This KitchenAid 5 qt. tilt-head Artisan stand mixer is my personal mixer of choice! Amazon carries it in 45 colors & 10 speeds. It weighs 26 pounds so I give it a permanent place on my counter. This mixer has a 325 watt motor & comes with:
- a 5 qt. stainless steel bowl that locks into the base
- a coated paddle (for cakes and cookies) It can mix a batch of 9 dozen cookies at once.
- a coated dough hook (for yeast breads) It can mix 4 loaves of bread at one time.
- a 6-wire whisk (for whipping cream or egg whites)
- a pouring shield for the top of the bowl to add ingredients to mix
- a recipe book with an order form and pictures to order more bowls, a flex-edge paddle, etc.
You can buy a stainless steel 3 qt mixing bowl for it which I use with the whip for making meringue for pies because I use the other bowl & flex blade for mixing the pie ingredients. You can buy a glass bowl to set on the base also. I even bought a flex blade to use instead of the flat blade because it scrapes the bowl while it mixes. That requires some blade adjustment which is made by lifting the hinge and adjusting it in the neck of the mixer. I call it my mixer of choice because I asked for one for my anniversary years ago and slowly I’ve been able to add attachments to it for birthday or Christmas present. It does stay on my counter for easy access like a kitchen decoration. My family even makes cookies because it is easy to access! I don’t have all these separate appliances to store. I have attachments that add on to the front of the machine top in the attachment hub.
There are 12 attachments that you can purchase for it also:
- slicer/shredder
- pasta roller/ cutter
- gourmet pasta press
- ravioli maker
- grinder/strainer
- juicer
- food processor & commercial style dicing kit
- precise heat mixing bowl
- spiralizer plus peel, core, & slice
- 2 qt. ice cream maker
- fruit/vegetable strainer
- grain mill
Tips-
- The peeler, core, & slice attachment is good for making apple pies.
- Get more than 1 ice cream bowl because it’s so easy to make ice cream/sorbet that you’ll want to make 1 batch while another is in the freezer!
CONS-
Price- Amazon has it for $300.
If you take your time you can find it other places on sale or watch sales at Amazon. The attachments aren’t cheap either, but they cost less than a stand-alone appliance of that kind.
Bowl quality- There was 1 complaint of the stainless steel bowl quality because it left black in her bowl the 1st time she used it making cookies. I would personally wash it before using, just to make sure it is clean. It comes well packed so it was a factory error. She didn’t say what happened after that, so I don’t know.
Note:If you click on bigger “mixer” in the tools paragraph it will take you to Amazon website’s Artisan KitchenAid mixer. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see a chart of KitchenAid stand Mixers.
