The Actual Motive You Ought to Use a Stand Mixer Is not Comfort

It is no secret that I really like my stand mixer, and that it performs a task in an amazing variety of my cookie, cake, and frosting recipes.

However after I speak about how essential a stand mixer is for baking, people normally reply with one thing alongside the traces of, “Properly, then how did they do it within the olden days?” And the reply is, they did not. What many bakers do not understand is that utilizing a stand mixer isn’t a selection of comfort; I take advantage of a stand mixer in these recipes as a result of it is higher suited to the job than mixing by hand (or with a hand mixer). Apart from the truth that the stand mixer itself is greater than 100 years previous, making it a fixture of recent recipe growth, the desserts made previous to that period had been radically totally different from those we make at the moment and higher suited to preparation by hand. The arrival of high-power mechanical mixing allowed for brand spanking new strategies and ingredient ratios to create the desserts we all know and love at the moment.

The Greatest Stand Mixer

A Transient Historical past of Mixing

Fashionable American layer truffles are an incredible instance of this; previous to mechanical mixing, People made truffles very similar to bakers within the Outdated World: sponge truffles produced from egg whites and yolks whipped individually by hand, then mixed with fats and flour folded in on the finish. These had been then completed with a easy meringue frosting or, probably, a little bit of unsweetened whipped cream (each fairly straightforward to whip by hand).

However with a mechanical mixer’s distinctive capabilities, bakers started to develop recipes with larger proportions of butter as an alternative, finally bringing us to the richer model of cake and frosting we discover in American bakeries at the moment. These buttery kinds of cake and frosting merely did not exist again when the one possibility was to arrange one thing by hand.

Clearly, there is a whole lot extra to the story than that, however for now, suffice it to say that stand mixers have given approach to their very own style of baking—one which occurs to be of explicit private curiosity to me. That is partially attributable to my culinary faculty coaching in addition to my very own background in business bakeries and eating places. I am not right here to say proudly owning a stand mixer is important to all bakers—certainly, lengthy durations of inactivity may cause points for KitchenAid fashions—solely that it is pretty important to the model of baking I concentrate on in my very own work.

How Stand Mixers Work

Crucial factor a stand mixer has to supply is not comfort; it is energy.

Due to their robust motors, stand mixers can work with butter at temperatures properly under what an individual might handle by hand, properly under even what a hand mixer might sort out (attempt to cream 65°F butter with a hand mixer as an alternative of a stand mixer, and you will simply watch cubes of fats fly from the bowl). With that energy, the broad, flat paddle attachment can quickly beat comparatively chilly butter with sugar, working it into an ethereal matrix of fats, air, and sugar crystals.

That is a necessary facet of the creaming technique, as butter loses its capability for aeration because it warms, that means that butter creamed at temperatures appropriate for working by hand (or with a hand mixer) won’t ever attain a stage as fluffy or mild. The decrease quantity of batters and doughs that hotter butter produces interprets to a decrease yield (as aeration bodily will increase the quantity of house a batter or dough will occupy) in addition to a poor rise, making for heavy truffles and flat cookies. So in case you’ve ever been stricken by flat cookies, the poor creaming motion of a hand mixer could also be accountable.

For extra data, please see our detailed have a look at the technical course of concerned within the creaming technique.

Past its energy to work with comparatively chilly and arduous butter, the motion of a stand mixer’s paddle attachment is exclusive; it is a single paddle that is broad and flat, capable of bash, rub, smear, unfold, and fold.

Whereas each a stand mixer and a hand mixer can incorporate butter and sugar, a stand mixer’s paddle achieves extra quantity alongside the best way, whereas sustaining a decrease temperature for the components (in flip, maintaining my cookie dough thick and straightforward to deal with, not sticky, and maintaining my cake batters cool, higher capable of retain air for a good rise).

Due to their highly effective motors, stand mixers are additionally capable of whip complete eggs straight from the fridge, with none want for separating whites and yolks or bringing them to room temperature first. Whether or not I am making shiny chocolate brownies or a crack-free jelly roll, working with chilly eggs helps guarantee a extra secure foam for baked items.

Once more, this permits for strategies that weren’t doable in Ye Olden Days. Within the 1800s, a baker must separate whites from yolks to whip every by itself to make one thing like a chocolate sponge cake, however a stand mixer has the sheer energy to whip chilly, complete eggs right into a secure foam.

So for bakers who persistently expertise a low rise with sponge truffles or discover that foamed-egg brownies at all times appear uncooked or dense or that Swiss meringue at all times appears too heavy and buttery, the issue might be an underpowered hand mixer.

So then what’s the perfect mixer, you ask? I’ve written all about my love for the six-quart KitchenAid Professional.

FAQs

What’s the perfect stand mixer?

We’re enormous followers of the KitchenAid Professional stand mixer, but additionally advocate different fashions from Wolf, KitchenAid, and Ankarsrum. You’ll be able to learn our full evaluation of stand mixers right here.

Does KitchenAid make the perfect stand mixers?

Properly, two out of 4 of our high stand mixer picks are made by KitchenAid. You’ll be able to learn a extra detailed comparability of (nearly) all the KitchenAid stand mixers right here.