I’m back to road test the Russell Hobbs Desire Collection. Yesterday, I wrote about the Desire Food Processor and hosted a giveaway, today I am featuring the Desire 3 in 1 Hand Blender and the Desire Hand Mixer. The Russell Hobbs Desire collection is matt black in colour with red accents. I think of all the range, this combination of products are the two I am most likely to use on an everyday basis.
Desire 3 in 1 Hand Blender
I find that 3 in 1 one hand blenders are great because you get one main piece/handle (fitted with a cord) with three different attachments – all of them useful for different jobs for faster food preparation.
The first attachment is an electric whisk. You would mainly use this for whisking double or whipping cream, or perhaps for whisking together eggs and sugar if you were making a custard. Really, any occasion where you would ordinarily use a manual balloon whisk, but want to save yourself the hassle of standing there and whisking for a while.
The second (middle attachment in the picture above) is a wand with a blade – essentially a whizzer (that you can either use with the plastic beaker provided) or stick straight into a pan of whatever you are cooking to puree or pulse. I always use my stick blender to whizz my Bolognese sauce, a trick which I find makes the sauce more palatable and less lumpy for kids. To do this with a stick blender, you simply cook your Bolognese sauce and then use the stick blender to pulse the meat just three or four times. You aren’t trying to get a puree (unless you are weaning) you are just using the stick blender to breakdown some of the meat. You can, of course, use the stick blender to make purees for babies, or you could use it to make a super-quick smoothie, a blended soup or to puree or remove the lumps from a sauce.
The third attachment is a kitchen genius – the chopper. Using the same main handle, you screw the handle onto the bowl lid with the chopper blade in place and you have a mini-chopper. This has a multitude of uses. I use mine to finely chop nuts, make pesto, whizz biscuits to make a cheesecake base or to make quick homemade breadcrumbs out of stale bread.
I have found the 3 in 1 Hand Blender to be so useful in the kitchen. It is easy to use and all three parts make life much easier when preparing food.
You get a small, basic instruction manual - sadly only with one recipe, a coriander pesto, the same recipe that came with the food processor! There are more recipes on the Russell Hobbs website.
Desire Hand Whisk
I have decided to feature these two items side by side because I found that they take up minimal space, but between them have the most functions and uses. I don’t think I could be without an electric hand whisk in my kitchen. I have tried (and still use) a Russell Hobbs Allure Hand Blender that was sent to me to test. The Desire Hand Whisk I found to be a little more basic (it doesn’t have a nicely back-lit electric display) but it is more than half the price (£17.99 versus £39.99). In any case, the Desire Hand Whisk is sturdy and has a flat base so that when you have finished whisking you can stand it to one side. It has five speed settings and means that you can whizz up a cakes, bakes and biscuits pretty pronto. If you want to try your hand at making bread or perhaps a pizza dough, the whisk also comes with a two dough hook attachments.
Again, a small manual is included with one recipe for biscuits!
Not my manicured hand!
Giveaway
Time for your chance to win both products -
Discloure: I was sent the Russell Hobbs Desire Collection range to test/review along with a second set to giveway. No incentive was given to write a positive review. All opinions are my own. No monetary compensation was received in order for this product to be featured on Fabulicious Food!
Part Three of my Russell Hobbs Desire Collection Giveaway is still to come.
Enter to win a Desire Food Processor here!
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Ren Behan
Ren Behan is a British-born food writer of Polish descent. She is a mum to two young children (6 and 3) and spends lots of time with them in the kitchen. Ren writes about seasonal, family-friendly food on her blog www.renbehan.com and about Polish food on her site www.mypolishkitchen.co.uk. She also contributes recipes and articles to online and print food publications. Ren holds a Diploma in Food Journalism with Distinction and has completed a Food Styling course at Leiths School of Food and Wine. Full Profile on Google+
Make mayonnaise – so easy with a stick blender
i would use it to make meringues with fresh cream and strawberries!
I would use it for chopping biscuits for cheesecake & blending soups
I use mine amongst other things to remove lumps from custard or gravy!
I’d use them to whisk up the ingredients when I’m baking cakes, (which I do a lot of, with a spoon at the moment)
I like your idea of whizzing the Spag Bol to romove “bits” – it seems lots of my cooking has bits and is inedible so I reckon will be very useful!
I’d make curry pastes.
A Pavlova, I could whisk up the egg whites, and also the cream with it
I’d use the blender to prepare meatballs and make the tomato sauce
I would use it to blend soups, my kids love soups!
@Dorothee77
I would use the hand whisk for mixing cakes
Making cupcakes!
Whisking egg whites so I don’t have to wash my kitchenaid twice when baking. I would also use it to chop nuts and blitz biscuits if required for a recipe.
I would initially use it to mix Cambridge diet sachets…I lost 8 stone to help me conceive my little boy whilst having fertility treatment, unfortunately gained a lot having him and so would like to do it again and fit back into all my lovely small ‘new’clothes that I only wore for a few months as got pregnant. I would also use it to make some fabulous recipes for my son to eat, he loves his food and is as yet unfussy!
I would love to give my porridge a good “once over” with this little beauty. At the moment I pour the cooked porridge into my blender to make it silky smooth – this would save all the washing up.
I would use it to blend the babyies food – much better and cheaper than using jars of baby food all the time.
Hummous
Soups and cakes, not at the same time though!
Ahh, I want that hand blender. We use ours all the time but it has only the blender and doesn’t detach so it is a pain to clean. We use it for soups, which we make a lot. The mini chopper looks great and I’d use that for nuts and possibly chocolate!
Firstly, I would use it for soups. I make a fab homegrown tomato and red pepper but I know I need to try other recipes, branch out a little bit! I’m thinking something potatoey and warming (it’s the rain tricking me into wanting comfort food!)
I’d use it for making cakes, would save me a lot of wrist ache, today I made 80 cupcakes and two big cakes for a coffee morning
making yummy vegetarian soups
a lemon meringue pie! got a craving for one at the moment …
I would use it wherever I would have needed a wooden spoon. Getting old I find mixing by hand is becoming very difficult. Oh and the chopper I would use for garlic as I can never get them finely chopped by hand.
I’d use it for cakes and biscuits.
I’d use it when making cakes
Some delicious little fairy cakes
What a great giveaway…I could really use these! They look fab too!
P.S I’d use it to make Meringues too!
I would make cakes first
HI Ren, I would make a lovely meringue topping for some pie, or just whip up some cream to enjoy with strawberries whenever the sun comes out!
Anything to do with egg-whites! I have pathetic arm muscles and whisking them by hand just leaves me exhausted! I swear, meringue is a health-hazard!
I would use the hand mixer to make extra batches of plain cupcakes to put in the freezer. (ideal for icing and decorating at a later date)
I’d use to to make scrummy smoothies for my 19 month old! He loves fruit and think it’d be great to be more inventive with it for him
I would make pancakes, my 2 year old is crazy for them at the moment
i’d use them to whisk up the ingredients when I’m baking cakes
I would make Slimming World’s chocolate log with the whisk and Slimming World Colcannon with the blender!
With such cool equipment in your kitchen, there’s less excuse for sticking to a diet because it’s easier to make different recipes all the time, so you don’t get bored or stuck in a rut!
Tomato soup!
Gosh so many things. Definitely pavlova, cake, more cake, soup, smoothies … getting hungry now!
Ooh I’d use it for everything! During the week it’d be breakfast smoothies, homemade soups for lunch and sauces for dinner (so many options!) and then at the weekend I’d indulge my love of baking – cupcakes, sponge cake, pavlova, cheesecake, brownies… mmmmmm
It would be invaluable for egg dishes and sauces.
Would be simple pancakes for me
I would use it to make my daughter a chocolate cake
What wouldn’t I use it for! The hand blender I bought when my daughter was a baby has given up the ghost and I didn’t realise how much I used it. Soups are impossible without one.
I would use it to make soups.
I would use it to make soups
I would use it for mixing up cakes, I love making cakes
My hand whisk is on it’s last legs, it is making a funny noise. I use it all the time and if I won a new one I would make a lovely Victoria Sponge to celebrate!
I’d make a Hazelnut cake, the 3 in 1 would take all the work out of grinding the hazelnuts and the hand whisk would make the batter in no time. Lovely with icecream and fruit!
I’d make a healthy soup with the hand blender and then a cake with the hand mixer!
I think it would be really good to use to make soup!
I’d make the fluffiest most loveliest most whitest meringues – love love love meringues but u cant make them without a powerful whisk – do u think this could handle the job? LOL
The 3in1 blender will be used daily to make my finger licking curries.
The hand whisk would be an absolute treat for my 12 year old daughter, she loves baking, cup cakes, birthday cakes, by the time it comes to making buttercream icing her arm aches. Bless she doesn’t stop till the jobs done.
I would use it to make my families favorite lemon cupcakes!
Thank you!
Amanda
avalenti6936 at yahoo dot com
I’d use it to create all sorts of soups, sauces and baby foods!
Mayonnaise from our own chickens eggs
A Lemon Meringue Pie
Fantastic – thanks very much for your review, haven’t come across a 3 in 1 before – it sounds brilliant! I use my 1 in 1 (!) for soups mostly but I’d use this to make a strawberry cheesecake. Think the chopping part sounds very useful!
I would use it to make fruit smoothies to get used to it and then use it to do all the jobs that take me ages with a hand whisk at the moment! @Bobbity666
mixing cake mixture
for blending soups, sauces and delicious health shakes