Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Russell Hobbs

Giveaway: Russell Hobbs Hand Blender x 2

One of the kitchen gadgets I find the most useful to have is a simple hand blender, which I use often to blend soups, smoothies and even sauces, such as Bolognese to make them easier for the little ones to eat. A hand blender is easy to store, takes up very little space in a drawer and is also quick to clean.

I reviewed the Russell Hobbs Desire range a little while ago. This time I have two Desire hand blenders worth £19.99 each to giveaway.

Desire Hand Blender

To enter, simply follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget below – click refresh if the widget doesn’t appear.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck

NB Unused products sent to me as part as a review package

Chocolate and Cherry Bites with the new Creations Kitchen Machine

This week I was invited to take part in a challenge set by Russell Hobbs to try out their new Creations Kitchen Machine. Russell Hobbs are hosting a champagne and cake party tonight in London to launch their new range of Creations food prep products. My challenge was to make something to the theme of a ‘Girls’ Night In’ using the new machine and the main ingredient had to be chocolate. Since English cherries are now at their best and in season, I decided to combine chocolate and cherries into these tasty morsels. Not quite a cupcake (you’ll notice the distinct lack of piled high buttercream) just an extra drizzle of chocolate with a fresh cherry compote. I think these would be a very welcome addition to a Girls’ Night In!Good luck to the other bloggers taking part tonight in the bake off and thank you to Russell Hobbs for sending me the Creations Kitchen Machine to try at home. We certainly had fun trying out the stand mixer and it seemed to enjoy mixing and making these chocolate and cherry bites!

Print

Chocolate and Cherry Bites

Ingredients

  • 225g light brown unrefined sugar
  • 4 large, free range eggs
  • 240ml mild, light olive oil or vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp fairtrade vanilla extract/essence
  • 200g self-raising flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 40g cocoa powder
  • 200g cherry compote or soft set cherry preserve
  • 100g dark or milk chocolate (to drizzle over the top)

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.
  2. Beat the soft brown sugar and eggs together for a few minutes, until pale and creamy.
  3. Slowly pour in the oil and beat again. Add the vanilla extract and mix in well.
  4. Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa into the mixture and carefully mix (with a metal spoon, not mixer) until it is all combined.
  5. Using a spoon or an ice-cream scoop, fill the paper cases with the chocolate cake batter to two-thirds full. Take a teaspoon and carefully drop half a teaspoon of fresh cherry compote or soft set cherry preserve into the centre of the batter in each case.
  6. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-18 minutes.
  7. Take the cakes out of the oven and leave them to cool.
  8. In the meantime, break up the dark chocolate and place it in a glass bowl over a pan with lightly simmering water in it to melt the chocolate. Once melted, using a teaspoon, drizzle some melted chocolate over the cakes. The more mess the better!

 

 

Please note: this post is not a review of the product nor is it an endorsement. I am still testing and trying it out and would usually give a product a longer testing run before posting my opinions about it. The Creations Kitchen Machine will be available from 21st July 2012 in Argos and has an RRP of £199. You can follow Russell HobbsUK on Twitter to keep up with the party tonight!

 

Russell Hobbs Desire 3 in 1 Hand Blender and Hand Mixer (RRP £47.98) Review and Giveaway

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 –

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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!

 

Russell Hobbs Desire Food Processor (RRP £54.99) – Review and Giveaway

I have been very busy testing the entire Desire Collection range of Russell Hobbs appliances. I have used quite a few appliances by Russell Hobbs in the past, in particular, during a competition they ran around Christmas to test their Allure products and come up with some recipes using them. I have to say, I was impressed by the quality overall and so it is nice to be able to have a play with the Desire range, too. The great news is that Russell Hobbs have also kindly offered a second set of products, so I will be hosting a 3-part giveaway for my Fabulicious Food! readers starting today with the Desire Food Processor. The appliances within the Desire range are matt black with red accents. The Desire Food Processor and Jug Blender has a 600W motor.

Space in my kitchen, as in most, is limited, so it is important to me to find products that do the job I want them to do, whilst taking up the least amount of worktop space.  The Desire food processor comes in three main pieces with the following features –

  • The main body (matt black) with a manual dial at the front.
  • Two interchangeable top pieces – the food processor (with red accents) and a 1.5 litre capacity blending jug (with a red bottom and lid).
  • In addition to this, you also get a number of accessories, such as a slicing disc, coarse grater, fine grater, a mixing blade that can be used for dough and a creamer that can be used for sponge cakes.
  • Two speed settings and a pulse function.
  • A small manual including two recipes.

Desire Blender

The jug blender is pretty standard – it will allow you to crush ice, blend soup and make dips or sauces such as pesto, easily.  The lids fits on very securely, as it has a thick layer of rubber around the lid, which I particularly like as it is safe for the kids to stand and have a go at without thinking that the lid will blow off. The jug blender has been a definite winner in our house – “Yay, Mummy, now we can make milkshakes every day!” In actual fact, it is great for a quick and healthy breakfast smoothies and it gets us well away from the temptation of sugary cereals. I have also used it to make a quick Hollandaise Sauce to coat some fresh British Asparagus. The only thing I have noticed is that in full speed, the blender jumps around a little. There are suction feet on the bottom – make sure they are stuck down!

Ren’s Recipe

Strawberry, Banana, Pear and Chocolate Milkshake/Smoothie

What you need –

10-12 fresh strawberries, hulled

2 ripe pears, peeled, chopped

1 banana, peeled, sliced

1 teaspoon hot chocolate powder

Handful of ice cubes

250ml whole milk

How to make –

Throw all the ingredients into a jug blender, blend until smooth, serve and drink immediately.

Desire Food Processor

Aside from the jug blender, you get a second 1.5 litre capacity processing bowl, also with a safety lock lid, though not rubber lined as with the jug blender.

With the discs in place, you can finely slice, shred and blend. You do get a little pusher piece so that you can push any pieces down the tube safely without putting your fingers anywhere near the blades.

There is a creaming disc that you can use to thicken cream, beat eggs and to cream eggs and sugar together to make cakes. I have found that this is fine when using the all-in-one method. But otherwise, use it to cream your butter and sugar together first, then your eggs and then simple mix your flour in with a spoon – otherwise the whisking action will be too harsh. I made one of our family favourites – Nigella’s Marmalade Pudding Cake – in it and it worked a treat. In fact, lots of Nigella recipes call for you to throw everything into a mixer, so this does the job perfectly.

It is also great for making quick summer salads – a great one is Polish classic carrot and apple salad (Surówka) – 3 carrots, one apple, a handful of sultanas, a teaspoon of lemon juice and a sprinkle of sugar and salt. The grater blades are fairly easy to interchange and once in place will shred and grate very quickly.

Overall Impression

All in all, the mixer isn’t too clunky in size, but I have found with food processors that you have to have space to keep them out on the work top otherwise they barely get used. Leaving mine out this week, we’ve used lots more fruit and have made smoothies every day for breakfast. Tonight, we’ll be having homemade pizza using the dough tool.

There is a Jug Blender on its own within the Desire Collection range, but for the sake of an additonal £17 if not less, you would be better off buying the Food Processor which comes with a Jug Blender as well as the Food Processing Bowl.

I was a little disappointed that there weren’t many recipes to try – just two in the manual – and the two links suggested in the book to follow to get more recipes don’t seem to link to any more…

Giveaway

Thanks to Russell Hobbs, I have one Desire Collection Food Processor to giveaway. Here’s how to enter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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!

Come back tomorrow for Part Two of the Russell Hobbs Desire Review and Giveaway!