What makes a stand mixer an essential kitchen appliance is that it takes away a lot of the physical work of baking: While hand mixers need to be held while they whip the ingredients, a stand mixer does everything on its own at the simple flip of a switch.
And there are several accessories — with the right attachments, you can try your hand at homemade ice cream, meatballs or shredded chicken and pork, to name a few. To help you find the right fit for your needs, we consulted baking experts and recipe developers about what to look for when shopping for a stand mixer and rounded up some highly rated ones they recommend.
The Artisan mixer features a strong motor with ten speeds ranging from slow stirring to high beating, a 5-quart stainless steel bowl that locks into place and a tilting head to help you easily remove the bowl and beaters.
It also comes with multiple accessories — including a flat beater, dough hook, wire whip and pouring shield — and comes in multiple colors.
If you live in a smaller space, consider getting the KitchenAid Artisan Mini , which is 20 percent smaller than the original, according to the brand, and features a 3. This top-rated mixer has an impressive 4. An additional KitchenAid option, the Professional Stand Mixer is one of the larger and heavier duty options you can get — it has a watt motor compared to the watt motor of the KitchenAid Artisan Mixer and ten speeds, along with a spacious 6-quart bowl.
However, with more strength comes a heavier machine— this one weighs 29 pounds. The bowl lift configuration makes it convenient to add ingredients and it has three lock points for stability. The lever slowly lowers and raises the bowl for greater contact between the beater and the ingredients while mixing.
The integrated timer also automatically stops mixing when the time is reached, allowing you to focus on other tasks without constantly looking at the clock. This stand mixer from Cuisinart is powerful enough to do most of what you want in a mixer — its watt motor and 12 speed settings can withstand everything from heavy bread dough to a large quantity of cake batter.
You can also purchase multiple accessories for the unit, including a pasta roller and cutter , pasta extruder , meat grinder , frozen dessert maker and spiralizer. The spacious 6-quart bowl is best for tasks like making multiple loaves of bread—helped by the spiral-shaped PowerKnead dough hook, which was better at keeping dough in the bowl rather than pushing it up around the gear and spring.
The heavy-duty motor powered through almost all our test batches. Like the KitchenAid Artisan, the Pro has a hub for extra attachments like a pasta maker or a meat grinder, which are sold separately. The same attachments will work on both the Artisan and Pro lines interchangeably.
The Pro also comes with a pouring shield that slides on conveniently to prevent ingredients from splashing out of the bowl. Unfortunately, the Pro Series was by far the loudest, highest-pitched mixer in our testing lineup. That said, this machine is a beast, in a good way.
Like the Artisan, it comes with just a one-year warranty, but in our experience working with it in commercial kitchens, it will last for many years.
We tested the Breville Bakery Chef in , and it works well. It was sturdy enough to resist rocking and walking on the counter as we whipped cream, mixed cookies, and kneaded pizza dough, while many other mixers we previously tried were not.
And you may like some of its extra features: a timer that counts up and down, an automatically locking tilt-head, a 5-quart borosilicate-glass bowl in addition to its 4-quart stainless steel bowl , and a silicone-coated scraper beater. The mixer was able to whip small amounts of cream in both bowls. The Bakery Chef has a dial rather than a lever to control its speed, and it has a pause function that stops the timer as well as the mixer.
Breville covers the Bakery Chef with a one-year warranty on the machine and a five-year warranty on the motor, longer coverage than the one-year warranty KitchenAid provides for the Artisan. All that said, we prefer the streamlined design and larger metal bowl of the KitchenAid Artisan—plus, the Artisan comes in a much wider variety of fun colors and can work with multiple cooking attachments such as a meat grinder or pasta maker.
The whisk had a hard time whipping a small amount of cream and an egg white—the resulting mixture was loose and grainy, not fluffy. The head on the mixer tilts up and locks by default. Like most mixers we tested with this design, locking and unlocking the head slowed us down and felt awkward—you need to reach around the back of the mixer and use two hands to do so.
In , KitchenAid unveiled the Artisan Mini 3. We found the smaller size to be restrictive. If you really want a stand mixer, we suggest making room for a regular Artisan or getting a powerful hand mixer. The Kenmore Elite 5-Quart W Stand Mixer looks great on paper: It has two bowls a 3-quart and a 5-quart plus all of the usual attachments. It comes with a five-year warranty, and its power hub accepts KitchenAid accessories.
But the automatic head-locking mechanism drove us batty because raising and lowering the head took two hands. But again, rocking and walking while kneading and serious motor strain with the cookie dough were both dealbreakers. The head-release button on this model is positioned in the back, which is not a very intuitive design. It also costs more than the Artisan.
But we think the power and heft of a bowl-lift mixer is best put to use on larger batches, like the kind you can make in the Pro If you really like the bowl-lift style, or just want a more powerful 5-quart mixer, the 5 Plus might be a good option.
But for most people, we think the Artisan has all the power and capacity you need in a more compact package. Although the KitchenAid Classic Series 4. We recommend getting a mixer with a bowl capacity between 5 and 6 quarts, which will easily fit most standard recipes for everything from cookies to layer cakes.
Go for the 6-quart size if you frequently make big batches of things such as bread dough. Both styles of stand mixer work well, and we recommend one in each style. Each type has pros and cons.
Tilt-head mixers are usually more compact, but bowl-lift mixers are a bit sturdier and more powerful—good for tough jobs like kneading dense bread dough. Hand mixers are lighter and more portable than stand mixers, but stand mixers are more powerful and efficient and have a wider range of attachments and speeds. If you bake only occasionally or have limited space, a hand mixer can do the job. But if you bake a lot or like to tackle bigger, more complex projects, a stand mixer will save you a lot of time and energy.
Jane Lear, former senior articles editor at Gourmet , email interview, September 26, Lesley Stockton is a senior staff writer reporting on all things cooking and entertaining for Wirecutter. Her expertise builds on a lifelong career in the culinary world—from a restaurant cook and caterer to a food editor at Martha Stewart.
She is perfectly happy to leave all that behind to be a full-time kitchen-gear nerd. Anna Perling is a staff writer covering kitchen gear at Wirecutter. During her time here, she has reported on various topics including sports bras, board games, and light bulbs.
Previously she wrote food and lifestyle pieces for Saveur and Kinfolk magazines. Our pick. Also great. Everything we recommend. Why you should trust us. For a phenomenal machine that even professional bakers turn to, check out KitchenAid's Commercial Countertop Mixer. Built to hold up to 16 cups of flour, this appliance is big enough to handle even your most substantial projects with ease. It's also KitchenAid's most powerful model available, with a high-efficiency 1.
It has ten speeds, from a slow fold to a frenzied whip, and comes with a stainless steel flat beater, wire whip, and spiral dough hook that are all dishwasher-safe. Unlike its Artisan line, KitchenAid's commercial model has a bowl-lift design, where the mixer head remains stationary, to accommodate denser, heavier doughs. It's also taller and heavier, measuring However, it still has the brand's famous hub to fit a variety of attachments.
You'll find tons of happy customers who've left reviews on Amazon, including one who said , "This is the Bentley for bakers! But, while they are sturdy, they always groaned and labored with heavy doughs. For that reason, I was careful and if they got hot, [and] would let them rest.
I have been looking for years for that home machine that was truly large enough to make a difference AND had the motor to match. This has all that and more. No matter how many batches of cookies you want to bake , this monster machine can handle the heat. With its 9. The mighty appliance features a watt motor, a tilt-head design, and even a pouring shield to prevent splatters and messes.
Plus, the bowl is dishwasher-safe, making cleanup a breeze. Amazon reviewers say the stand mixer is a great size for big baking projects and compliment the machine's thoughtful design features. Plus, there is a locking feature when putting the bowl in so that it does not move.
This impressive stand mixer comes from Cuisinart, the respected kitchen brand that's synonymous with reliability. It features a watt motor and a speed dial to expertly mix everything from pizza dough to egg whites.
To keep ingredients from splattering out of the bowl, the mixer includes a splash guard, and its tilt-back head makes it easy to add in ingredients.
It also comes with a variety of attachments, including a chef's whisk, dough hook, and a flat mixing paddle. Plus, the machine's die-cast metal construction looks sleek on the countertop.
Users confirm that the Cuisinart appliance is sturdy, precise, and able to tackle a wide range of recipes. On both Amazon and Wayfair, the stand mixer has a remarkable 4. The different beaters are easy to put on and take off. When the head is tilted up, the bowl is easy to remove even with the beaters still in place. The splash guard is also easy to put on and take off.
Short on countertop and cupboard space? Enter this mini mixer. From slow stirring to speedy whipping, the Mini stands up to any mixing task with its ten-speed slide control and range of mixing tools. Its 3. And even though the machine is smaller, it still accommodates KitchenAid's variety of hub attachments. I've found no difference in performance between my larger stand mixer and this one so far.
Like block knife sets , stand mixers also make gorgeous countertop statements. And Italian-based Smeg crafts some of the most beautiful machines we've seen.
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