A Great Starter Mixer to Get You Baking

The Hamilton Beach 6-Speed Classic Stand Mixer is a great starter mixer to get the new cook baking.  It fits into most budgets especially for someone starting out on their own or someone who has limited space in their kitchen.  This smaller mixer will do the basic jobs of mixing cake batters, egg whites, sauces and other simple items.  At under $40 with free shipping using Amazon Prime; the price is right.

If you want a stand mixer that has all the bells and whistles, then you will need to spend much more on a larger stand mixer.  I recommend anyone just getting started in experimenting with baking simple cookies, cakes, pies, etc. to start with this simple  Hamilton Beach Classic Stand Mixer so you are not frustrated with the complexity of use with the larger, fancier stand mixers.  This one will last you a while as you practice your baking techniques.

 

This Hamilton Beach stand mixer provides an average motor with 6 speeds, a 4 qt bowl and basic beaters.  It will double as a hand mixer which I find to be handy at times when I don't want to set up the whole mixer.  It stores away easily since it is light weight and compact.  Perfect for someone with a small kitchen or living area.

Once you are ready to advance to bread making and other fancier baking recipes, than you will want to review some of the other stand mixers in the $200 to $300 price range.  They come with larger motors, bowls and extra attachments.  I like the Kitchen Aid Artisan series or the Breville brand if you can spend a couple hundred dollars on a mixer.

The Best Stand Mixer Under $100

The best stand mixer for under $100 is the Sunbeam Heritage Series 350 Watt Stand Mixer.  This is one of my favorite brands of mixers and it has truly lasted for decades.  My grandmother had a Sunbeam mixer and today I now am a grandmother with a Sunbeam mixer!  I will let you do the math! 

Today's Sunbeam is sleek, attractive, practical and still affordable.  This stand mixer is less than $100 and is available with free shipping online.  This mixer would make a wonderful holiday gift for your favorite cook, a great gift for a new bride or a present to yourself because you deserve it.

For the price, you get 350 watts of power, 12 speeds, all metal housing, 4.6 qt metal mixing bowl, extra beater attachments and 8 different colors to choose from.  Getting a selection of a color to match your kitchen decor is a plus that I love about this mixer.  But first most, I love the durability of this mixer and since I bake all the time this is important to me in a mixer.

If you cannot afford to invest hundreds of dollars in one of the fancier stand mixers on the market today, I would highly recommend this Sunbeam Heritage Series Stand Mixer for you.  You will not be disappointed in how much mixer you will receive for this affordable price.

The 5 Best Attachments for your KitchenAid Stand Mixer

The 5 best attachments for your KitchenAid Stand Mixer include the food grinder, juicer, ice cream maker, slicer and shredder and the pouring shield with a wide chute.   I like these specific attachments because it turns my KitchenAid into an all around appliance.  Why have all these applicances to store when you can use your stand mixer to do all these things?  Here are the reasons why I picked these attachments:

1. My family has been making homemade pork sausage for years.  It is part of our tradition to grind up pork, season it, stuff into casings and save for the holidays.  My grandfather and grandmother would grind the meat in a hand grinder, but today I use my KitchenAid stand mixer to grind the meat quickly and easily.  It also comes with a tool to stuff the ground meat into the casings.  You can't beat that!  This food grinder attachment is useful when wanting to grind other foods too.

2. I love fresh juice and when our large juice stopped working, I bought the juicer attachment for the kitchen aid.  We even juice fresh apples during the fall when apples are abundant. 

3. If you have children at home or grandkids like I do, then the ice cream maker attachment is a must.  The KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker comes with a basic recipe to make homemade ice cream or use your favorite recipe too.  When the kids come over in the summer, we make some ice cream and let it chill in the freezer for a while.  They get a kick out of making their own ice cream.  With the price of ice cream today, this is a inexpensive way to go.

4. Lately, we have been watching our diet and eating more vegetables than ever before.  The slicer and shredder attachment turns the mixer into a food processor or mandoline tool.  When wanting to slice up a large amount of cucumbers or shred cabbage for cole slow, using this attachment sure makes the job quicker than cutting or chopping by hand.

5. Last but not least, I really recommend adding the pouring shield with wide chute to your baking and cooking needs.  This attachment really helps keep ingredients such as eggs from splashing out of the bowl when adding them for a baking recipe.  The chute attachs to the bowl and helps with pouring too.

If you cannot buy all these attachments at one time for your KitchenAid Stand Mixer, buy one at a time until you have the ones you need.  Or put them on your wish list for someone to buy you as a gift!

The Best Stand Mixer for a New Cook

The best stand mixer for a new cook is one that is simple to use with basic speeds.  It does not need to have lots of extra attachments or numerous functions like a professional stand mixer.  A new cook may be a young newlywed or even a pre-teen learning to cook for the first time.  I learned to bake and cook using a classic Sunbeam MixMaster Stand Mixer.

I remember my mother's Sunbeam stand mixer very well.  It was a sturdy mixer with 2 glass mixing bowls.  A small one for icings, eggs, and other small mixes while the large 4 quart bowl was used for everything else.  It had all the necessary speeds such as fold, knead, mix, stir, beat, whip, cream and blend.

Our Sunbeam Stand Mixer only came with the standard beaters, but today they have improved this by including a dough hook and wire whip to the mixer when you buy it.  I would have loved having those extra tools when I was a teenage using our stand mixer.  I had to mix everything with the same basic beaters.

This Sunbeam Stand Mixer lasted for many years.  I took it with me when I was first married and used it for several years more.  I made lots of Lemon Meringue Pies with beaten egg whites since that was my dad's favorite pie and this sturdy stand mixer never let me down on whipping nice stiff egg whites for meringue.

I would recommend this basic Sunbeam Stand Mixer as a gift for anyone who is learning to bake and cook or as a gift for a newlywed couple.  It will last them many years of wonderful baking.

Click here to learn more about the Sunbeam 2371 MixMaster Stand Mixer featured on Amazon.com

The Cuisinart Stand Mixer has the Best Warranty

Cuisinart makes a 12-Speed stand mixer that has the best warranty on its product compared to other stand mixers on the market. When shopping for a stand mixer to do heavy mixing, you want a mixer that will hold up and with this 3 year warranty by Cuisinart you know that they stand behind their product.  Cuisinart also offers a full 5 year warranty on the motor of this stand mixer. 

It may look cheap with it's plastic body, but it is a workhorse with a 800 watt motor.  If you are a serious bread baker or makes a lot of thick cake icing, this mixer is worth a look.  The product reviews from customers give this stand mixer a pretty high rating.  The mixer does not jump around when mixing these thick doughs or batters. 

For the mid-range price compared to other stand mixers such as a KitchenAid, this Cuisinart stand mixer offers a much better warranty than what KitchenAid, Sunbeam and Hamilton Beach offer.  For that reason alone, it is a reason to give this stand mixer a serious look.

The Best Stand Mixer for Those on a Budget

For those on a budget, the best stand mixer for the price is the Hamilton Beach Eclectrics All-Metal 12-Speed Stand Mixer which comes in at over one hundred less than the KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer.  If you are on a budget, but need a stand mixer that can do the heavy jobs like the other large stand mixer, than this Hamilton Beach Eclectrics is a good choice.

It has a 400 watt motor with a full 3 year warranty which is a real nice feature.  It has attachments just like the KitchenAid which include a dough hook, flat beater and whisk.  The finish is a brushed sterling over an all metal housing.  It is larger and heavier than you may expect for the price.  

I have a friend who owns this stand mixer from Hamilton Beach and she loves it.  Her daughter has a gluten allergy, so she makes all her own bread every week.  Sometimes she is mixing this heavy gluten-free dough several times a week.

The only complaint she has is the bowl tends to get wobbly and lets loose of it's latch when she stops the mixer to add ingredients or scrape the sides of the bowl.  This bowl is only a 4 1/2 quart size instead of the larger sizes other mixer brands come with.  But again, this is the mixer to buy when you want a professional stand mixer but save money. 

Compare a Breville Stand Mixer to the KitchenAid Professional?

When my classic KitchenAid Stand Mixer was needing to be replaced, I researched several professional quality stand mixers that were within my budget I had allowed for a new mixer.  I needed a good stand mixer that would withstand many minutes of mixing heavy bread dough.  I looked at the Breville 5- Quart Die-Cast Stand Mixer, KitchenAid 600 Professional Mixer and the Cuisinart 12 Speed Stand Mixer that I will discuss later.  I had narrowed it down to the Breville and KitchenAid stand mixers using the pros and cons list for each one.  Here is what I found about each one:

The pros for choosing the Breville 5- Quart Die-Cast Stand Mixer include:

A die-cast mixer body

Planetary mixing action (unique)

12 speeds with LED electronic control

10 minute timer with auto shut off

Lift asssist mixer head

Only 22 pounds

Retractable cord for storage

Just under $300 with free shipping online

The cons to consider before buying a Breville mixer include:

Only a 5 quart mixing bowl

Only 550 watts of power

Only accessories include a scraper beater

Includes a splash guard but no pour spout

No mention of warranty on motor or mixer

Now the pros for considering the KitchenAid Professional 600 Series Stand Mixer include:

A 6 quart stainless mixing bowl

All metal construction of mixer

Has bowl lift feature

12 speed electronic control with Soft Start to minimize splatter

Accessories include wire whip, flat beater, metal spiral dough hook and pour shield

Has selection of colors to match kitchen decor

Some cons to think about before making a purchase of a KitchenAid 600 Professional Stand Mixer:

Does not have the Planetary Mixing Action

Does Not come with a timer

575 watt motor has auto shut off when motor gets hot; can be in the middle of mixing

No retractable cord

Cost is over $300, but has free shipping also online

As good as the Breville Die-Cast Mixer looks, I went with the KitchenAid Professional 600 Series Stand Mixer to replace my classic KitchenAid Mixer.  Since KitchenAid has so many attachments available for their stand mixers, I wanted the option of adding these items later on.  The savings for buying the Breville Stand Mixer would only be approximately $25.