The Actual Cause 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 awesome variety of my cookie, cake, and frosting recipes.

However once I discuss how vital a stand mixer is for baking, of us often reply with one thing alongside the strains 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 shouldn’t be 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 Apart from the truth that the stand mixer itself is greater than 100 years outdated, making it a fixture of contemporary recipe improvement, the desserts made previous to that period had been radically completely different from those we make at present and higher suited to preparation by hand. The arrival of high-power mechanical mixing allowed for brand new methods and ingredient ratios to create the desserts we all know and love at present.

The Greatest Stand Mixer

A Temporary Historical past of Mixing

Fashionable American layer muffins are an amazing instance of this; previous to mechanical mixing, Individuals made muffins very similar to bakers within the Previous World: sponge muffins comprised of 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 simple to whip by hand).

However with a mechanical mixer’s distinctive capabilities, bakers started to develop recipes with greater proportions of butter as a substitute, finally bringing us to the richer type of cake and frosting we discover in American bakeries at present. These buttery types of cake and frosting merely did not exist again when the one possibility was to organize 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 specific private curiosity to me. That is partly 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 type of baking I give attention to in my very own work.

How Stand Mixers Work

A very powerful factor a stand mixer has to supply is not comfort; it is energy.

Due to their sturdy motors, stand mixers can work with butter at temperatures effectively beneath what an individual may handle by hand, effectively beneath even what a hand mixer may sort out (attempt to cream 65°F butter with a hand mixer as a substitute of a stand mixer, and you may simply watch cubes of fats fly from the bowl). With that energy, the vast, 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 an important side of the creaming methodology, 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 area a batter or dough will occupy) in addition to a poor rise, making for heavy muffins and flat cookies. So if you happen to’ve ever been affected by flat cookies, the poor creaming motion of a hand mixer could also be in charge.

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

Past its energy to work with comparatively chilly and laborious butter, the motion of a stand mixer’s paddle attachment is exclusive; it is a single paddle that is vast and flat, in a position to 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 way in which, whereas sustaining a decrease temperature for the elements (in flip, maintaining my cookie dough thick and straightforward to deal with, not sticky, and maintaining my cake batters cool, higher in a position to retain air for an excellent rise).

Due to their highly effective motors, stand mixers are additionally in a position to 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 methods 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 constantly expertise a low rise with sponge muffins or discover that foamed-egg brownies all the time appear uncooked or dense or that Swiss meringue all the time 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 large followers of the KitchenAid Professional stand mixer, but additionally suggest different fashions from Wolf, KitchenAid, and Ankarsrum. You may learn our full assessment 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 may learn a extra detailed comparability of (virtually) all the KitchenAid stand mixers right here.