Product Review: KitchenAid Stand Mixer

It's every chef's best friend, and a permanent fixture in some of the busiest kitchens around: the KitchenAid stand mixer. Whether you're making cakes, breads, pies, or cookies, the stand mixer has been technology's boon to the kitchen. KitchenAid manufactures two types of planetary mixers: the tilt-head stand mixer or the bowl-lift stand mixer. The former is more suited for household use, capable of processing smaller loads at a time. The latter is for heavy duty mixing, and the 6-quart bowl-lift model is what I have.

A mixer takes a load off of the stress in the kitchen, and among all the different mixers I've tried, KitchenAid makes the best heavy duty stand mixers. They're made to rough it out in the kitchen; these mixers work hard and can deal with even the toughest bread doughs. A new set comes with three different essential attachments: the dough hook, the wire whisk and the paddle attachment. The dough hook is good for kneading heavy masses like bread doughs. I've worked with mixers whose dough hooks are a joke; this one by contrast sweeps the entire bowl clean and works your dough evenly and perfectly. The wire whisk aerates meringues and cake mixtures. The paddle attachment, on the other hand, is a novelty that comes into play when mixtures are too heavy for the wire whisk, like when working with chunks of hard butter or margarine.

The bowl that comes along with it is stainless steel, which makes it light and durable, as compared to the heavy and fragile glass bowls that comes with other mixers. It has a six quart capacity, which is a lot more than what a regular household baker would need, really (a 14 cup capacity, according to their website). The mixer can operate on ten different speeds that you can easily flick up or down with a switch, and this is especially convenient because it affords you a lot of control in your mixing.

The bowl-lift models, while heavy duty, don't come cheap. For regular household usage, you might want to consider the smaller capacity tilt-head models. They're ideal for regular small volume productions, but you might encounter difficulty with tougher mixtures like bread doughs. Even soft bread doughs tend to exhaust the machine. I used one of these tilt-head models once to make croissant dough, which is quite soft, but the mixer struggled through the ordeal that I had to make it in small batches, and I had to hold the motor down to keep it from shaking the entire table and dancing on the surface of the countertop.

The KitchenAid stand mixer also comes in a different array of colors, from the standard black or white, to classic stainless or pearl, to more whimsical hues like purple or bright red-looks like their industrial designers have a sense of humor after all! This aside, KitchenAid has come up with a brilliant set of additional attachments and accessories that you can buy for your stand mixer, far diversifying its functionality. There's a grinder, a juicer, an ice cream maker, a grain mill, a ravioli maker, a pasta machine, and a sausage stuffer, among others. So your stand mixer isn't just a stand mixer! It's your all-around kitchen companion, which is exactly why a KitchenAid mixer is any chef's best friend. Consider it a wise investment.