# Pastry Blender recommendations



## roman (Dec 12, 2008)

Hi All,

We own a small pie shop and are currently doing all of our pastry by hand using a hand held pastry blender. Business has taken off and the amount of pastry we're making on a daily basis has gotten overwhelming, causing issues like repetitive strain injury (RSI). 

What are other people doing? Are there any pastry blenders out there that are 2 handed? 

Thanks,

Roman


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## blueicus (Mar 16, 2005)

I personally feel that a superior alternative to using a pastry blender (and much less intensive on the wrists) is to first grate your solid fat over a coarse grater, which can then be easily mixed and rubbed by hand. That way you don't even need a pastry blender and you can do larger quantities with less strain and on the cheap.


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## raziel (Jan 10, 2009)

Do you mean blenders as in a kitchen-aid mixer or one of those big hobart planetairy mixers?


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## roman (Dec 12, 2008)

No, blender is a hand held tool with a bunch of knives (typically 5 or 6) that is used to cut the fat into the flour.


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## roman (Dec 12, 2008)

Thanks very much for the suggestion - it works. 

We're freezing the shortening and then running it through a Cuisinart to grate it - works wonderfully.

Any ideas on easier ways of rolling out pastry? Right now, it's done by hand - we're leery of machines as most of them tend to turn out a crust that has the consistency of cardboard.

Cheers,

Roman


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