Alternatives to Food Processors

[510dat]

Being on a student budget means I don't have the money to go out and buy a food processor, but lots of the recipes here require one. I don't know how I can make butter and flour "fluffy" by hand.

Are there any practical alternatives, or am I stuck?

[jeff]

Hamilton Beach 6-cup Bowl Food Processor at Kmart

buy this and call it a day.

You can go with a cheaper one (14.99) but I've had great luck with the hamilton food processors. its the best darn little tool for the price range. no doubt not the best thing out there but I do stand behind this product with it being the best bang for the buck processor.

[510dat]

You think it could be used as a mixer?

[jeff]

Originally Posted by 510dat

You think it could be used as a mixer?

I guess that depends on what you use a mixer for =)

As for making mixed drinks, the ice might hurt the blade, I bet if you were to use crushed ice to start with, it might work out well.... "might". don't hold me to it.

[aargnzarf]

what recipes, specifically, do you want to make?

[510dat]

Nothing specific right now, but it's usually a cookie or baked good recipe. There's all kinds of tempting recipes out there, but they often have statements like "take your two sticks of butter, box of cream cheese, a pound of oats etc etc and simply throw it in your food processor until smooth..." Which is great unless you don't have a processor. Doing said mixing by hand takes most of an hour and leaves my hand begging for mercy.

[jeff]

Bah please don't do that!
Use a mixer and do what's called the creaming method.
Baking Basics

too bad I never did get around to writhing that (other thread)

Pretty much you want to take butter that's just under room temperature (mid to high 60s and mix it with the sugar, the sugar crystals pierce the butter and make for a fluffy mixture. once its mixed together you add your wet stuff like eggs...

here's a clip from wikipedia

Creaming, in cooking, is the technique of blending dry ingredients — usually granulated sugar — together with a solid fat like shortening or butter. The technique is most often used in making cake batter or cookie dough. The dry ingredients are mixed or beaten with the fat until it becomes light and fluffy and increased in volume, due to the incorporation of tiny air bubbles. These air bubbles, locked into the semi-solid fat, remain in the final batter and expand as the item is baked, serving as a form of leavening agent.
Butter is the traditional fat for creaming, but vegetable shortening serves as a more effective leavener for a number of reasons. The low melting point of butter means it aerates best at temperatures cooler than most kitchens (18°C/65°F), while shorting works best at higher temperatures. Because of the coarser crystalline structure of its fat, butter allows larger air bubbles to form than shortening; large bubbles can rise in and escape from thin batters. Also, most shortening is made with preformed nitrogen bubbles and bubble-stabilizing emulsifiers, both of which enhance its leavening ability.

Creaming - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

P.S To the best of my knowledge fat is wet and sugar is also considered to be a wet item. So wikipedia isn't fully right on this topic. They've been known to be wrong in the past. Yams and Sweet potatoes come to mind as something they also missed.

[aargnzarf]

I concur... cookies should not be made in the food processor! :] Creaming method=important, and good.

If you need an equipment fix come over and use my stand mixer. It is the sexy. I'd say you could borrow it, but do you really want to lug it around?

If you are looking for a Kitchen Aid for a good price Amazon usually has sales every so often on the refurbished ones. And if you pick up a less popular color or overstocked color, like white, you can get it for even cheaper.