Specifically, how well do they handle making Divinity? Egg whites, hot syrup, beat for a long LONG time, Divinity?
My darling hubby bought me an Artisan (?325 watts?) Kitchen Aid mixer because I wanted one. Yay me, and all of that. It seems like a marvelous piece of equipment so far, but I have to confess I am just a little afraid of blowing it up. Two hundred some-odd bucks for a batch of Christmas candy seems just a wee bit freakin’ outrageous to my tightwad self, and to my extravagant self as well.
Over the years, I’ve murdered 13 mixers (12 hand held, one 25+ year old Osterizer) making Divinity in December. Only one failed me mid-batch, the others held on just 'til the fluffy end. I know I can buy Divinity, but mine is better. Trust me - a LOT better.
Do I risk it? Are KitchenAids really that good? Which paddle-thingy do I use? The whisk? Or do I go buy another cheapo handheld with malice aforethought?
I’m afraid that I don’t use a mixer as it takes up too much space in the old cabinets. However, I will say that KitchenAid mixers are very well regarded among my baking friends. They are known to last; your grandchildren may use it one day. Secondly, if you want quality, you need to pay for it. When you buy a fan, you buy a Hunter. When you buy a mixer, you buy KitchenAid. It’s written somewhere.
So accept the gift from your husband and make us all some of that Divinity so that we can judge whether or not your grandiose claims have merit.
I haven’t made divinity with mine, but I have rolled out pasta. It grunted and groaned, but it handled the mission.
If your divinity is that good, I would go ahead and use the Kitchen Aid. If it survives, great. If it doesn’t buy one of the big dogs next time (450 or 600 watts)
Have fun
Google “KitchenAid” “divinity” and you’ll find a few discussions online about making divinity with your KitchenAid.
Although, it does seem that there are a lot of different ideas as to what “divinity” is so perhaps some of the conversations you stumble upon won’t be for the exact thing you’re making.
But, according to this post and this one the cookbooks that come (came?) with the KitchenAid mixer come with a recipe for divinity…so that is a good sign.
Do let us know if it works out - mom has a KitchenAid and while i’ve never had divinity, it sounds delightful and I want to see if we can make it together.
I was going to invite you to come on by anytime, just to sample some of my divine Divinity, but then I noticed your location.
A few hundred miles, sure. Ohio to Nevada, not so much. It’s good, but it ain’t THAT good. Next time you’re west of the Rockies, I’ll whip you up a batch – assuming Kitchen Aid is up to the task, and someone else wanders into the thread to tell me which paddle to use. Rick and **Silenus ** are close enough to share their informed opinions, should they be divinity fans, if the mixer survives, and someone tells me whether or not to use the whisk.
Rick 600 watts? Ooh, shiny! I’ll bet that would make some tough damn muffins in a heart beat! (I was playi . . . I mean experimenting. Waste of blueberries.)
**ZipperJJ ** Follow the old stand-by Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook recipe, on a clear (low humidity) day. It’s best to make it on the second of three clear days, but the real secret is to be patient, pay attention, and wear a string of pearls. Fake is fine, but you must have the mojo that only pearls can provide.
One of my stepsons puts a pearl necklace in his pocket and another wears one pearl earring. The girls think it’s nonsense, but make crappy divinity. Mine is still the best, of course, but the boys are damn good. A proper level of cocky will substitute nicely, but you get that only after destroying three or four mixers.
KitchenAid makes several models with different sized motors. Last week I bought one at Costco with a 450Watt motor. KitchenAid has a customer service number 1-800-334-6889 from this page Customer Service
I swear by my KitchenAid mixer and have used it, problem free, for 20 years. And their customer service is great, too. They’ll answer any question.
I wouldn’t worry about burning out the motor–those things are built like brick sh*t houses. Enjoy!
I can give you some background on ancestral KitchenAid from my family. As an immigrant German family at the turn of the (last) century, they brought all the finest family recipes for everything but especially Christmas cookies. One such recipe is for Anise Drop cookies whereby a dozen or so eggs and some flour are whipped for most of an hour. Amittedly, the batter doesn’t turn to a very stiff dough but I was able to load it in a pastry bag and make perfectly round drops. The recipe then gets pretty weird but that’s another story.
Anyway, this mixer was was making Christmas cookies for my grandmother for decades before being handed off to my mom who then handed it off to me. After some 40 or so years I finally had to replace the glass mixing bowl but everything worked like a champ. Until the 40 Ounce Cheesecake.
I got a recipe for a genuine New York City cheesecake from the 1968 World’s Fair cookbook (still a prized possession!). The heart of this recipe is 5-8oz. blocks of cream cheese. That’s a lot of cream cheese. A LOT. I was still a bit green around the kitchen and never stopped to consider how dense or hard cold cream cheese is so I through the whole wad in the mixer and set 'er on whip.
The KitchenAid struggled valiantly against two and a half pounds of cold cream cheese before grinding and wheezing to a burn out. Very Sad. But it was a brave death in the line of duty and we buried it with honors.
Back to the OP, yes, I think these modern whippersnapper KitchenAids can take it. I bought a new one 1985 and it’s still going well and shows no sign of wear - not that I ever challenge it to 3 lbs. of cream cheese…
Ditto…my KitchenAid 325 watt is over 30 (probably closer to 40) years old and still runs and looks like new. I inherited it from my grandmother about 12 yrs ago. It is still 100% compatible with a new one, attachments and all. FTR, KitchenAid is the consumer name for Hobart, a staple in almost every commercial kitchen. I used to do Bench hand baking, mixing 50-100 lbs of dough at a time and we used a 70 year old Hobart mixer…
My modern one - the Costco all-metal-parts version - took on that much cream cheese without blinking, but I followed the directions and let the cream cheese come to room temp first.
Nope, not anymore. Hobart sold KitchenAid to Whirlpool in 1986. Read your specs carefully - some of the KitchenAids have plastic parts internally, instead of all metal.
I still have my great-grandmother’s K5-A, from 1941. It’s made probably 3000+ loaves of whole grain bread in its day, and it’s still going strong. MY KitchenAid could handle Divinity, but I’m not prepared to go on record for the current batch; I don’t know that I trust the new ones.
I’ve never made divinity, but I have made whole grain bread in my too-small-for-the-job 5 cup KitchenAid food processor. It overheated and shut down, but it was fine once it cooled down. My guess is that it would overheat before causing permanent damage.
It sounds like you’ve had it less than a year. Maybe it’s still under warranty if it does die?
I dunno what I did, but I’m on my second one, my first one having died a slow death after a mere twelve or fifteen years of use. The motor went. I could probably get it fixed, but the damn thing is so heavy that I can’t imagine it would cost less than $50 to ship it each way to a fixing facility, and then whatever they charge to fix it… I just bought a new 6 quart one, because I’ve been secretly coveting my mother’s big new mixer.
Chances are it was the brushes in the motor. The brushes are a very user friendly replacement. They are located in the two “screw out” plugs on the motor housing.
I’ve kneaded bread with mine that was so dense I had to put the mixer on the floor because it walked around too much. Now, I wouldn’t have done two batches in a row, as the motor got pretty hot, not to mention that the bowl got screwed on VERY TIGHT, but it didn’t have a problem with it.
I convinced my wealthy ex to buy a Kitchen Aid Mixer (specifically because I love my homemade Divinity but HATE to make it with hand held mixers). It does come with a recipe but I used my own. The results were not great but I must admit I only have about a 70% positive result with my own hand held mixer and I only got one attempt before we broke up.
(God I miss that mixer.)
Sometimes it sets up perfectly and others it looks like pecan polar bear poo.
I have burned up several cheapie mixers every Christmas but I think I will give it another shot this week.
Rick and **Silenus ** are close enough to share their informed opinions, should they be divinity fans, if the mixer survives, and someone tells me whether or not to use the whisk.
Read your specs carefully - some of the KitchenAids have plastic parts internally, instead of all metal.