KitchenAid KHB300BU Hand Blender, Cobalt Blue

KitchenAid KHB300BU Hand Blender, Cobalt Blue
by KitchenAid

List Price: ~~$129.99~~
Category: Kitchen
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Product Summary

Manufacturer: KitchenAid
Brand: KitchenAid
Model: KHB300BU
Color: Cobalt Blue
Product features:

Ergonomic, fashion-colored housing with no-slip grip
Includes wire whisk and nut chopper attachments
4-cup mixing beaker with snap-lock lid for storing foods
Accessory bag with drawstring keeps all components together
Measures 17 by 3 by 6 inches; 1-year, hassle-free, replacement warranty

Accessories:

Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of KitchenAid KHB300BU Hand Blender, Cobalt Blue

Customer Review: Best tool after a chef's knife
Summary: 5 Stars

Is this KitchenAid mixer worth the extra money above lower priced models? Yes, the blade placement is optimized in this model, together with the powerful and quiet motor, it makes a noticeable difference.

KHB100 and 300 use the same hand set (same motor); the only difference is the kit contents. KHB300 comes with a chopper and a whisk attachment in addition to KHB100, the basic immersion blender kit. (They all have the same instruction booklet and specs, except for the description of the kit contents.)

Is KitchenAid KHB300 worth the extra money above KHB100? Yes for me, and most likely yes for many others. The chopper is more powerful, quieter and faster chopping and easier cleaning than dedicated choppers of similar prices I've used. I don't really use the wisk attachment much but it works well and requires no more cleaning work than a regular wisk.

One obvious advantage of KitchenAid immersion blender is when making thick herbal sauces (like pesto) in a measuring cup. Because you hold the blender and press against the herb, you can puree a lot of herb with a small amount of liquid relatively easily. All you need to do is to remove thick stalks, and put the herbs in the measuring cup, put other ingredients, and blend, while you wiggle the blender a bit so that it grabs the herbs into the viscous liquid phase. If you do this in a chopper or a upright blender, you'll have to shake the chopper or push down the stuff in the blender so that the blade takes the herb in to the liquid phase. Even then, I could make thicker herbal sauces using this immersion blender than any other gadget I've used before, except for motor and pestle.

Another advantage of immersion blender is when making soups and stews, especially when thickened with roux. As a test, I simply cooked a couple tablespoons of flour in butter, and then added it to boiling broth, without loosening it first, and mixed with this blender to see how easy it is to make a uniformly thickened soup without any lumps. Piece of cake. Besides, it was very easy to make cream of broccoli soup without any large bit of broccoli, using this blender.

When using the immersion blender in a sauce pan or other relatively shallow vessel, it often helps to immerse the head while powered on with a slow speed (speed dial at 1), and also at an angle to the liquid surfce, and then speed up after the head is completely immersed. If you immerse the head before turning on, there can be some air trapped in the head that may cause big splatter in small containers. In large containers, with large volume of liquid, this is not a problem. When pulling the head, it's always best to turn off the blender before withdrawing.

KHB300 includes a mixing cup you can use with the blender attachment. This cup is made from cheap plastic and not very useful. You should find a pyrex or other heat resistant glass container, so that you can see how the ingredients are blended, and then take the vessel right on stove or microwave oven. For example, I could easily make bread dips by mixing garlic, hot pepper and olive oil, blend in the pyrex cup, heat up in microwave oven, mix with some more fresh olive oil, and pour it into plates. Some may prefer to use a glass jar with lids, to make sauce in a similar way and save the leftover.

Perhaps the largest criticism I have about KHB300 is its chopper attachment. The lid of the attachment is held in place by friction but this is very easy to get stuck and very often hard to remove after chopping the ingredients. The lid of the chopper attachment is a hollow structure, and water can leak into it during use and cleaning, and I don't know if there is a way to open up the lid to remove the leaked water. It is not a very good feeling to use this thing for cooking when I can hear the water when I shake the lid, yet I can't see it or remove it. These things need some improvement. (Addendum: a portable appliance consultant at KitchenAid Customer experience center responded to my email, and she described that the chopper attachment is not dishwasher safe and should not be immersed in water... so my lid has always been hand washed, but some water still went inside the lid... This needs improvement!)

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Description of KitchenAid KHB300BU Hand Blender, Cobalt Blue

Variable Speed Control dial on top of Blender

A great gift for those with small kitchens, this hand-held blender and its accessories take the place of several larger appliances. Included are a regular blending blade (which can be immersed 8 inches into soup pots or deep bowls), a wire whisk for beating eggs and batters, and an enclosed chopper for nuts, cheese, and fresh herbs. Also included are a four-cup mixing beaker with a snap-lock lid, useful for storing blended ingredients, as well as a drawstring bag to keep all the components together. KitchenAid covers the blender with a one-year, hassle-free replacement warranty. --Ann Bieri