Investing in a KitchenAid stand mixer is an attractive ceremony of passage for the house cook dinner; it’s the second when the pandemic-inspired bread hobbyist turns into a real baker. However with increasingly more fashions of the equipment obtainable yearly, the enjoyment of unboxing your new stirring, kneading, mixing toy could be dampened by the maddening course of of choosing the machine that’s best for you.
KitchenAid makes the preferred stand mixers available on the market, and just about everybody — together with me, knowledgeable meals author and newbie baker — loves them. So, I hope the model will forgive me once I say that its branding division appears to hail from the Kafka college of confusion and shapeshifting id: Do you fancy your self extra an Artisan? Or a Professional? When mixing dough, would you like one thing Deluxe? Or will the Basic do the job? And that’s simply the bottom machine; I haven’t even touched on the myriad attachments or dozens of aesthetic selections (colour, bowl texture, matte or gloss?) that face the aspiring stand-mixer proprietor.
Don’t despair. I occur to be available in the market for a brand new mixer myself, and I take my analysis very severely. I’ve performed the analysis and in contrast all the fashions of KitchenAid at present obtainable, and I now perceive what units each aside. Right here then is all the pieces I’ve realized about navigating the Byzantine world of KitchenAid stand mixers.
First, the age-old debate: tilt-head or bowl-lift? What’s the distinction?
So that you’re selecting a KitchenAid mixer and also you encounter the nice dichotomy: One of many foremost variations you’ll see amongst stand-mixers is whether or not they’re “bowl-lift” or “tilt-head”. In case you’re like me, you then had been (till looking for a mixer your self) doubtless solely accustomed to the “tilt-head” model — through which the pinnacle that holds the blending attachment actually leans backwards and tilts out of the bowl, making it simple so as to add substances with out eradicating your paddle.
Tilt-head fashions are the go-to for house bakers as a result of they’re really easy to make use of, however, they could lack the oomph wanted for heavy responsibility customers. In case you have a tendency to combine harder bread doughs, batters, and the like, then a tilt-head simply received’t be as much as the job. In that case, you may wish to select “bowl-lift”—through which the bowl lifts up and down underneath the blending attachment. This is usually a actual ache to maneuver once you wish to add substances, but it surely makes up for that inconvenience with its stability and solidity. A lift-bowl mixer can deal with just about something you throw at it with out balking or burning out.
Nonetheless, tilt-heads could be completely appropriate as a house mixer so long as their engines are as much as the job. Which brings us to…
Artisan vs. Basic vs. Deluxe vs. Professional — what’s actually the distinction?
There are a number of foremost strains of KitchenAid stand mixers for the at-home baker, and it may be difficult at first (or third) look to know what the distinction is.
Every is a tilt-head fashion mixer. Bowl-lift types don’t have a line title; they’re simply referred to as “KitchenAid”, or within the case of their industrial model, “NSF Licensed Industrial.”
The three tilt-head mixer strains are the KitchenAid Basic sequence, the KitchenAid Deluxe Sequence, and the KitchenAid Artisan Sequence. The first variations between the three sequence boil all the way down to engine energy and bowl capability.
Basic
The Basic sequence is provided with a 275-watt motor and a regular 4.5-quart bowl with no deal with. In case you use your mixer to whip cream and make the occasional batch of cookies, a Basic will completely do the job — however for something greater than essentially the most informal baker, you might have considered trying a bit extra energy.
Who it’s for: Residence bakers with very restricted wants — whipping egg whites and making packaged cake mixes, for instance.
Deluxe
The Deluxe sequence additionally comes with a 4.5-quart bowl, although the Deluxe bowl has a deal with — fancy! At 300 watts, the motor is extra highly effective than that of the Classics, though not too considerably. The Deluxe represents a small enchancment over the traditional and often sports activities a barely increased price ticket because of this, although on the time of writing, each had been promoting on the KitchenAid web site for $279.99.
Who it’s for: Customers whose mixing wants are barely extra superior than the standard Basic sequence customers… or those that observed that the Deluxe is definitely cheaper than the Basic proper now, and know a deal after they see one.
Artisan
The Artisan is one step up from the Deluxe, and is sturdy, high-performing, and nice for individuals who use their stand mixer extra usually than as soon as in a blue moon. It comes with a 5-quart bowl and a 325-watt engine, and as an added level of attraction, additionally is available in a greater diversity of attention-grabbing colours than the opposite tilt-head fashions. (Under, Scorched Orange; Matcha and Blue Velvet are additionally fairly rattling cool.) Plus, it ships with a pouring defend. The 325-watt engine ought to be enough for many house bakers, but when your major curiosity is in bread and different knead-y doughs, you then nonetheless may wish to take into account a bowl-lift possibility.
There’s additionally, it ought to definitely be famous, a 250-watt Artisan Mini mannequin (see why this all fairly complicated?), which is smaller (clearly) and has a lighter weight (simply 14.3 kilos), a smaller counter footprint, and a 3.5-quart bowl. That will sound small, however it will possibly nonetheless whip up a whopping 60 cookies in a single batch, in accordance with KitchenAid’s calculations. It’s described as the answer for ‘once you nonetheless want the ability however don’t fairly have the area,” making it an excellent selection for these in, say, a small condominium with restricted counter and cupboard area.
Who it’s for: The passionate house baker who’s able to department out to harder doughs, however who can’t afford (or just doesn’t like) the unique bowl-lift mannequin. Somebody who desires the utmost variety of attractive finishes and colour choices. For the Artisan Mini mannequin, somebody who bakes lots however in comparatively small batches and who doesn’t have an abundance of space for storing of their kitchen.
What concerning the Professional line?
Most house bakers, realistically, will need a tilt-head mannequin — however in the event you’re nonetheless fascinated by going for a bowl-lift mixer, you’ll wish to peruse the Professional line, which incorporates the Skilled 500, Skilled 600 (at present out of inventory on KitchenAid’s website), and past. A wide range of fashions fall into this class, a few of which have “Professional” of their title and some of which don’t, such because the 7 Quart Bowl-Carry Stand Mixer. Some have additionally been discontinued, however are obtainable refurbished once in a while (for round $200–300 — a superb deal contemplating their high-end options).
Relying on the mannequin, the Professional bowl-lift mixers have double the oomph of the lean head fashions; all of them appear to have at the least 475 watts of energy, though KitchenAid is extra keen on utilizing horsepower as a metric on its web site. The bowl sizes run from 5 to eight quarts, and these larger-capacity, high-powered machines are greatest for these doing a lot of baking, whether or not for private or industrial use, and particularly those that want to combine a variety of bread doughs. They’re additionally heavier than different fashions and have a bigger counter footprint, they usually have 11 speeds, together with a half-speed for folding in substances. The 7-quart mannequin could make 13 dozen cookies in a single batch — let’s simply say that’s a variety of cookies. Attachments-wise, it comes with a number of extras, together with a double-flex edge beater for bowl scraping.
Who it’s for: Bread makers, these baking massive batches of cookies or pastries, and residential cooks with a number of intensive duties.
OK, so that you’re actually, actually critical (aka the Industrial Sequence)
In case you actually make bread — like on a regular basis and on your neighbors and are considering of opening a storefront to make increasingly more and extra bread — then there actually is just one possibility: the NSF Licensed® Industrial Sequence. (NSF, as soon as generally known as the Nationwide Sanitation Basis, is a nonprofit that units well being and security requirements for meals service gear.)
This isn’t a machine for a house baker; that is restaurant gear and is priced as such — a cool $950 and even $999.99. Nonetheless, this machine is a beast. With an enormous eight-quart bowl and a 1.3 horsepower motor—that’s 500-750 watts—it will possibly tear by, combine, knead, and totally abuse even the thickest doughs (as much as eight kilos in a single batch) with out slowing or overheating.
You possibly can inform this machine means enterprise as a result of the bowl is protected by a metallic cage (it type of appears to be like just like the one you’d use to swim with sharks), and as a substitute of an everyday twine, it plugs into the wall with a thick orange industrial twine.
You virtually definitely don’t want one among these. However in the event you do get one, please invite me over, and let’s make tons of of cookies.
Who it’s for: Professionals (bakers, sandwich store homeowners, cooks and industrial kitchens) and gear-obsessed amateurs with beneficiant budgets and a variety of counter area
What about that picket bowl? (and extra ideas on KitchenAid colours and finishes)
There are actually dozens of various colours, finishes, and types of bowl for KitchenAid stand mixers. Do you know there are bowls on the market with a bronze end, or ceramic, and even wooden?
The limited-edition Design Sequence has produced some extremely covetable iterations, reminiscent of final 12 months’s good-looking Evergreen mixer with an attractive darkish walnut wooden bowl, which brought about a near-frenzy, and let’s not neglect the very goth-looking studded black bowl that dropped a number of years in the past (and continues to be obtainable). (I’m on the fence in the case of the Evergreen. It’s undeniably pretty if a bit intense.)
2022’s Design Sequence mannequin was additionally attractive, with a nuanced mint-green colour. I’m particularly a fan of the hammered copper bowls (like that one options) and the earthy clay ceramic ones, which add an incongruous farmhouse aptitude to what is usually a decidedly industrial-looking piece of equipment.
I’ve been doubtful of color-of-the-year traits since millennial pink infantilized a whole technology, however I need to say, 2025’s colour is butter yellow and… I’m listening.
In case you’re DIY-inclined, you possibly can all the time purchase a refurbished mixer and customise it to your coronary heart’s content material — the sky, fairly actually, is the restrict.
Lastly, do I want to purchase attachments?
You don’t want to purchase something additional from the bounce. Each mixer features a flat beater, dough hook, and wire whip. Begin with the machine, after which see how your wants evolve as time goes on, cooking challenge by cooking challenge. That being mentioned, a number of of the preferred add-on attachments are the Connoisseur Pasta Press, the pasta curler set, and the meat grinder. In case you take pleasure in making do-it-yourself pasta or grinding up your individual beef, pork, or lamb, then sure, these attachments can definitely come in useful. However for a typical house baker, you’ll be all set with what’s included within the field.
There you may have it! A mixer for each attainable eventuality. Right here’s to your lives being stuffed with contemporary doughnuts and meringues!
