The challenge of mixing ingredients with different textures can be approached several ways: ranging from basic flatware - 2 forks, or 2 dinner knives - to your food processor. Each of these has its pros and cons, enabling you to spend more or less time, with more or less precision … or you can choose a middle road: the pastry blender, giving more leverage to the physical process, and more control to the final product, of cutting in your butter, shortening or lard … assuring that you can achieve the dough you want: flaky pastry, or a crumb crust, without overworking the dough. And this is not just for pastry, but for any recipe that requires cutting or blending ingredients with different textures (think deviled eggs or guacamole).
The issues with pastry blenders are mostly about comfort - does your hand get tired using it? - but also about effectiveness - how well and how quickly does it cut the ingredients together? We’ve tried a bunch of pastry blenders and the Deluxe Pastry Blender from Cuisipro answers these questions extremely well!
