"Cadie" > wrote in message
news:XqQzc.57007$HG.12189@attbi_s53...
> Any particular reason why I shoudn't use my stand mixer when it calls
> for hand mixing?
>
> Most of my recipes say "stir/mix" with spoon until
> blended/creamy/whatever else. I have a 16 month old little boy who
> loves to run around the house, so being able to use the stand mixer
> and cut down the time it takes me to bake (I'm a horrible hand mixer,
> no arm strength, I guess) would help out a lot.
>
> Yeah, yeah, probably a stupid question, but I'm new to cooking from a
> cookbook... I'm trying to stray away from the expensive boxed mixes
> now and do things from scratch, and I got a stand mixer as a gift.
>
>
The only things inappropriate for machine mixing are things that need to be
folded into batters - whipped cream, meringue and so forth - without being
deflated. Otherwise the stand mixer is fine. You can give a batter the
same amount of mixing in a machine that you do by hand.
Let's look at cakes in which we don't want to develop the gluten in the
flour. Use the creaming method. That means cream the butter in the mixer,
then add the sugar and salt. Add any other ingredients except for the flour
and baking powder. Save those for the end of the job and mix them enough to
incorporate, not enough to develop gluten. Pour it into the pans and into
the oven. You'll get soft, moist cakes this way.
I mix almost everything with a stand mixer. Really dense doughs like
biscotti are really faster to do by hand so I do that but I could do it in
the mixer with dough hook if I wanted to. I always beat meringues in the
mixer but fold them into the batter by hand. Same with whipped cream. So
when I make chocolate mousse, as an example, I melt the butter and chocolate
together and then temper the yolks and add them in and set this aside. I
beat the whites into meringue and the cream into whipped cream with the
stand mixer. Then I mix it all together by folding the whipped ingredients
into the chocolate mixture. Use common sense. You'll find a way to mix
most things with the mixer. Take care.
Fred
Foodie Forums
http://www.foodieforums.com