From Scratch

You might have a kitchen cabinet like one of mine: under-counter, storing heavy things such as cast iron cookware, bulky things such as a lobster pot, and small things that don’t get used very often. My hand mixer fell into that latter category and it was tucked in the back, requiring me to move at least three items to get to it.

Not anymore. I’m keeping it handy now. Last week I had to beat small amounts of sugar and cream cheese and even though I’m prone to using a stand mixer for jobs as small as whipping a few egg whites, the thought of those two items in a big bowl was ludicrous and equally important, I didn’t want to beat a lot of air into the cream cheese. I put them in a small bowl and was about to go at them with a wooden spoon when I remembered my hand mixer which, honestly, I hadn’t used in about two years. I’d forgotten how efficient it can be and as it made short work of the task, I remembered a Cook’s Illustrated equipment test a few years ago that found in many cases, the end result from a hand mixer was identical to a stand mixer, it just took a little more time to get there.

All this reminded me that not everyone needs a stand mixer, despite the seductiveness of having one on the kitchen counter and the not-so-subtle message of ads and infomercials that every serious cook or baker has one. The truth is your tasks can make the decision for you but, like most things, not all are created equal and there are things to keep in mind when shopping for a hand mixer.

Hand vs. Stand

My own experience taught me that a stand mixer is not an essential piece of equipment. I got along fine for many years with a food processor, which does almost everything a stand mixer does and some it does not, and a hand mixer. But even with limited use, I had to replace my hand mixer every few years and learned to put up with their limitations, especially with respect to power. Then KitchenAid entered the hand mixer market and I bought a 5-speed model, the one I still have, and I saw the difference the first time I used it. It had real power and the then-revolutionary wire beaters, now widely imitated, outperformed the standard beaters with wide blades. 

Here are tasks Cook’s Illustrated found are performed equally well by hand mixers and stand mixers:

• mixing cake batters
  mixing cookie doughs
  whipping cream
  beating egg whites

Hand mixers can also be used for mashed potatoes and mixing up a meatloaf, if the mixer has the oomph.

Which hand mixer?

CI tested eight hand mixers and found the toughest task was peanut butter cookies. All eight were able to cream butter and sugar for cakes and cookies and could handle chocolate chip cookie dough, but only three excelled with the thicker, stiffer PB: the KitchenAid 7-speed, the Braun Multi-Mix and the Dualit Pro. But while the first two were rated #1 and #2 respectively, the Dualit made the Not Recommended list for its heft and odd handle, almost requiring two hands. So rounding out the list of Highly Recommended was the Cuisinart 7-speed, which slowed, but only a little, with the peanut butter dough. What the top three have in common is power.

Watt’s Up?

There’s a tendency among consumers to equate wattage with performance but that’s not always the case, no matter what a sales person might tell you. As CI said — and for me the key word is “input”:

Our science editor explained that wattage is a measure of input—the amount of power a motor is taking in to operate. If a motor is not designed to work efficiently, it can require more input, or wattage, without necessarily delivering more output—that is, a stronger performance.

The magazine also learned that most hand mixers use AC (alternating current) motors while KitchenAid uses DC (direct current), which the company claims is quieter, lighter, more energy-efficient and requires less wattage to operate. My knowledge of electricity ends with knowing how to plug in an appliance but I do remember that dramatic difference when I first used the KitchenAid.

What About Bread?

One thing a stand mixer does well is kneading bread dough, although I think a processor does a better job and so does a bread machine. Several hand mixers are available with dough hooks, often as an extra purchase. I don’t have them and CI didn’t test them and I’m skeptical, although some users at the KitchenAid message boards claim the hand mixer/dough hook combination works well. I can’t help but think someone making bread once or twice a week would be better served by another method, especially if whole grains are used.

So if you can get away with a hand mixer, you’ll save a lot of money. The top-rated ones range in price from from approximately $50 to $80, an investment to be sure, but with good stand mixers costing $300 and way up these days, it’s also quite a savings.

Just don’t tuck your hand mixer away like I did; since rediscovering mine I feel as if I have an entirely new tool.

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Tags: consumerism, kitchen tools