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ignore the naysayers: some of the best money I have ever spent
These attachments make fresh home made pasta a complete doddle. Using this add-on for the food grinder further extends the usefulness and flexibility of the superb KitchenAid mixers.
As for the bad reviews, the only way I can imagine someone damaging their mixer with this attachment is if they make the pasta too wet - the pasta dough looks like bread crumbs, as if it was barely damp flour - or if someone takes the instructions too literally - in the instructions it says to use pieces of pasta dough "the size of a walnut": if you grab some of the dough and squash it all up to make a walnut-sized lump I could see it damaging the mixer motor. I just dropped the dough crumbs "as is" into the grinder and the pasta flew out the end :)
To make your pasta healthier, use egg beaters instead of eggs (drastically reduces the cholesterol) and swap out some of the AP flour for resistant starch (reduces the glycaemic index), and enjoy your healthier fresh pasta!
[Tuesday, September 09, 2008]
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Thanks a million!
I teach pasta making classes on a regular basis and have always used a hand cranked pasta machine. Last week a friend brough over his KA rollers for me to try. We attached them to my KA mixer, and WOW! It was incredibly easy and made the absolute best textured pasta I've ever had - EVER!
I was so excited by the thought of being able to make extruded pastas with these plates I was going to jump on here and buy them right away --- that is until I read all these horrible reviews. THANK YOU EVERYONE!! I guess I'll stick with my fettucine, linguine and lasagna and buy the wonderful rollers instead!
[Friday, June 27, 2008]
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Nice idea; looks good, but doesn't work too well & will kill your mixer!
I was eager to try this gadget out last night with my new mixer and food grinder attachment, so I followed the Basic Pasta Recipe in the manual. After letting the dough rest for 15 - 30 mins by the cool window-sill (didn't have space in my fridge), I hooked up the attachments with the spaghetti plate, set the mixer at Speed 10 according to the instructions and dropped a walnut-sized dough ball into the chute. It took a while for the dough to extrude and eveything stuck together. I tried to sprinkle flour as it came out but it was difficult, since the strands hung straight down. Even when I lifted them up to dust them, they were still stuck together. I tried a few more times, shutting down the mixer every few minutes as the motor was getting really hot. I thought the problem would be resolved by using the fettucine plate (thicker strands), but the strands still stuck together since the "holes" were placed vertically. My Heavy Duty Plus mixer was burning up and I didn't want to "kill" it, so I stopped the machine, put the dough and srands in a Ziploc bag and threw it into the fridge. I had had enough - there was flour all over the counter and mixer from trying to dust the extruding strands which didn't help make them "unstick" at all; and clean up was even worse. I spent more time trying to get the dough out of crevices, the plates, and even the grinder cover than I did on making only a small portion of pasta from the dough! The only thing I like about this set is the bowl clips and that might be the only reason I would keep this set, since I got it for less than half the price at another store during a sale. This morning I decided to have egg noodle soup for lunch, so I boiled the spaghetti and fettucine strands separately from the soup. They tasted great! The rest of the dough - I guess I'll have to roll it out and cut it manually. Note: I added 1/2 tsp baking powder to the flour to make the pasta/noodles lighter and more airy in texture. The problem could be with my recipe, but that doesn't fix the burning motor problem, so I would recommend using a manual pasta machine or the pasta roller/cutter attachments rather than burning up your mixer.
[Wednesday, June 04, 2008]
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