Gizmo Guy: Great gifts for newlyweds from Braun, Paragon

Another bride, another groom, another present to buy before a June wedding. To help with that, Gizmo Guy has been hanging in his test kitchen with some spanking new food gadgets: home essentials that have "those newlyweds will love this" written all over them.

The Braun is back. In the history of modern appliance design, Braun products loom large. They are often imitated for their clean Bauhaus lines and ease of use. Apple founder Steve Jobs and chief designer Jonathan Ive both professed their debt.

Now, after an eight-year absence, fresh Braun kitchen appliances are back in the house, thanks to a new licensing deal between the Germany-based brand and the New Jersey-based U.S. division of De'Longhi which is tweaking the Braun feature set "for North American tastes," a representative said.

Going to a wedding shower? Mark a Braun BrewSense Drip Coffee Maker "open me first" and you'll make everybody happy. This brushed aluminum-clad and black-accented brewer is one of the prettiest and accommodating auto baristas I've encountered - with a clean strip of control buttons and a nubby patterned metal lid that puts the design impression over the top. With a wide shower head raining down water on the grinds, plus user-variable brew strength and plate warm options, the BrewSense quickly delivers 12 cups of strong, hot coffee into a tightly sealed and easy-pouring glass carafe. Yes, I'd prefer a metal carafe, too, but glass keeps the asking price at $99.95 at Bed Bath & Beyond.

I have never been much of a smoothie fan, but the inviting Braun PureMix Jug Blender ($129.95 at BB&B) whipped up a tasty and healthy beverage in seconds from an improvised mix of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, banana, orange juice and ice cubes. It's also useful for chopping, mixing and baby-food pureeing and liquefying (but no pressure to rush things, OK?).

Braun's higher-than-normal positioning of the blade system and jug shape optimizes the ice crushing/blending process and simplifies rinsing of the 56 fluid ounce, BPA-free plastic pitcher. Sleek control buttons are sealed for protection and easy wipe-ups. And did I mention that this blender's "PowerAssist" technology senses contents and maintains optimum speed?

Gizmo Guy actually had an old-school Braun hand blender stashed in a cabinet for comparison with the brand new Multiquick. The modern version boasts the "world's first" smart speed handle, which varies torque/speed by how hard you squeeze the grip. This worked great for fast chopping a mix of pecans and Parmesan cheese and whisking egg when prepping coatings for a chicken dish.

Multiquick also showed enough "oomph" to mix cake batter, though bread dough is a no-no. The top of the line MQ777 package ($149.95 at BB&B) comes with many accessories, though with Braun's patented "Easy Click" modular system (another major upgrade), it couldn't be faster or easier to switch between the whisk and masher plug-Ons. The midline MQ725 ($99.95), which includes a 11/2-cup food processor, won't claim as much shelf space.

Sous vide my heart: If the newlyweds have the proper pots and pans (steel and cast iron), the Paragon Precision Induction Cooktop from FirstBuild (a Ge-funded start-up) is a welcome addition to their kitchen arsenal. This round, low slung countertop appliance can function as an extra cooking burner or food warmer. And with a companion app loaded on a smartphone or tablet and the wireless Paragon Probe magnetically clinging to the side of the pot, the gizmo turns into a sous vide cooking system, inviting you to bag, then cook, protein (meat, fish, chicken) or veggies in a warm-water bath method. This retains juices, minimizes the need for seasoning and makes overcooking almost impossible. Even a two-inch sirloin comes out "medium rare," all the way through, whether you cook it for 60 minutes or 90. (Then finish it in a hot skillet.) That leeway could avoid lots of marital stress, if the cook gets the timing wrong on companion dishes or an absentee spouse is "running late."

The $299 price tag (at paragoninduction.com) is steep, though. A previously reviewed, much smaller Anova Precision Cooker dedicated to sous vide plops into any pot, stirs and heats the water (for faster results), has a better fleshed-out app with full recipes and costs a "mere" $179 at anovaculinary.com.

Bagged to go: Sous vide cooking can be accomplished in any zip-locked bag that has had most of the air manually squeezed out. But a Ziplock V151 Vacuum Sealer System ($69.99 at Amazon) fully extracts all air. Or, more rarely found in such systems, it can precisely extract most of the air from the bag, if you press, then release the "Pulse" button. Eliminating all air guarantees the food-filled bag won't float to the top of the water bath, while manually controlling the extraction prevents crushing of delicate ingredients. Sealer systems are otherwise great for subdividing a big batch of stew or a Costco deal on trail mix. Prep one night, eat several days - another marital stress reliever.

takiffj@phillynews.com

215-854-5960@JTakiff