Kitchen Mixers & Attachments

• The flat beater is the most universal attachment that comes with the mixer.
• It is great for creaming butter, processing batter, and more.

• The hook attachment has a spiral or hook shape.
• It is important for kneading dough and I even like to use it for finishing/processing the dense batter of cookies.

The pasta press is a great alternative to the regular pasta attachment. It is great for making spaghetti, but also allows you to prepare shapes that you will be not able to prepare with a pasta attachment, such as fusilli, bucatini, large macaroni, rigatoni, and small macaroni. Even though I like this pasta press, I ended up using my regular pasta attachment much more often since is much faster and more efficient.

A self-standing kitchen mixer is an essential tool in any kitchen. It’s great not just for bakers but for everyday cooking as well. There are a lot of different brands out there, and if your budget is tight or your space is limited, a hand mixer makes a perfectly reasonable stand-in.

Self-standing mixers generally last far longer than inexpensive hand mixers. They’re built from better materials and have stronger motors. The other real advantage is that you don’t have to hold them while they work, which frees you up to do three other things at once — and in a home kitchen, that matters more than any spec on the box.

I’ve worked with a lot of different mixers over the years, and KitchenAid is the brand I recommend. They’re well built, they hold their value, and they’re by far the most versatile: with additional attachments you can turn one machine into a juicer, a pasta roller, a grinder, a sheet cutter. That saves both money and counter space, which in most kitchens is the scarcer of the two.

Which KitchenAid to buy

Cooking for a small family, or working to a budget? Buy the Classic. The bowl is smaller at 4.5 quarts, but the motor is genuinely capable and it’s the least expensive machine in the range. It does the same work as the more expensive models, just in smaller batches. For most households this is the right answer, and I say that having owned one for years.

My first KitchenAid was a Classic, and it went through four years of extremely heavy use — including in my restaurant — before a gear inside gave out. That sounds like a complaint, but it’s the opposite: the replacement gear cost ten dollars, the repair took about half an hour with the help of a video, and the machine has worked like new ever since. Very few appliances at any price are that easy to bring back.

If your budget is more relaxed, the Artisan adds roughly $100 for a slightly stronger motor, half a quart more bowl, a bowl handle, a splash guard and a much wider colour selection. Honestly, the mechanical difference is small. If you want a specific colour, buy it — that’s a legitimate reason. If you’re buying on performance, the Classic gets you there and the splash guard costs about ten dollars separately.

If you cook a lot, bake a lot, or feed a larger household, the Commercial is the one. It’s NSF-certified, genuinely durable, and a pleasure to work with — powerful motor, consistent mixing, and no fuss. The 8-quart bowl lets me run a double batch of bread in one go, which changes how I plan a baking day. It’s still compact enough for a home kitchen, and all the standard attachments fit (the splash guard is the exception). Considering the build, the capacity and the certification, the price is fair. This is the best KitchenAid I’ve owned and I expect it to outlast everything else in the house.

The Artisan Mini I’d skip. It costs about $60 more than the Classic for the same motor and a 3.5-quart bowl that’s too small for most jobs, and it isn’t meaningfully smaller on the counter. If the compact look is what you want, that’s a fair reason to buy one — just go in knowing what you’re getting.

A note on the Professional line

I should be straightforward about this, because it shaped my recommendations for a long time. Some years ago I had a run of persistent problems with the Professional 600 — enough units, returned and replaced, that I stopped recommending that line entirely and steered people to the Classic or the Commercial instead.

That experience is now several product generations old, and I haven’t tested a current Professional, so I’m not going to tell you it’s the same machine I had trouble with. It very likely isn’t. What I can tell you is what I know first-hand: the Classic and the Commercial have both been excellent for me, and those are the two I can recommend from direct, long-term use. If you’re considering the Professional today, look for recent owner reports rather than mine.

What’s good about KitchenAid

• They’re very space efficient for what they do.
• The attachment ecosystem is enormous. One machine and a hub becomes a grinder, a pasta roller, a juicer, a sheet cutter — which saves both money and counter space.
• They’re often discounted. They look expensive at list price, but I’ve bought the basic model for under $200 during promotions more than once. Watch for sales rather than paying full price.
• They last. Not forever, but longer and under heavier use than most of what they compete with, which makes them cheaper over the life of the machine.
• They’re easy and inexpensive to repair. Parts are widely available at fair prices, the work is straightforward, and there are video tutorials for essentially every job. That repairability is one of the strongest arguments for the brand.

Attachments included in the box

Most stand mixers come with three attachments:

• Whisk attachment (read more here)
• Flat beater attachment (read more here)
• Dough hook attachment (read more here)

Some also include a splash guard (read more here).

Easily upgrade your KitchenAid with the powerful meat/food grinder. You can grind anything from burger meat to salmon to vegetables. It is easy to setup, operate, and also to clean (all units are dishwasher safe).

You can also purchase the food tray extension for the grinder attachment (for working with larger amounts of food). You can also optionally combine this with the sausage stuffer if you want to prepare homemade sausages, hot dogs, and similar products. All three attachments are inexpensive. If you also like to strain and puree a variety of different fruit and vegetables, you should consider the slightly more expensive version of the food grinder which has this added function.

This is a very good attachment, which will not fully replace a food processor, but will do some operations even better. There are two options for the food processor attachment. The cheaper option can shred, slice, and cut to julienne. The little more expensive option (extra $20 – $30) can also dice, which is my favorite function, especially when I prepare potato salad (for uniformity and great size).

In comparison to a regular processor, the advantage is that the food goes through and does not get stuck in the mixer. You can start with your bowl under and continuously process without stopping by simply replacing the bowl. Even with the difference in how they process, both versions of the attachments are generally a little more expensive than I wish. However, I still believe they are worth it, especially the version that dices.

If you want to take your baking one step further, you can consider the grain mill attachment. You can use it to grind any low moisture and low oil grain, such as wheat, oat, corn, rice, and other.

This is a very affordable ice cream maker, which is very easy to use. Before using, the bowl needs to be in a freezer for at least up to 10 hours. Then simply mount it to your KitchenAid and the ice cream can be processed!

This is easily my favorite KitchenAid attachment. It’s a high quality tool that changes any KitchenAid to an automatic and very precise pasta machine (so no more cranking). It is really easy to set and use. You can buy just the sheet maker (great for lasagna too) or the 3 pack, which I have, and I would recommend as the best value option (it also includes a spaghetti and fettuccine cutter).

There are also five packs with two extra cutters, which I don’t consider that useful, but you may have a different opinion. The one pasta attachment usually sold separately is the Ravioli maker, but I cannot recommend it to you as it needs to be operated (turned) manually (even after mounted to the KitchenAid). You need to be very precise when using it. I personally find any other way of making ravioli more effective. If you make a lot of pasta, you might also consider purchasing their pasta dryer (pasta drying rack). It is easy to use and, when done, can be compactly folded. See recipe “Pasta from Scratch” here.