Monday Musing: On My New Mixer

Last night's recipe failed. Part of it was my fault. The recipe calls for a 15"x10" pan. As far as I can tell, no such pan exists or has ever existed. I used a 13"x9" quarter sheet cake pan and because I didn't reduce the proportions, that's where things went awry. The crust layer was too thick, the middle cream cheese layer didn't set properly and the top lemon filling layer didn't set at all. It ended up tasting great but it wouldnt' win a beauty pageant. Instead of a lemon bar, it was more like a lemon dessert, to be eaten on a plate with a fork.

But with that said, the mixer didn't work exactly as I planned either. The cream cheese layer was supposed to be mixed until creamy but there were still small chunks of cream cheese. I think this could be solved with my latest purchase, the Side Swipe (pictured below). It's a replacement for the flat beater that scrapes the side of the bowl down with silicon fins as it mixes. Because it's constantly in contact with the bowl I'm hopeful that it will do a better job mixing. Unfortunately, it's back-ordered with an estimated shipping date of March 23 for the attachment that fits my mixer, so we'll have to wait until then to test it out.


With that said, I'm not sure the role I see for the mixer in my kitchen. I generally prefer hand mixing things. I like the control and being able to feel when a recipe is coming together, which you don't get with a mixer. However, I'm reserving judgment until I make bread dough with the mixer. The weather is just getting to be the right mixture of heat and humidity for proper rising and I'm hoping the cold front we're forecast to get on Wednesday doesn't ruin this.