Knowing the vast knowledge and experience here ...
Wifey has announced that a food processor is all that is required to make life complete, which means yours truly fires up the usual sites (John Lewis, Amazon etc) for a gander. Seems these processors run from fifty pounds to the sky is the limit.
Any practical advice or experience, apart from banning Wifey from watching bake off? I'm not convinced she wants one for any particular job apart from pastry but, as she does a lot of home cooking for three people and we have a reasonably large kitchen, I see it sitting on the worktop ready for action.
Are the cheaper models a waste of time, or the expensive models full of gadgets no-one ever uses?
Pastry is quite a power hungry task to good mechanics in a must. Kitchen aid or Kenwoods reckoned to be good. Our Braun flying propeller type will just about make a pound of pastry (ie 1lb flour plus extra ingredients) but it does not sound happy in the process. All the other stuff, shredders and slicers never get used. I'd suggest a type with a basic power unit and buy just the add ons you need a la Kenwood Chef principle - do they still make that? Kenwood in Havant closed down years ago - poss made in chinky land now I prefer a hand held mixer for cakes and other light duty tasks.
I have had a Kenwood processor for some time, and it gives good service. Pastry making is almost magical - in literally seconds you have a lump of pastry ready for resting.
The other blades get occasional use - if I am doing a bulk cook and need to slice veg in quantity. For smaller amounts it isn't worth the washing up.
I have a Kenwood Chef for really heavyweight mixing, but have abandoned its liquidiser - a stick blender does a large pan of soup faster and with no mess.
We have a 18 yo wedding present Magimix, that has worked reliably all that time, and it gets lots of use. I've replaced the plastic lid and bowl over the years - dropping, or washing in the dishwasher (they do say that it might reduce the life of them).
So been very happy with it. Have a couple of slicing and grating blades which we use fairly often, but no other extra.
Not cheap (no idea of the price nowadays), but from our experience, recommended.
Friends of ours bought a Kenwood one a little while ago (food processor, not the mixer) which was cheaper, they seem happy with it.
A food processor isn't a very good food mixer and a poor pastry making device. Ideally you want a Kenwood Chef for bread/pastry/cakes etc and a Magimix 5100/5200 food processor for chopping/grating/slicing/soup making/mayonnaise manufacture.
Both machines should last 10-20 years, cheap ones won't.
We have a magimix - 10 years old and still going. It's the stainless steel body version. I use it to make scones on occasion - have tried pastry, but that usually gets mixed up on the Kenwood Chef or the hobart A200 (I run a small catering business and occasionally make somewhat large quantities compared to the usual home use)
I'm not impressed with the new Kenwood stuff - I have a Chef Major - about a year old. It's LOUD and the gearbox gets hot when running under load. We also have a K-Mix - its not so loud, but needed servicing after 4 years and the local service place we used was uttlery rubbish - in the end we complained to Kenwood directly and to their credit sent us a new one - via the repair shop.
However while the Chef continues on ... my Hobart is older than me and shows no signs of giving up - I have no faith in the modern Kenwoods (nor kitchen aids).
Interesting to see that the GBBO has switched to Kenwood from Kitchen Aid though... (K-Mixes)
You'll probably be OK for pastry in a Magimix, but get the top range one. (5200) and the box of bits - just in-case. They do have resetting thermal cut-outs which is good - I managed to overheat mine a few years back but that was after using it to juice a few 10's of kilos of apples...
Stuff you can use it for other than pastry - grating cheese, grating veg. if you like coleslaw. You can slice stuff but I've never tried. We have the citrus juicer - works very well, but for just one lemon/orange use your fist as cleaning is always an issue... The centrifugal juicer is OK but no-where as good as the auger one we now have.
Do not, under any circumstances follow Paul Hollywoods advice to try to make brioche dough in it. It will crawl up inside the blade and get everywhere.
We have a Magimix, it seems perfectly good food mixer for making cakes etc. (though no good for anything with fruit in as it would chop it up.), and it makes perfectly good pastry.
Yes, yes, both would be nice, but that another thing to buy and have around the place.
I don't tend to use it for soup making any more though, as a hand bender seem to do just as good a job with less washing up, transferring soup etc.
I had to go and lie down in a darkened room, having seen the price :-)
Thanks for all the comprehensive replies. Wifey is still cogitating, not so much on the make or model, but whether she would really use one enough to justify it taking space. My lips are sealed, knowing full well that both kitchens and sheds tend to gather 'stuff' that is extremely useful to have, even if rarely used ...
Case in point. As I type, Madam is making a lemon cake. Out comes the trusty little Mini Chef hand held mixer which is used almost daily, and has been for many a year, whereas bigger stuff tends to sit in a cupboard.
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