Customer Reviews

KitchenAid White 12-Cup 700 Watt Ultra Wide Mouth Food Processor

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I've had this a few weeks, and I'm still blown away by how well it works, and how easy and intuitive it is to use.

The only food processesor I've used is a small one I got about 7 years ago. It was such a hassle to use and clean that I rarely used it.

Now that I have carpal-tunnel-like problems with my hands and arms, I really needed something that could do some of the work for me.

In early November I bought a Kitchenaid hand mixer (9-speed Pro) and was thrilled. After doing some research on the Kitchenaid stand mixers I was planning to get one for Christmas. Instead, I saw the great price on this item, and once I saw the wide mouth I bought it immediately.

I'm so glad I did. I pulled it out of the box right away, took a quick look at everything included, took it to my kitchen (it IS heavy!) and plugged it in. Without reading the manual I was using it within 2 minutes. Amazingly intuitive.

The power blows me away. I filled the large bowl with graham crackers, hit pulse, and had crumbs in just a few seconds.

Since then I've used it to juice oranges and lemons - something I haven't been able to do for years because of my hand/arm problems. In just a few minutes I had 3 cups of orange juice. The design of the citrus juicer is incredible, you put the half orange/lemon/lime over the juicer, then there is a big part that goes over the top of it, just press that down, hit pulse, and you're done. You don't have to control the orange/lime/lemon, it does that for you. You could even put your forearm on it to press it down, it's that easy. Very little pressure required, and no fine finger manipulation needed.

The other great thing is that it is as easy to clean as it is to use. I've used the big bowl, the little bowl, the juicer and two of the blades. All were effortless to clean. I used the little bowl yesterday to chop cranberries, and expected that I would have to clean the big bowl too. (the smaller bowl sits in the big bowl) But no, the big bowl was spotless. I don't know how they did it - but they did.

Using these two Kitchenaid appliances has made me realize that my other appliances really don't work that well, something I didn't know until I found something that blew them away.

It has a permanent place on my kitchen counter. It's good I have room for it, because it *is* too heavy for me to lift, that's that's the only downside.

I can honestly say, this and the hand mixer have given me back the ability to bake, something I thought was lost forever.

If you are like me, who makes chinese dumplings (jiao zi) from scratch for 5 people, you would understand how much work it involves. First, make dough with flour, water, and egg (30 minutes of hard work); Second, chop chop chop, mince mince mince, all the vegetable (celery, cabbage, ginger, ...) (30 minutes); By the time I start the fun part of work, i.e, rolling out wrapping/skin, and make dumplings, I am already exhausted.

This is no longer the case with this food processor! First, use the dough blade, make dough. This takes about 2 - 4 minutes. While this tough guy is working hard, I wash the vegetable. Second, get the dough out, start chopping the vegetable -- I don't even need to wash the bowl, nobody would notice anything in my final product.

I admit it still takes time to do this, about 15 minutes. But aside from the time saving, I am not at all tired after preparation. And yes, the food processor does not mince the vegetable as evenly and beautifully as we human beings do. However, nobody complained or even noticed this when my family is enjoying the dinner.

Tips: 1. Use 4 cups of flour and 1.5 cups of water. This amount is perfect for this processor and the ratio is perfect for dumpling dough. In the first 2 minutes of blending, you might think the mixture is too dry and be tempted to add water. But this will turn out to be perfect eventually. After the dough is done, move it to some other place and cover it with a piece of damp cloth. Let it stay for 30 min to 1 hour before starting making dumplings. This little rising time will make the skins more flexible when you wrap it, and dumplings would be easier to digest. 2. Process only a small batch of vegetable each time. And do not over-process.

This food processor is very impressive. I mostly use it for baking, and it has exceeded my expectations. Cleaning the unit is easy: hand washing is not a problem, nor is the dishwasher, although given the size of the unit, it is probably easier to wash by hand than occupy half of the dishwasher. The price from Amazon with the 25 off of 125 promotion and free shipping ended up being $104, which is a great deal. Yes it is the QVC special (no egg whip or second large bowl--'chef' bowl?), but for the difference in price, I am very pleased.