked my hands for days), really easily in the Kenwood. Can’t wait to explore the possibilites of this machine.
Try not to laugh and I’ll share my baking goals;
- Pies. I wanna make easy fruit or vegetable pies
- Cakes. Get back to making sponges
- Bread. Heard this machine can make bread, it would be good to give this a try once my confidence improves.
- Cookies I LOVE biscuits
- Sweets Little things for gifts
My longer term plan is to have a good practice during the coming year, so that perhaps baked goods for gifts for special friends may be possible. Just bought the ‘Good Housekeeping; The Baking Book’ and there are lots in there to get going with. The machine also came with a recipe book and a DVD about all the attachments. Another DVD with the recipes from the book, its searchable and you can print the recipes out too, no more mashing books into a photo-copier 😉
If you have someone in the family who has had to give up baking because of dexterity issues, do consider clubbing together as a family this holiday and getting them one of these machines. Not meaning to winge but when your body and hands in particular don’t work so well, you get fed up of either having to constantly ask others for help, or worse still give up because you just can’t do things anymore. If you have the worktop space to leave this out its ideal. Now when you want to mix something you can, there are LOADS of attachments that will give you back the independence you may have been loosing.
There’s even a thing that peels potatoes for you! I just about manage as there are just two of us, but it involves sticking a fork into the raw potato and I have to use a particular peeler. I wouldn’t manage if there were lots of us. There are grater’s and grinders mincer’s and so much more. The one thing you can’t use with this machine is the Food Processor attachment, because it doesn’t have the right attachment on the top of the machine. The chopping attachment does some of what the food processor attachment would, just doesn’t have the ‘S’ shaped blade kind of option.
Check out Amazon for great price savings and give someone you love the gift of baking this holiday season.
Best wishes and thanks for reading see you soon
Billie 🙂 🙂 🙂
PS. It comes in a huffing BIG box! So if it is a family gift from lots of you, it will still look amazing! Then there’s many more years of present options, with all the attatchments…just saying 😉
PPS: When I’ve had some time to play with the Kenwood, I’ll post up a review if you like? Let me know in your comments, as I still want to keep this a paper craft blog not a cookery one 😉 Can’t belive how many different directions this blog has taken over the last 4 years!
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Hope your DH doesn’t become jealous of the new love in your life lol. So happy for you that this machine will give you your much needed independence and that you will soon be baking away to your hearts desire 🙂
Hugs
Lynn xx
PS Our daughter recently bought herself a bread making machine and the bread does taste delicious with very little effort – no more kneading the dough for hours just put all the ingredients into the machine, switch on and press a button and later there is a lovely small loaf of bread – simples 🙂
Thanks Lynn
I’m getting on really well with it and we have treated ‘Kenny’ to some little extras thanks to Argos having a half price on acessories and we had a £20 voucher to use up on there 🙂 Then John Lewis had big discount on the Mini Mill I fancied so that came home too.
DHs quite gadety so he’s liking Kenyy too.
Bread machines are fab aren’t they, we had one and loved it. Sadly when it expired we haven’t yet replaced it. There only being so much worktop space available and all that. We want to get another one sometime tho, as you say nice n simple to get good results with them.
One tip for your daughter tho, in time the non stick properties of the paddle in bread machines tend to wear off. We ended up loosing half the middle of loaves taking out the paddle at the end. If you have that trouble you can buy replacement paddles from the makers of the machines. Once we did that, normal service resumed 🙂
Has she tried fruit bread stuff it it yet? We never got our nerve up to do that but wanted to. There are also lots of doughs that the machines make and you finish in the main oven to have more options of types of breads.
🙂
Oooo, that is a beautiful machine! I’m quite jealous! 🙂
Amazon have had some superb offers on the machine. I went for this over the Prospero as the Prospero had controls/buttons that I struggled to operate with my dexterity issues. This also has more options for acessories as time goes on.
Its a better deal than the Kmix which has less tools to expand upon and this has the better motor too 😉
Hey Billie!!
LOVE that Kenwood – magickal, they are. I completely agree with you about it being easier to accesorise – you can’t beat quality and that’s the Kenwood all over! I do hope you have a go at bread and these take all the effort out of making wondrous desserts like pavlovas, too.
I think your boxes are awesome and what a lovely neighbour you are!
Thanks for December’s calendar – that will now get printed out and go on the kitchen cupboard for everyone to write on! I have over 6 months’ worth sellotaped together and will be filing them at the end of this year to show records. It’s a great way to remind yourself what happened when, etc. and I put all my hours up that way too!!
Still no luck for us on the moving front at the moment – will we ever get away from Cornwall??? 😉
Hi Rosie
How have you fared in all the wet? SO many poor people flooded out its terrible isn’t it.
Glad you like the calendars, hope to get some more photos for next year. Got lots of nice texture type ones 🙂
Happy (nearly) holidays
Billie x
I got a Kenwood Chef last Year and in all honesty I have no Idea how I ever managed anything without it.
Totally agree with you. Had a go at pastry with the K beater and my neighbours recipie, turned out the best pastry I’ve ever made.