The best stand mixer according to the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen The best stand mixer according to expert home cooks. Plus, the best stand mixer according to the prosTilt-head vs. bowl-lift stand mixers
Sure, you can mix up your bread dough and whip your cream by hand or with a hand mixer (see here and here for our favorite options for those). But if you’re interested in kneading loaves of bread, making lots of whipped cream, or whisking egg whites into meringue with ease, then you’ll want one of the best stand mixers on your countertop.
The Best Stand Mixers
It’s no secret that these workhorse kitchen appliances come in handy for baking tasks, like mixing yellow cake batter or prepping big batches of chocolate chip cookie dough in a cinch. That said, there’s a lot to think about when shopping for the best stand mixer for your kitchen. You’ll want to consider how much space you have, how often you plan to use it, and of course, what recipes you plan to use it for. At bottom we recommend going for a stand mixer that has a powerful motor, a wide range of speed settings, and an accompanying stainless steel bowl (stainless is more versatile and durable than something like glass). To assist you in your search, we’ve listed a few of our top picks below—all of which are available in numerous color options, which is not something to discount since, in all likelihood, this is going to be an appliance that is on permanent display.
Best stand mixer according to the Bon Appétit test kitchen: KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer
“Like an Eames chair or a Noguchi paper lamp, the KitchenAid stand mixer is an instantly recognizable icon in its category,” says senior test kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic. According to her, acquiring one is a rite of passage not just for home cooks, but for adults in general—they’re markers of moving into a new home, graduating from school, or leveling up from amateur to enthusiast baker. While she prefers using the brand’s bowl-lift stand mixers in professional kitchens, she believes tilt-head style mixers are best suited for using at home. The KitchenAid Artisan Series tilt-head mixer has followed her around for the last decade, and it’s the one she turns to most often. It has a 5-quart capacity that’s capable of mixing up to nine dozen cookies at once, and BA staffers agree that it's the perfect size for most home bakers. We like its relatively compact size, which makes it possible to stow away in a kitchen cabinet when it’s not in use. Notably, this stand mixer’s bowl has a slightly tapered design that gets smaller at the bottom. Shilpa believes this detail improves its performance: “The narrower bottom ensures ingredients are in contact with the sides, resulting in a more evenly mixed batter.”
With a 325-watt motor and 10 different speeds, the KitchenAid Artisan 5-quart stand mixer whips, kneads, and whisks powerfully. Plus, it won’t move across the countertop when it’s set to high speeds (a common occurrence in cheaper stand mixers). We’ve found that the streamlined shape and tilt-head design also make it very easy to clean. That said, some bakers might find the bowl’s tapered shape annoying. The narrow bottom isn’t suited for very large recipes or particularly sticky bread doughs because it can be difficult to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula. But if your plans revolve around average-sized cakes, pie, cookie batches, this will be a great mixer for you.
This is also a stand mixer that can famously accommodate the whole menagerie of KitchenAid attachments, helping it transform into a pasta maker, a meat grinder, an ice cream maker, a spiralizer, even, strangely, a food processor.
Specs
Style: Tilt-headBowl capacity: 5-quart stainless steel bowlSpeed settings: 10 speedsMotor power: 325 wattsDimensions: 14.1"D x 8.7"W x 13.9"HWeight: 23 poundsIncluded: 5 Quart Stainless Steel Bowl, Coated Flat Beater, Coated Dough Hook, 6-Wire Whip, Pouring Shield
Best stand mixer according to expert home cooks: Breville Bakery Chef Stand Mixer
When product testers at our sister site Epicurious put more than a dozen stand mixers ranging from $40 to $1000 side-by-side, the Breville Bakery Chef came out on top. It has a more powerful motor than the KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer above and several included accessories and features that are uncommon. It comes with two mixing bowls: a 4-quart stainless steel bowl with two small helper handles and a 5-quart clear glass bowl with one handle, a pour spout, and measurements markings. The glass bowl also comes with a plastic lid, which comes in handy for proofing bread or pizza dough. Additionally, it comes with both a standard beater blade and a scraper beater blade. Thanks to that beater and its 550 watt motor the Breville Bakery Chef creamed a stick of butter and a cup of sugar better than any other mixer, including the KitchenAid Professional series. And unlike KitchenAid’s paddle scraper (which must be purchased separately from the Artisan mixer), the Breville paddle attachment has the silicone scraper on both sides, as opposed to just one.
What really sets this stand mixer apart are some of its design features. Bakers will appreciate its built-in timer and load-sensing technology. The timer can be used to log how long it takes for your mixture to reach the perfect consistency, it can also let you set the mixer to automatically shut off after that duration whenever you make the same recipe. As for the load-sensing feature, it detects when you are mixing heavy doughs and batters, then auto-adjusts and maintains its power.
Testers loved this machine, and had few complaints about it. The only real drawbacks is in comparison to the KitchenAid line: The Breville doesn’t have a port for attachments. So if you want an ice cream maker or a spiralizer you’ll need stand alone versions. But if you’re mostly using it for baking, that isn’t much of a consideration. Users may also need to get used to the control knob, which adjusts speeds so smoothly that it’s easy to under- or overshoot your desired setting.
Specs
Style: Tilt-headBowl capacity: 4-quart stainless steel bowl, 5-quart glass bowlSpeed settings: 12 speedsMotor power: 550 wattsDimensions: 11.4" x 14.8" x 14.3"Weight: 21 poundsIncluded: glass mixing bowl, stainless steel mixing bowl, double-sided scraper beater, standard flat beater, dough hook, wire whisk, pouring shield/splash guard, spatula
Best stand mixer according to the pros: KitchenAid Pro Line 7-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer
If you make bread often or regularly bake in extra-large batches, then you’ll want a bowl-lift stand mixer with a large capacity—six or seven quarts. Chef and author of More Than Cake Natasha Pickowicz recommends the KitchenAid Pro Line 7-quart bowl-lift stand mixer, which is the brand’s largest model made for home kitchens. Unlike the bowl of KitchenAid’s tilt-head mixers, the Artisan and the Artisan Mini, the Pro Line has a bowl that is held along the sides and eliminates the “divot” at the bottom of the bowl. This means you're less likely to end up with a clump of raw butter when you’re trying to cream it into a cup of sugar. Pickowicz also finds the bowl-lift design easier to use: “I like that the bowl floats and hooks into the spine of the mixer, rather than twisting into the bottom,” she says, “I have witnessed many kitchen accidents happen when someone is trying to untwist a stubborn mixer bowl out of its locked position.” The bowl’s base is also wider, which makes it easier to scrape a silicone spatula around the sides. Its beaters and whisks are larger, too, which makes them more efficient at mixing evenly and clearing the sides of the bowl, Pickowicz adds.
With an ultra-powerful 500-watt motor and 11 different speeds, this stand mixer is built to handle tougher mixtures, like sticky doughs. Its larger capacity allows it to mix up to 14 dozen cookies at once. This mixer has all the bells and whistles and it’s as hefty as it gets, making it a great option for serious bakers. Just note, though, the 7-quart capacity is most useful for prepping extra-large batches of whatever you’re making. It can fail to fully incorporate ingredients when you’re working with smaller batches. So, if you frequently bake for one or two people, you’ll likely prefer the more “standard-sized” stand mixer options mentioned above. It also has a more “pro” level price tag, so keep that in mind as well.
Specs
Style: Bowl-liftBowl capacity: 7-quart stainless steel bowlSpeed settings: 11 speedsMotor power: 500 wattsDimensions: 14.63"D x 11.31"W x 16.5"HWeight: 32 poundsIncluded: 7-Qt stainless steel bowl, Double flex edge beater, Coated flat beater, Coated dough hook, 11-wire whip, Pouring shield
Tilt-head vs. bowl-lift stand mixers
Bakers tend to have strong opinions on the topic of tilt-head versus bowl-lift stand mixers. And that’s okay—we all have different needs. Instead of thinking about which type is The Best, think about which type is best for you. The main difference between the two styles is how the bowls are attached and accessed. With tilt-head mixers, the top hinges back and the bowl twists onto the mixer's base. Some users find this design more convenient and easy to use, since all you have to do is tilt the head back to add ingredients. These mixers are usually more compact, which makes them a better option for smaller spaces and storing in a cabinet. They also typically have less powerful motors, which means they tend to be more affordable.
On the other hand, bowl-lift mixers have a stationary head and use a lever to raise and lower the bowl for mixing or adding ingredients. They usually have a larger capacity, a wider base, and higher speeds. Basically, these are the heavy-duty options. They almost always have more powerful motors, and they’re built to provide extra stability for mixing large and heavy recipes. If you’ll be using your stand mixer for kneading bread, this is the type for you. Bowl-lift stand mixers tend to be more expensive, but in some cases the splurge is very much worth the money.
There’s also a select couple mixers—this from Ankarsrum and this from Bosch—that aren’t really either tilt-head or bowl-lift. But when product testers gave them a try they found the designs lacking (more on why they didn’t like those mixers here). So we’d recommend you stick with the two more common designs.
This story originally appeared on Bon Appetit US.
