Reader Amy just sent us a great tip for the holidays and all those nuts you're probably chopping this time of year. It has to do with a very seldom-used tool in our kitchen: the pastry blender.
I have actually been thinking about getting rid of my pastry blender; I tend to just use a fork or my fingers to blend biscuit and pie pastry. (Not to mention the food processor!)
But then Amy sent this tip, and I've already used it and liked it so much that it might convince me to hold onto my pastry cutter!
While preparing a crunch topping for sweet potatoes this Thanksgiving, I realized you could use a pastry cutter to chop nuts. I used it in a bowl and it worked out better than a knife. The pastry cutter was sharp enough and the bowl kept the nuts from flying all over my kitchen.
I've already tried this out, and indeed, it chopped up the nuts faster and with less mess. It's also a lot easier to rinse out a bowl and pastry blender than to wash the whole food processor or chopper. It's a great little redemption for an otherwise unitasker tool. Thanks Amy!
Do you have any other good uses for a pastry cutter? (Or any other hacks for chopping nuts quickly?)
Related: Sort of Not a Uni-Tasker: Tomato and Mozzarella Slicer
(Images: Faith Durand)
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I use mine for mashing potatoes. It works very well.
I chop nuts with a Slap Chop. For real.
Why didn't I ever think of this? Brilliant. No more nut pieces skittering off the edge of the board onto the floor. Thank you!
I 'chop' nuts with a rolling pin. Many nuts will break into nice little pieces when rolled over.
I put nuts in a sturdy ziploc and hit them with canned goods.
I don't have a rolling pin.
... I'm the proud, but slightly guilty, owner of not just the infamous Pastry Blender, but also of a nut grinder. It sits on top of my fridge gathering dust until December (usually. It comes down occasionally for other things, too), but for all those Holiday Cookies, it's worth its weight in gold, and totally worth the storage space.
Ditto for the mashed 'taters. I'd rather make room for that than a potato masher.
I use my pastry blender for making guacamole. I find it is easier to get the right texture (creamy with a little chunky) and much faster than a fork.
This is a great tip, I usually use the chopper from OXO.
You can also use your pastry blender for egg salad.
Ditto ditto on the mashed potatoes using the pastry cutter.
Another thing it's great for is mashing bananas for banana bread.
I purchased my pastry blender for one reason, and now I use it for two. A) GUACAMOLE! I have yet to find a way to get the guac to that perfect consistency without using one. B) Egg Salad, chops up all the eggs with out all the work and mess of other methods.
My guac is a huge hit at parties so I make it pretty frequently, therefore a pastry blender is one item that I CANNOT live without. I even took it with me when I lived in the dorms.
looks like I'm not the first to post either of those...but seriously I love my pastry blender.
Ditto on using the pastry blender for all my mashing needs. Plus, I make a lot of pastry, don't have a food processor, and find I get way better results with my pastry blender than my hands or a fork. As far as I'm concerned, it's an extremely versatile and indispensable tool!
(I also just bought one for my partner, who's working in Northern Ireland at the moment: we used it to make the buttercream for nanaimo bars for a potluck; worked perfectly.)
I'm happy to see so many people redeeming the pastry cutter!! I would have never ever thought of it as a UNITASKER?!!
As rarely as I use it as a pastry cutter, I use it constantly for quick salads: egg, salmon, tuna, etc. It's a MUST for guacamole in our house. I used to use it for mashed potatoes, but the handle is a tad short and my hand gets hot. Pastry cutters are a must! oh, and they must be blade, never wire.
I use my pastry blender for sooo many things, I definitely could not live without it!
Yeah. Gotta make sure it's the nice sturdy blade ones and not the cheap flimsy wire ones.
I hadn't even realized it was a pastry cutter. I always use mine for mashed potatoes, and it works perfectly. I'll have to try it for nuts and guac, thanks for the ideas!
I don't think I've ever used my pastry blender for actual pastry, oddly enough. LOL Since I was a little kid, I've always used it for chopping eggs to make egg salad. If you have a sturdy enough one, it can also work for chopping certain veggies, like you would do onions with a mezzaluna.