Dough-Nu-Matic
Mom the Gadget Queen wanted to try something different. Knowing The Man has a weakness for donuts, she ordered this donut maker from her favorite catalog store, JC Penneys (this photo is from their website, JCP.com)
Called the "Dough-Nu-Matic", this entertaining device drops blobs of vaguely donut-shaped little balls of dough from the grey hopper on the upper left of the machine into a trough of hot oil. The nuggets float through the trough and are ejected at the opposite end.
It was supposed to be a surprise for The Man so, when the machine's eagerly anticipated arrival finally happened, I finessed him up to the Gadget Queen's house for a donut fest.
The machine set up quickly and the oil heated rapidly. I made dough following a recipe that came in the accompanying booklet and we stood there, watching in wonder as the dough blob plopped into the oil, traveled down the trough and was niftily scooped out and deposited into the awaiting bowl. Ah, technology at its tasty finest!
We watched the next blob of dough drop into the oil and were suddenly greeted by an ominous grating sound. The scoop portion of the machine (it's the rounded section opposite the dough hopper) quit moving; it is this part that creates the gentle current of the oil that moves the donuts along. The second donut sat motionless like a boat cast adrift on a still ocean. It took me a few moments to figure out how to open the top in order to retrieve the little thing. After unplugging the machine to let the oil cool, we took a closer look and discovered the problem.
The donut maker is driven by a plastic chain that, as it rotates within the machine, coordinates the dropping of donut blobs from the hopper and the scooper on the other side. The chain had somehow popped off a sprocket somewhere and we couldn't figure out how to reseat it. The accompanying booklet specified that all service problems had to go through the seller, so I called Penneys to find out what we could do. Our options were to return for refund or return for exchange. The magic moment has passed, the Gadget Queen and I were so disappointed that our long-planned surprise went bust that we opted to return the machine.
I've read good reviews of the Dough-Nu-Matic and I can believe that this doodad could be a lot of fun, but with the experience of failure within a few minutes of our first use, I just couldn't see trying again. We've been looking for something similar but made with sturdier material, but have had little luck except for the commercial version that pops out something like 200 dozen tiny donuts an hour. Since that volume simply isn't in our diet plans, we've decided to bypass it for now and just find different ways to satisfy The Man's donut cravings.
Called the "Dough-Nu-Matic", this entertaining device drops blobs of vaguely donut-shaped little balls of dough from the grey hopper on the upper left of the machine into a trough of hot oil. The nuggets float through the trough and are ejected at the opposite end.
It was supposed to be a surprise for The Man so, when the machine's eagerly anticipated arrival finally happened, I finessed him up to the Gadget Queen's house for a donut fest.
The machine set up quickly and the oil heated rapidly. I made dough following a recipe that came in the accompanying booklet and we stood there, watching in wonder as the dough blob plopped into the oil, traveled down the trough and was niftily scooped out and deposited into the awaiting bowl. Ah, technology at its tasty finest!
We watched the next blob of dough drop into the oil and were suddenly greeted by an ominous grating sound. The scoop portion of the machine (it's the rounded section opposite the dough hopper) quit moving; it is this part that creates the gentle current of the oil that moves the donuts along. The second donut sat motionless like a boat cast adrift on a still ocean. It took me a few moments to figure out how to open the top in order to retrieve the little thing. After unplugging the machine to let the oil cool, we took a closer look and discovered the problem.
The donut maker is driven by a plastic chain that, as it rotates within the machine, coordinates the dropping of donut blobs from the hopper and the scooper on the other side. The chain had somehow popped off a sprocket somewhere and we couldn't figure out how to reseat it. The accompanying booklet specified that all service problems had to go through the seller, so I called Penneys to find out what we could do. Our options were to return for refund or return for exchange. The magic moment has passed, the Gadget Queen and I were so disappointed that our long-planned surprise went bust that we opted to return the machine.
I've read good reviews of the Dough-Nu-Matic and I can believe that this doodad could be a lot of fun, but with the experience of failure within a few minutes of our first use, I just couldn't see trying again. We've been looking for something similar but made with sturdier material, but have had little luck except for the commercial version that pops out something like 200 dozen tiny donuts an hour. Since that volume simply isn't in our diet plans, we've decided to bypass it for now and just find different ways to satisfy The Man's donut cravings.
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