>From: "Scullery Maid" <scullerymaid@hotmail.com>
>Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2000 12:48:32 CST
>Subject: NY Times review of new Cuisinart
>
>I've received several e-mails from readers wanting more information about
>the NY Times review of the new C'art food processor with the special dough
>cycle. As of today (Nov. 1) the article is still available on the web at
>http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/11/living/11KITC.html
>
>-Mary B.
Thanks Mary!!
Here is the article so no one has to pay for retrieving it from the
archives...
Test Kitchen: An Old Pro Learns Some New Tricks
By FLORENCE FABRICANT
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/11/living/11KITC.html
HE Cuisinart's profile, so familiar for more than 25 years, has had a
curvaceous makeover. The latest model, the PowerPrep Plus, has a sleek
white rounded base instead of an angular one. Also new are touch-pad
buttons, which replace levers, and a work bowl made of clear, not smoky,
plastic. The feed tube, originally in the front, is there again.
But this new machine is not just comelier. A new setting has been added,
for mixing and kneading yeast doughs, and a reconfigured stainless-steel
dough blade has replaced the barely adequate plastic one.
Over the years, there have been subtle changes in the machine, which was
introduced in 1973. Machine capacity grew from 7 cups to 14, the feed tube
was moved to the back on many models, the motor was strengthened and the
pulse button was added. But this is the first time a new feature has been
incorporated into a total redesign.
So, do I spend more than $300 on the new model and wind up with two food
processors, or consign my reliable DLC-7 Super Pro to a thrift shop? (It
would be nice if I could trade it in, like a used car.)
As a baker, I would probably spring for the PowerPrep Plus. While the new
machine performs much the same as my 15- year-old one, the added dough
setting and the curved but blunt metal dough blade are most effective. I
tried a heavy yeast bread recipe, one calling for six cups of flour, and
the blade and setting handled it beautifully, kneading the dough in 45
seconds.
"We wanted to refine the machine for the high-end user, for hobbyist
cooks," said Kerry Cooper, the senior marketing manager for food processors
at Cuisinart, which has its headquarters in Stamford, Conn. "We worked with
Charles van Over to engineer the dough setting and the blade."
Mr. van Over is the author of "The Best Bread Ever" (Broadway Books, 1997),
which outlined the connection between temperature, time and oxidation in
bread baking. Mr. van Over came up with virtually foolproof food processor
methods. Some of his recipes are in the instruction booklet.
With the new dough setting, dough is mixed and kneaded at 1,350 r.p.m.'s
instead of 1,750 at the regular setting. At the slower speed there is less
aeration, Mr. Cooper said, "so you get a better mix and your dough is much
more tolerant if you happen to use a little too much liquid."
Because the work bowl capacity and the blade housing are the same in the
new model and in my old machine, I tried mixing the six-cup bread recipe in
the old model, using the new dough blade. The machine struggled. I finished
the recipe in the new machine. A pizza recipe using just three cups of
flour came out about as fine using the new dough blade in my old machine as
in the new one.
I also found that walnuts pulsed with the regular metal knife blade on the
slower dough setting came out more evenly chopped than they did on the
regular, faster speed; another bonus for a baker.
The Cuisinart PowerPrep Plus, with a suggested retail price of $425, is
sold in many housewares stores for around $325. The dough blade, which
comes with the machine, can be bought separately for $30.