KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Stand Mixer

Design

Choose from various color options to find one that complements your style and personality the best. The KitchenAid stand mixer’s design is so recognizable that it has inspired the creation of other kitchen appliances. The smooth, rounded lines give the impression of being aerodynamic and retro but still contemporary.

It isn’t easy to conceive of a kitchen where this mixer would be out of place. Even better, this mixer is available in a dizzying array of colors—nearly 50—and limited-edition special editions are occasionally released, further expanding the options.

The tilt-head design provides easy access to the bowl and any attached beater or accessory, making it simple to add ingredients to a recipe. During operation, locating the head in place maintains a close and efficient beater-to-bowl contact.

A 5-quart stainless steel bowl with a comfortable handle holds enough dough to make nine dozen cookies, four loaves of bread, or seven pounds of mashed potatoes in a single batch. Additionally, the bowl is dishwasher-safe for easy cleanup.

Your stand mixer becomes a culinary center with the addition of the power hub. Utilize the power of your stand mixer’s over 12 optional attachments to help you make fusilli pasta from scratch, shred a block of Parmesan cheese in seconds, and much more.

59-Point Planetary Mixing Action entails 59 contact points per rotation of the bowl, ensuring complete ingredient incorporation. The beater, dough hook, or wire whip rotates completely around the bowl, providing full mixing coverage.

Unlike some stand mixers, this one has the speed controls on the left and the tilt-head lock on the right. As a result of that arrangement, we felt most at ease using the mixer with the nose facing forward, which allowed us to reach the controls with both hands if necessary.

Speaking of the noise, the mixer’s front features a round badge easily removed via a side screw. Behind that badge is the mixer’s attachment hub, which controls the mixer’s numerous accessories. While none of these accessories come with the mixer, they are readily available in stores and online.

Performance

While this mixer is not a professional model, it is a beast for home cooks with its powerful and efficient 250-watt motor. This machine demonstrated its worth even when performing simple tasks such as whipping cream or mixing cake batter by hand or with a hand mixer. We could set up the machine and watch it work whatever the job.

We’ll admit it—kneading dense pasta dough by hand does not excite us. It’s a lot of work to get just a few noodles. We gave it a shot with this stand mixer willing to do the kneading and soon had a softball of pasta dough. While the mixer’s motor became slightly warm, it did not become hot, and thus we were not concerned about overheating.

Speaking of dough, the mixer performed admirably when kneading bread dough, and it made no complaints. Lighter tasks, such as mixing cookie dough and cake batter, came quickly, and we had more fun than we should have when we overwhipped some cream and transformed it into our homemade butter.

This machine features ten speeds, with the first marked “Stir,” followed by numbers and prominent stops at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. On the other hand, the mixer’s speed can be adjusted anywhere between those numbers. While this allows for a more seamless speed transition, we discovered that we were more likely to choose one of the stops.

Cleaning

Except for the wire whip and all safe dishwasher components, we found that hand washing was sufficient.

Should you buy KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Stand Mixer?

While this is not a cheap appliance, numerous countertop appliances are more expensive. We believe that the price is reasonable given the quality and the future versatility provided by optional attachments that eliminate the need to purchase standalone appliances.

If you’re fed up with holding a hand mixer while making cake batter, the KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer might be too much for you. Still, we think it’s worth the investment for its durability, its wide range of optional accessories, and for the ease with which it can knead bread dough to perfection.