Blendtec 560 Classic Blender – Basic Recipes

So you just bought yourself a Blendtec 560 classic blender but are a little confused on how to make the Basic recipes such as Ice Cream, Whole Juices, Smoothies, Hot Soups, or grind flours and coffee beans.  Well that’s why I am here to help!  You can do everything in the Blendtec 560 Classic blender that you can do in any blender that Blendtec sells, you just have to know what you’re doing.  Here you go…

Ice Cream in the Blendtec 560 Classic Blender

First of all make sure you stack your ingredients soft to hard with the soft stuff on the bottom and the harder stuff on top, and put the tree nuts, leafy greens and Ice in last so you don’t get air pockets.  Next, and this goes for all recipes, start the blend on a low speed and wait for the blades to start pulling down the ingredients, once you see the ingredients slowly getting sucked into the blades, change to a medium speed to get a smoothie consistency, and then to finish off the Ice Cream take the blender up to it’s highest speed and wait for a swirl shape to form at the top of the jar.  Once you see the swirl shape you can stop the blend because the Ice Cream is ready to serve.

Usually Ice Creams take around 30 seconds to make unless you get an air pocket, in which case you’ll have to stop the blender and shake it out, then start the blend on low and wait for the ingredients to pull down.  Repeat this process until you see that swirl shape form at the top.

Juicing with the Blendtec 560 Classic Blender

Similar to Ice Cream stack your ingredients into the jar with the softer ingredients first, such as grapes and soft fruits, then add the harder ingredients such as carrots, apples, and celery.  Always put the ice on top, this will help avoid air pockets.  Also, you’ll want at least 1 cup of water or apple juice or some type of liquid in the recipe, unless you use around 2 cups of grapes, which have enough liquid to substitute for water or juice.  You’ll want to start on a slow speed and wait about 5 seconds to switch to a higher speed.  The Blendtec blade and jar are designed to pull the ingredients down into the blades which you will see happen as soon as you start the blender, after about 5 seconds everything should be getting pulled down into the blades in which case you can switch to a higher speed.  The goal here is to reach the highest speed possible and let the blender run on the highest speed for at least 30 to 40 seconds, liquifying everything in the jar to give you a juice like consistency, and if you want the consistency to be more liquified simply let the blender keep running on it’s highest speed, the longer you run it the finer and smoother the consistency will become.  Also, consistency is determine on the amounts of Ice you add, if you add a lot of Ice you will have more of a smoothie like consistency where as if you don’t add to much ice you will have more of a juice like consistency.

Hot Soups using your Blendtec 560 Classic Blender

Making Hot Soup in the Blendtec 560 Classic blender will require a little more attention as you will have to press the high speed button anywhere from 4 to 8 times to make the soup hot.  Making Hot soups, Syrups, or Fondues require you to run the blender on their highest speed so the recipe can heat up.  The way a Blendtec cooks the soup inside the jar is by using the friction from the blades which is caused by the high speeds the blades travel in a small confined space.  So you have to let the blender run on it’s highest speed setting for several minutes to cook the soup to a hot temperature.  You can reach around 170 degrees in 4 to 6 minutes.  The problem is you’ll have to press the high speed 4 to 8 times, each time you press it the blender will run for 50 seconds and stop in which case you can check the temperature, if it’s not hot enough just press the high speed button again and let it run another cycle.  You will eventually see steam coming out from the vents in lid as it heats up to a high temperature.  The longer you run it the hotter it will get.

Grinding Grainds using your Blendtec 560 Classic Blender

Milling Rice Flour, Corn Meal, Powder sugar, Oat Flour, Wheat flour, and Flax Meal

For a fine consistency with flours you’ll want to let the blender run on it’s highest speed.  One 50 second blend cycle on the 560 Blendtec high speed is enough to produce a fine consistency for your flours.  The longer you run the blender on it’s highest speed the finer the consistency will become.  If you want to make corn meal just run it once, if you want to make corn flour run the blender 3 to 4 times (around 2 to 3 minutes).  Corn meal and corn flour come from popcorn kernals.  To mill dry grains make sure your jar is completely dry, any type of moisture or water inside the jar will affect your blend.  Minimum you’ll want to cover the blade with dry grains (around 1 cup), but you can add in up to 4 cups of dry grains at a time. You can start the blend on the 560 Blendtec’s High speed.  Check the consistency when it’s done to see if you are happy with it if you want it finer than run it again.

Grind your coffee beans

For ground coffee beans you’ll want to run the blender on a low speed for around 15 to 20 seconds.  The Blendtec blades work quickly to pull down the coffee beans into the blades!  If you run the blender to long the consistency will be to fine, also if you run the blender on a high speed the consistency will be to fine.  Keep it on the low speed and only run it for 15 to 20 seconds.  Also, just like all dry grains, make sure the dry is completely dry, any moisture will affect the blend.  You can grind from 1 cup to 4 cups of coffee beans at a time.

Mixing in your Blendtec 560 Classic Blender

Batters – You can mix your batters completely inside the jar and pour your batter out directly from the jar onto the pan.  Add all your ingredients just as you would in a mixing bowl and run the Blendtec blender on a low speed, don’t use high speeds for batters.  You can go back and forth from the two low speeds, this should produce a good thick consistency for your batter.  High speeds will liquify it to much.

Salsas – Use the pulse function for salsas, and lightly touch the pulse button because if you push it down to hard then your salsa will get to mushie.  The blades are power and so is the motor so you’ll want to barely tap the pulse key several times for your salsas, if you hold the pulse key down, you will liquify the recipe to much.

Dips – Control your dip recipe by using the pulse feature.  The pulse feature is designed for complete control over your recipe.  The Blendtec can quickly liquify your dip into a smoothie so be careful not to hold the pulse key down to long.  A few short quick bursts and you should be good.

Dressings –  Run the blender on low speeds for dressings, start on the lowest and play around with the 2 low speeds during your blend.  You don’t need to take a dressing to the highest speed.

Chopping in your Blendtec 560 Classic Blender

Wet chopping and Dry chopping are two great features that all Blendtec blenders are able to do.  For Wet chopping add about 4 cups of water into the jar and then let your ingredients float on top of the water! Then you’ll want to lightly tap the pulse button 3 to 5 times to chop and shred the ingredients inside the jar.  Use a strainer to drain the water and empty out the chopped ingredients.

Dry Chopping – Simply make sure the jar is dry and add in whatever ingredients you’d like chopped.  Use the pulse key to chop the ingredients.

In conclusion

You can do anything in the Blendtec 560 Classic blender that you can do in any other Blendtec blender, you just have to know what you are doing.  The 560 Blendtec is fun to use and is an amazing machine.  Highly recommend it for the price you can’t beat it.  If you have any questions feel free to leave them below and I will answer them accordingly, thank you and have a great day!