Silvercrest Nutrition Blender

 I’ve had a lot of trouble with blenders (also known as liquidisers) over the years. I’ve had plastic ones, and at least one with a glass jug. I’ve had blenders that came as part of a food processor, and those that were separate. They’ve all been fine for the first year or so. But then, in my experience, either they become almost impossible to clean so mould starts growing around the base - or they’re easy to clean, but the seals stop working and they leak.

Our most recent one was part of our Kenwood food processor, and I was pleased with it at first; but after a few years, like most of the others, it developed problems with the seal, and started dripping. So I used it less and less. My stick blender was fine for soups and ketchup, but it wasn’t at all great at making nut milks. 

I’d been browsing sites offering appliances online and had been quite impressed with reviews of high speed ‘nutrition’ blenders - recommended for smoothies as well as nut milks - but the price was well out of our range. So, wandering around Lidl in December 2018, I was pleasantly surprised to spot their ‘nutrition’ blender at just under forty euros. It looked much like the ones I’d seen online at up to five times that price. 

I hadn’t been entirely happy about other Silvercrest appliances, but this was guaranteed for two years and we needed a blender. I calculated that if it worked for just a year we’d probably save its cost in making our own dairy-free milks rather than buying them in cartons, so we bought it. 

When I arrived home and checked reviews online - knowing we could return it unused, if it was deemed a bad buy - I was glad to note that in all tests it compared favourably to the far more expensive branded high-speed blenders. Reviewers said its only real disadvantage was its noise level while operating.

Inside the box was the blender unit which felt pleasantly solid - not likely to slide around the worktop. There were three different clear plastic goblets (200ml, 500ml and 700ml) that could be attached, and two different bases, one with two blades, one with four. There were black plastic lids, two of them with holes, presumably for sipping a smoothie. 

INSTRUCTIONS

We’ve had problems before with a lack of instructions in English with Silvercrest appliances. Sure enough, the booklet included Greek, and a few other languages, but not English. However, it was easy to find instructions online and print them out. I needed them as this blender didn’t look much like any blender I’d previously used, and I wanted to make sure we did everything correctly.

USING THE BLENDER

It was winter, not a time of year for smoothies as we only get soft fruit in the summer months. So our first use of the blender was for nut milks.  I was regularly making cashew milk at the time; it only required 50g cashews for well over a litre of nut milk, with no wastage. The instructions recommended using the base with four blades for nuts or ice.  So after washing the non-electrical parts of the blender as instructed, I put soaked, drained cashews into the 500ml goblet, and screwed on the four-blade base. 

So far, so good. 

I turned it upside down to ensure there was no leakage, and put it into the main part of the blender. Then I realised there’s no ‘on’ or ‘off’ switch. It was operated directly from the power socket, so as soon as I had the top part in place, it started up And it was, as the reviewer said, noisy. The cats left the room and I wanted to cover my ears. But at the same time I could see the cashew milk forming much more quickly than normal. About thirty seconds was plenty, so I turned it off at the wall, then carefully unscrewed the goblet part, remembered to turn it the right way up again, removed the base, and decanted the milk into a jug to go in the fridge.

CLEANING

I was very pleased to realise how easy it is to clean the blades, as the blade unit has to be removed from the goblet every time, so it goes straight into a bowl of soapy water, and there hasn’t - yet - been any mould or other problems. It’s not dishwasher safe, but so long as it’s washed fairly quickly after use, it’s quick to do and easy to drain. 

LEAKING MILK

It’s good that the first time worked well. Perhaps the second and third times did, too. But at some point as I was unscrewing the goblet its base became slightly loosened too, and milk started pouring out. I rescued what I could, and cleaned the top of the electrical unit (after unplugging, of course) and was more careful next time. But it felt like a design flaw - that, while putting the goblet part onto the blender screws it in more tightly, removing it can all too easily loosen the base from the goblet and lead to excessive leaking.

I worked out how to solve this, though it’s not anywhere in the instructions:  after I’ve switched the blender off at the wall, I leave it a couple of seconds then turn the entire unit - with goblet still attached - upside down. That makes it easy to remove the goblet part without the contents leaking. I have done this for a couple of years now so don’t even think about it any more, and, while unorthodox, it works. 

SMOOTHIES

When summer arrived, with plentiful and inexpensive soft fruit, I did make some smoothies.  The blender was extremely good at crushing ice and fruit and producing deliciously thick, homogenous smoothies. For one person, it’s ideal. For two people, not so much as the goblets are all different sizes, and we both wanted the 700ml size. And trying to sip from the lids didn’t work at all. So we decanted into ordinary glasses, as we did with previous blenders and haven’t used the lids at all. 

SOUPS?

I’m pretty sure it was heat that had cracked or weakened previous plastic blenders. So, as I’d got into the habit of using my stick blender for soups and ketchup, I kept doing so. They’re easy enough to blend in a saucepan, and don’t have to be completely cool before doing so. This saves washing up, it saves the effort of having to decant in small amounts (since I make a couple of litres of soup at a time, usually), and it means that the blender has really only been used for cold items. 

2023 THOUGHTS

I was slightly surprised to discover, when I checked, that we bought this blender nearly four and a half years ago. It feels more recent. I’ve used it at least twice a week in that period, for nut milks and, more recently, oat milk. It's not so good for thicker things - it's hard to keep scraping down the sides and not always easy to get mixture from the blades, even though they're more accessible than a traditional blender. So I use my food processor for humus, peanut butter, nut cheeses and similar. But even if I only count the dairy-free milks, it’s more than paid for itself, and has lasted longer than any previous blender we’ve owned. 

I don't think I've used the 200ml goblet, and rarely the 700ml one. Neither have I used the two-blade base part, since the four-blade one works for everything. I’m used to the noise now - though the cats still hate it - and when it does eventually stop working, I hope Lidl will still be selling them, or an updated version, as we’ll definitely want to replace it with something similar. 

Highly recommended.

Silvercrest Sorbet Maker

 Although I do the majority of cooking in our household, my husband is always keen on looking at small kitchen appliances or gadgets. A couple of months ago we were in Lidl, the German supermarket that’s spread through Europe. There were a variety of appliances on special offer, in their Silvercrest range. Most of them were in garish shades of green or orange, which I really didn’t want in my kitchen…

However, my husband was very taken with a machine which promised to turn frozen fruit into ‘delicious sorbet’. We live in a country with very hot summers, and I used to make ice cream regularly, but my husband is now dairy-free, and although I’ve made a few sorbets or cashew-based ice creams, they are somewhat time-consuming. He loved the idea of being able to take frozen fruit pieces out of the freezer and produce a sorbet within a few minutes. 

PURE FRUIT SORBETS

I glanced at the enclosed booklet - instructions were, thankfully, in English as well as several other languages - and there were some recipes included, most of which were, quite simply, chopped fruit. No added sugar, no egg white… just fruit. Some of the recipes also included grated chocolate or coconut, but the basic idea was to freeze prepared fruit in suitable quantities for two or three people so as to be able to make sorbets whenever wanted. 

We have a local fruit stall which sells ripe fruit in small crates for a euro at a time; we sometimes struggle to use it up. So I could see that this could be quite useful; I was convinced entirely when my husband assured me that he would prepare and freeze the fruit, and would also be the one to operate and clean the sorbet maker. 

It was about twenty-five euros on offer (it was £19.99 in Lidl UK around the same time) so I shrugged, and added one to our basket. The green was slightly less garish than the orange, and I knew I could find space to store it in one of our kitchen cupboards. I wasn’t sure it would make its way out very often…

CONSTRUCTING THE SORBET MAKER

When we arrived home, my husband set to work washing and cutting up a few kilograms of peaches which we had bought inexpensively, and I peeled and froze chunks of some bananas that had started to get a bit soft.

I then read through the instructions for our new machine, most of which were standard safety ones (don’t immerse in water, keep away from children, don’t insert hands inside while operating… I suppose they have to say this kind of thing to protect themselves in case anyone is stupid enough to do this kind of thing). It also gave a useful warning not to put ice in the machine, or it might break it. 

We washed the moving parts and my husband put it together; I don’t know that I would have figured out the diagrams, but he said it was very simple. There’s a kind of funnel at the top with a removable pusher, rather like one in a food processor or juicer. Inside is a slightly vicious looking round piece with sharp metal bits protruding, forming the heart of the machine. 

I was quite pleased to find that there are sucker type feet on the bottom, which ensure that the machine won’t move around in use, and can’t easily be knocked over. 

THE SORBET MAKER IN USE

The instructions say that fruit has to be frozen for at least 24 hours, and then thawed for 10-20 minutes. Happily we had some frozen bananas already in the freezer; I tend to freeze them, peeled, when they start to go soft, and then use them when I want to make banana bread. We had also bought some frozen raspberries that morning, also on offer at Lidl.  Banana and raspberry sorbet sounded like a good idea, so we removed what looked like a suitable quantity from the freezer while we ate our lunch. 

My husband then plugged the machine in and placed a bowl underneath the place where sorbet was supposed to emerge.  He fed the pieces of fruit in the funnel of the machine, pushing them down with the supplied part, and gradually a kind of serrated stream of sorbet came out, landing neatly in the bowl. He turned it round with one hand so it didn’t simply pile up, and was finished in about a minute.

He guessed that there would be some sorbet still caught in the machine, and this was the case - he used a spoon to ease it away from the roller and the edge of the pusher and into the bowl. 

It didn’t look like a very big amount, but we found it was plenty for two of us, and made a refreshing light dessert. It tasted as one would expect frozen bananas and raspberries to taste, with a consistency that was much like a classic sorbet. 

Since then we’ve used it three or four times. I wasn’t too keen on peach and banana sorbet, but we’ve made simple peach sorbet which has worked very well indeed. It’s ideal for a quick fruity snack or dessert, with very little time needed, and it’s as healthy as eating fresh fruit. 

CLEANING THE SORBET MAKER

My husband always puts the removable pieces into soak immediately after dismantling it and removing the bits of sorbet which have not come out. This is a good idea, ensuring that fruit doesn’t dry on the parts, and making them very quick to clean properly in the washing up bowl. Most of the parts can be put in a dishwasher, but they would be a bit awkward and are so easy to clean in the sink that we haven’t bothered.

The main part of the machine, containing the motor, can be wiped with a damp cloth, and that’s all that’s necessary. 

FURTHER THOUGHTS

I’m not convinced that this sorbet maker is any more efficient than simply placing slightly thawed frozen fruit in a liquidiser or even a food processor. However, it works well and I’m happy that my husband is producing healthy food in the kitchen, so I don’t have any regrets about buying it. I doubt if we’ll use it much in the winter, but then again it’s a novelty that visitors will probably appreciate. 

The electricity usage is minimal; the box states that it uses 200 watts, and it only runs for a minute or two to produce sorbet for two people. There’s a three year guarantee with it, so I assume it will last at least that long, probably considerably more so with our limited use.  

As far as I can tell this sorbet maker is only available from Lidl stores around the world, and probably only when on special offer. But items like this tend to appear regularly, so if you like the idea of instant fresh fruit sorbets, I’d recommend looking out for it. 

2022 UPDATE

We put it away after the summer glut of fruit, and have only used it a handful of times in the past seven years. It still works. It does what it promises. But it's a lot of effort for something we rarely remember to use. It's one of those appliances that looks like a great idea, but what it does is very specific and doesn't actually make all that much. Once it's away in a cupboard, it's easily forgotten.

However for someone who grows or buys plenty of fruit, and who likes sorbets that are free of anything other than fruit, this kind of thing is ideal.

Silvercrest Breadmaker

For many years we relied on our trusty Morphy Richards 'fastbake' breadmaker. The results - after some experimentation - were mostly good, so long as I was careful to adjust the temperature of the added fluids, depending on the ambient temperature of the kitchen - this is rather important in Cyprus. Then, after about six years of regular use, it passed away peacefully.

We had got used to bread made at home, and loved the huge savings that resulted; so we replaced it with an inexpensive Carrefour own brand of breadmaker, which had the big advantage of two paddles rather than just one, making longer, shallower loaves. However it had many problems: no matter what I did, the resultant bread was heavy, and the non-stick coating quickly started to flake off the paddles. Then it became unreliable, failing in the middle of a cycle several times. Perhaps we should have returned it, as it was less than two years old; but then they would have repaired or replaced it… and we really didn’t like it.

So we did some research, and were coming to the conclusion that we would have to pay about 150 euros to get a good quality breadmaker; even more if we wanted one with two paddles. We didn’t really want to spend that much, so we kept putting it off…

Then we spotted a Silvercrest brand breadmaker in our local Lidl. It had two paddles, and was on offer at just under 50 euros. There were some with white bodies but we much preferred the black ones, which matched most of our other kitchen appliances. We did note that the labelling on the front was in Greek, but the instruction manual had an English section, so we thought we could deal with it.

We wandered around the store discussing it… we knew our son would tell us we were crazy to buy yet another cheap breadmaker. But eventually we picked it up and decided that if it failed, we would definitely return it and would resolve never again to buy a cheap one.

TRYING IT OUT

The manual had the usual safety instructions, a reminder to wash the pan and paddles before use, and explanation of the various settings. I knew from experience that I would probably only use a couple of them - the basic bread, and the dough. My trusty recipe uses mainly wholegrain flour with about 100g strong white flour to make it a bit lighter, and has seeds added part-way through. So I thought I would try that first, rather than one of the recommendations in the manual.

There are three sizes of loaf that can be made: 750g, 1000kg and 1250g. I selected 1000, medium crust, and set it off, noting that it would be ready in about three hours.

I half expected a brick - but the loaf mixed beautifully, rose perfectly, smelled amazing as it cooked… and looked amazing! It was better than anything I had made in the Carrefour machine, and better, even, than my Morphy Richards loaves.

DOUGH SETTING

My son likes to make naan bread and uses a breadmaker to knead and rise the dough, so a few days later he put his usual ingredients in the pan and selected the dough setting. It took rather longer than our previous breadmakers had done - nearer two hours than one and a half - but made excellent dough which turned into delicious naan when shaped and cooked in a frying pan.

TEMPERATURE ADJUSTMENT

One of the things that surprised us a little about our Silvercrest breadmaker is that in the first ten minutes nothing seems to happen. I did wonder if it was working at all, the first time. But the instruction manual explains that the machine is getting the ingredients at the right temperature. Apparently it does that very successfully, since I’ve made bread when the kitchen temperature was 35C, and it still came out perfectly. With our Morphy Richards, I had to use ice cold water or it would rise too fast and then collapse.

NON-MEASURED INGREDIENTS

Our son moved to a place of his own, and ‘borrowed’ our kitchen scales for a few weeks. I did not realise this until I had started putting ingredients into the breadmaker one morning, and looked for the scales to weigh the flour. Had I known, I would have used a different recipe that measures all the ingredients in American cups, but I’d already used millilitres for the water. So I checked a conversion table, which wasn’t much use as wholegrain flour is denser than white flour. In the end I guessed, and then added more flour after the first rise, as it looked too sticky.

To my astonishment, even that loaf came out well. Not perfect: it was rather stodgier than we were used to, but it was quite edible. I was impressed.

OTHER PROGRAMMES

In addition to the ‘regular’ setting, which I mainly use, and the useful dough setting, the manual lists these others:

French bread

Wholewheat

Sweet

Super rapid

Pasta dough

Buttermilk bread

Gluten free

Cake

Jam

Manual

In the five months since I bought this breadmaker, I have not used any of these. Even though my recipe is predominantly wholewheat flour, I find that the regular setting is just fine. I don’t want the hassle of baking bread in the oven so am not tempted by the French bread setting, and can’t see myself using any of the other settings. In particular, I have been warned by several people that making jam in a breadmaker is a messy process, which usually boils over and is not recommended. I don’t know why they include this setting.

I did think the manual setting might be useful - it enables custom times for kneading, rising and cooking - but since the regular setting works so well, I don’t see any need to experiment. Others might like to try something different, but I tend to work along the lines of, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

INSTRUCTIONS

If I have a slight niggle, it’s that the instruction manual is rather over-technical, with a lot of detail that does not interest me, including tables listing every rising/kneading/baking time for all the programmes. It does not, however, give any recipes at all. This isn’t a huge problem, as I’ve found that breadmaker recipe books often need a lot of adjusting, and we have an excellent recipe book (“Fresh Bread in the Morning”) that is appropriate for any breadmaker.

Still, I was a bit surprised not to find any recipes at all; this could be a disadvantage for anyone buying this machine who did not have any experience with breadmakers.

GENERAL

The power consumption for the breadmaker, according to the guide, is 850 watts. I’m no physicist, but this has to be more efficient than using my oven for a single loaf of bread, quite apart from being less hassle. When we’ve made estimates of the cost of making a loaf with a breadmaker, it comes to about half the cost of buying an equivalent sized loaf, even including the electricity. That comparison would not necessarily hold in the UK where good quality bread can often be found inexpensively in supermarkets, but I still like knowing exactly what goes into my bread, and avoiding any preservatives or other additives.

I was pleased to find that this breadmaker came with a measuring cup that goes up to 400ml (our previous breadmaker cups held only 250ml) as well as a useful metal tool for easing the paddles out of the cooked bread if they have stuck. This happens fairly regularly, and the tool is thus used to good effect.

I understand that the Silvercrest breadmaker is only available from Lidl; as with most Lidl offers, it’s not always available. There are quite a few of them on Ebay at the time of writing, in varying conditions and for a range of prices. If you can find a new (or almost-new) one for around 20-30 pounds, I can recommend it highly.

2022 UPDATE

The Silvercrest breadmaker worked faultlessly for about four and a half years. Then one day I discovered that one of the paddles was not working. Only half the dough was getting mixed. I had to remove it from the machine, mix and knead by hand, then return it to rise before baking rolls. They worked, but it was a lot of hassle. The machine was out of warranty, and it had paid for itself in savings on buying bread within just a few months, so it didn't owe us anything. I don't. like the fact that appliances of this kind are now considered disposable: new parts, even if available, would cost more than a new machine.

So, while I still think it was a good breadmaker, and probably worth buying if you want to experiment with making bread at home, or have a very limited budget, its lifespan may be limited. I doubt if I'll buy another breadmaker from Lidl.