There’s a lot to consider when you’re investing in a pricey kitchen gadget. Most of us cringe at spending more than $50 on even the most important kitchen tools, like good knives and skillets. When you are ready for a splurge for your kitchen, you have to think about how often you’re going to use a particular gadget, how much easier it will make your life, and most importantly, how it will actually improve your cooking.
If you spend a lot of time baking, you’ve probably already learned that the KitchenAid stand mixer is really, really good at doing all of the above. Even casual bakers and home cooks that never fold anything but their laundry can appreciate what a KitchenAid, as it is often referred to, brings to the kitchen. There are certainly other models on the market, but none that are quite as good at making your kitchen life a little better. We’ve rounded up the five best reasons that you absolutely need to add a KitchenAid into your repertoire, budget be damned.
Stirring, made simpler
Baking and making sauces frequently means only one thing: a whole lot of stirring. You may appreciate the upper body boost that whipping up your own mayonnaise or buttercream will bring, but spending 10 minutes making sure that an emulsion comes together perfectly isn’t exactly what most of us would call fun. A KitchenAid makes stirring a no-brainer, and will allow you to give your arms a rest while it does all the work. Even testy recipes are easier with the consistent speed that the mixer’s powerful motor provides.
Two words: pie crust
Pie crust is one of the hardest recipes in the baking world to perfect, especially if you’re really picky about the perfect light and flaky texture. The KitchenAid, while somewhat counterintuitive, is a great way to improve on your grandma’s decades-old pie crust recipe. The paddle attachment creates thin, flat flakes of butter, which helps create those craveable flaky layers. The resulting pie crust is also sturdier, which is great for juicy fruit fillings.
Emulsions, demystified
We’ve all experienced the hollandaise sauce or mayonnaise breaking just before being perfectly emulsified, and there’s no culinary experience more defeating. Many people have had bad experiences trying to create creamy mayo or silky Hollandaise in their stand mixers, but that’s only because they’ve tried to rush the process. You’ll still have to baby your emulsion along the way, but the steady (and low!) speed on your KitchenAid will crank out some of the best sauces that you’ve ever made at home.
Attachment envy
Outside of mixing and stirring, your KitchenAid’s motor can be used for a variety of kitchen tasks thanks to a wide range of available attachments, which are, of course, sold separately. Sausage-making, pasta-rolling, grinding, and slicing attachments are pricey, but they’re sturdily built and will last a long time if maintained properly. The possibilities with these attachments are seemingly endless. Before you know it, you’ll proudly be stuffing your own sausages and making fancy ravioli, even if you’re letting the machine do most of the work.
Kitchen, decluttered.
You might think that the KitchenAid stand mixer is a one-trick pony, but you’d be surprised at what it can really do. According to The Kitchn, you can replace up to 25 different kitchen gadgets and utensils with a single stand mixe. You’ll probably want to keep those whisks and and your food processor for small occasional kitchen jobs, but you’d also be surprised by how frequently you’ll find yourself turning to the KitchenAid because you know it will definitely get the job done. The KitchenAid’s versatility also makes it easy to justify allowing it to take up valuable counter real estate all the time.
Amy McCarthy is Paste’s Assistant Food Editor. You can find her trying to figure out how to make literally everything in her pink KitchenAid. Find her on Twitter @aemccarthy.