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Unlike numerous other countertop appliances, a decent stand mixer is an investment that may last a lifetime. In our opinion, the KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer is the finest stand mixer you can buy for its performance, adaptability, and pricing after more than 50 hours of testing since 2013. It is a workhorse deserving of heritage status and effortlessly whips up cakes, cookies, and creams. It also effortlessly kneads sticky bread dough and pizza dough.
Since 2013, we have been using the KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer, and we can declare with certainty that it is still the finest option for the majority of home chefs and bakers. The Artisan is a robust device that can easily churn through thick doughs and aerate light batters. It is long-lasting, simple to use, and clean.
Contents
- 1 Why should You Believe the Brand?
- 2 For Whom Is It Meant for?
- 3 How We Chose?
- 4 How we tested?
- 5 KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer
- 6 Flaws but not bad at all
- 7 Long-term test notes
- 8 Refurbished and Used Alternatives
- 9 KitchenAid Pro 600 Series 6-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer
- 10 What about KitchenAid fixers?
- 11 Some of it’s amazing alternatives?
- 12 The competition
- 13 FAQs
Why should You Believe the Brand?
Our interviewees included Jane Lear, a food writer and editor who was senior articles editor at Gourmet at the time of our conversation, Sarah Carey, a former editor in chief of Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food and currently the editorial director of food at Martha Stewart Living, and Anna Gordon, the proprietor of The Good Batch bakery in Brooklyn, New York.
For Whom Is It Meant for?
A superb stand mixer can do activities that would be more difficult or impossible to complete by hand, making baking and cooking much simpler. A well-built stand mixer can assist you in producing many quantities of cookies, delicious cake layers, and rustic bread loaves. It can quickly whisk heavy cream into a light dessert topping and egg whites into meringue. Excellent mixers also come with power hubs for additional attachments, such as rollers for pasta dough, meat grinders, and even ice cream makers.
How We Chose?
There are two methods to group stand mixers: according to the way the base is made, or according to how they mix. The beater attachment’s interface with the bowl is determined by the base’s style, which may be one of two types:
Tilt-head construction: The machine’s top may be tilted up to allow for the attachment or removal of the mixing attachment and bowl. The majority of stand mixers for home chefs are constructed in this manner, including the well-known KitchenAid Artisan.
Bowl-lift style: With this design, you snap the bowl into position on the mixer’s base before using a lever to raise it in the direction of the mixing attachment. This style is mostly used in professional mixers like the Hobart brand, but it is also included in certain home mixers like the KitchenAid Pro 600 Series.
Planetary mixers feature a single beater that circles around the bowl while spinning on its axis. By ensuring additional points of contact, this process provides more even mixing.
The bowl of a stationary mixer revolves in place while two stationary beaters spin, which results in a less thorough mixing process. According to Cook’s Illustrated (subscription needed), “the attachments never contact the whole contents of the mixing bowl—they carve through a single trough” since the beaters are immobile.
How we tested?
In our first guide, we chose four recipes—seven-minute frosting, sponge cake, kitchen sink cookies, and bread dough—to evaluate key elements of a mixer’s functionality. We conducted all of these tests again for the 2018 update, except this time we used pizza dough in place of bread.
KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer
One of the few models we’ve tested (outside of the company’s bigger Pro 600 and the Breville Bakery Chef) that can handle each of our mixing tasks without wobbling on the counter is the KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer, which has been in continuous use since 2013. It works through thick cookie mixtures more quickly than the competitors, doesn’t strain while kneading bread dough, and whips up lofty icing and ideal cake batter.
The Artisan combined dough without shaking or straining the motor throughout the bread and cookie testing. The cookie recipe we tested calls for more mix-ins than standard drop cookie dough, and several of the test lineup’s mixers, including the Breville and the Cuisinart Precision Master, struggled under the load.
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Flaws but not bad at all
For such an expensive piece of equipment, KitchenAid’s stand mixers only come with a one-year limited guarantee. However, we believe that if you read the maintenance instructions and are aware of your mixer’s limits, you shouldn’t have any problems with its lifetime. Professional bakers and chefs who work in restaurants like to use this durable equipment. The Artisan is a well-liked and well-known product on Amazon, and several reviewers claim that their units are still in good shape even after 10 years or more.
Long-term test notes
We’ve used the Artisan to bake several batches of cookies and cakes since publishing our initial guide in 2013, and we’ve even used it to ground meat with the meat-grinding attachment (purchased separately). For our advice on choosing a pizza stone in 2019, we used it to mix many batches of pizza dough, and the mixer performed well. Many Wirecutter writers have used their own Artisan mixers for years with no issues, both on the kitchen team and outside of it.
Refurbished and Used Alternatives
For around $200, you can get a KitchenAid stand mixer that has been factory reconditioned if you’re seeking for a somewhat better price than the Artisan. Be careful to contact and speak with one of the company’s very helpful customer service employees for the most up-to-date stock, since the stock fluctuates often
KitchenAid Pro 600 Series 6-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer
If you regularly or in big amounts bake, whether it’s enormous loaves of bread, dozens of cookies, or tall layer cakes, the KitchenAid Pro 600 Series 6-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer is a powerful tool. The Pro, a large mixer with a sizable footprint, has a more powerful engine than the Artisan and can easily complete challenging jobs. It is heavier than our top selection and noisier, so it is best placed on the countertop permanently.
What about KitchenAid fixers?
The ability of the motor to operate with a range of KitchenAid-branded accessories for a variety of food preparation chores is one of the best things about having a stand mixer. However, not all attachments are equally beneficial or efficient. From the pasta press to the grain mill, we put some of KitchenAid’s most well-liked stand mixer accessories to the test. Read more to see which attachments we discovered are worthwhile to purchase and which ones aren’t.
Some of it’s amazing alternatives?
Other good stand mixers
In 2021, we put the Breville Bakery Chef to the test. Unlike many other mixers we’d used before, it was strong enough to withstand our whipping cream, mixing cookies, and kneading pizza dough on the counter. A timer that counts up and down, an automatically locking tilt-head, a 5-quart borosilicate glass bowl (in addition to its 4-quart stainless steel bowl), and a silicone-coated scraper beater are some of its other features that you could find appealing.
The competition
For our 2018 update, we put the Cuisinart Precision Master Stand Mixer—the brand’s newest stand mixer—to the test. We weren’t impressed with this mixer, particularly when compared to the Artisan. The Precision Master is lower weight, making it simpler to remove from a shelf or cupboard, but it strained and shook while creating pizza dough and cookies with fruit and nuts. A modest quantity of cream and an egg white were difficult for the whisk to beat, and the final mixture was loose and gritty rather than fluffy. There are 12 settings available, and even the fastest setting isn’t as quick as the KitchenAid’s medium speed.
FAQs
What stand mixer size do I require?
We advise purchasing a mixer with a bowl size of between 5 and 6 quarts, which will accommodate the majority of common recipes for anything from layer cakes to cookies.
Is bowl-lift or a tilt-head better?
We advise owning one of each kind of stand mixer since they both function effectively. Each kind has benefits and drawbacks.
Bowl-lift mixers are a little tougher and more powerful, making them better for demanding tasks like kneading thick bread dough. Tilt-head mixers are often more compact.
