How to choose a stand mixer ?

Zabilo&You stand mixer buyers guide. 

A good stand mixer will take all the hard work out of baking, mixing batter and kneading dough to perfection in seconds, leaving you to get on with other things. 

Stand mixers (also known as kitchen machines or food mixers) are a great choice for keen bakers and for anyone who wants to make cakes, bread, muffins, pastry and desserts without spending hours in the kitchen preparing them.

Mixing bowl size

Stand mixers generally come with larger bowls than food processors, so can struggle with smaller amounts. If you like to make particularly big batches (more than two cakes' worth at a time), you'll need to go for a mixer with a large-capacity bowl - at least 500ml. 

Speed settings and wattage

You don't need to worry too much about this, unless you particularly want a wide range of speed options. We've found that the number of speed settings and the wattage of the machine aren't reliable indicators of quality when it comes to stand mixers. So it's worth bearing in mind more doesn't necessarily mean better.

However, some more pricey mixers have extra mixer settings worth looking out for.

These include:

• Pause - this allows you to stop the mixer to add ingredients, and then restart on the same speed setting rather than starting from scratch.

• Fold - a gentle mixing motion to fold in flour to cake mixes without beating the air out of the mix.

• Soft-start - even if you crank the mixer up high, it will start gently to avoid all the ingredients being flung out of the bowl.

• Timer - allows you to see how long you've been mixing for.

Accessories

Make sure the stand mixer will have all the tools for the tasks you need doing.

Every model should come with a dough hook (kneading), a balloon whisk attachment (whisking and whipping) and a beater tool (mixing). It's also worth looking out for the following extras:

• Splashguard - to cover the mixing bowl and prevent ingredients flying out and splattering you and your machine. 

• Flexi-beater - these have a flexible spatula edge on one side of a standard beater, allowing them to scrap all the ingredients off the side of the bowl during mixing.

• Food processor attachment - if you’re after a machine that will slice or grate, choose a stand mixer that has a food processor attachment.

• Jug blender - if you want to blend smoothies or soup, you'll want a stand mixer with a jug blender attachment. These can sometimes also crush ice but you'll need to check this, as models vary in their capabilities.