Tool Spotlight: Balloon Whisk

This whisk was issued to us at The CIA 3 years ago, after about two months after classes begun. They had previously issued a whisk with a wooden handle that was unreliable. What do most handles have? The worse timing, meaning they will pop off when you are whisking your pastry cream or whipping extra cream in the middle of service. So as future bakers and pastry chefs, we need a little more reliability in our tools and received this one: a sturdy, stainless-steel wide whisk. I’m showcasing it as my first tool spotlight because I honestly can’t live without one. Every time I cook something, I see myself needing it and it’s sad when I’m visiting family and their whisk is a sad, lonely tool literally whisked into oblivion.  Those tiny, useless whisks make me cry at times, so I put them to rest by throwing them out. They shouldn’t have to work so hard when they don’t even have the structure to withhold the pressures some people put them through.

Buy a whisk like this one and you will not be disappointed! It will:

• Whisk cold cream, sugar and a drop of vanilla into dollops of heavenly clouds to top your desserts
• Stir cornstarch, sugar, milk, egg yolks, vanilla and butter into thick, creamy pastry cream to fill tarts
• Beat egg whites into frothy, bubbly clouds to fold into your mousse preparation
• Whisk your bacon fat and flour into a blond (or brown) roux to thicken your sauces
• Stirs your hot cream into even hotter cooked sugar to make that Rebel Caramel I adore

Whisks are endless and sometimes I even use them to hold against a pot of cooked pasta and strain them over it. Desperate times call for desperate whisk usage!

Do you need more than one whisk? In my opinion, the answer is no but I don’t know how you all cook, the pots and pans you use, how often you whisk cream. A sturdy whisk like this one can be put through war and I’m sure it’ll survive. Now, I know that in the market there are all sorts of whisks: flat whisks, stiff whisks, tiny whisks, ball whisks, etc. Yes, sometimes tiny whisks are great for getting into the edges of pots and making sure your sauce isn’t burning. And of course, a cool ball whisk (the ones that are just sturdy rods ending in metal balls) seems like a novelty. It all depends on what you  like, how much you really want to have invested in a “whisk collection” and what/how you cook. My advice? Get one and see if you really need that baby whisk. Oh and those sturdy/stiff whisks? They are the vain of my existence and shouldn’t exist. “Some people say” (and if you’ve watched Outfoxed you’d laugh at that saying) that the stiff whisks work for stir tougher batters like pate a choux. Earth to those people: stir your pate a choux with a wooden spoon and you’ll be fine!!!

Want one just like it? Head to Sur La Table  and for a mere $9.00 plus shipping you can own one (or 7!)