Stand and deliver / These small but colorful appliances make life — and baking — simpler
By Catherine S. Molitoris
Updated Feb 04, 2008 06:00
If you own a stand mixer, you just might.
Once a tool reserved for only the serious baker, stand mixers have become a standard fixture in many kitchens. And with ever-increasing options in colors and finishes, the small appliance has become a showpiece meant for display.
“Stand mixers are a decorating piece,” says Lara Kim, general manager of Linen ’n Things in the Red Rose Commons on Fruitville Pike, Lancaster. “It’s something you leave out on your counter. You’re proud to own it.”
Kim likens today’s stand mixers — which can be found in colors ranging from cobalt blue to amber tortoise and merlot red — to a set of beautiful copper pots. “You wouldn’t put copper pots in a cabinet; you’d hang them up to display,” she says. “It’s the same with mixers.”
Some cooks choose their mixer to match their kitchen’s décor, while others have a standard machine but choose different color bowls depending on the season, says Emily Rasmusson, spokeswoman for Jenn-Air.
“We sell extra bowls online for $59, so you might have purchased one color bowl originally but want, say, a red one to display at Christmas,” she says.
Stand mixers have traditionally been used to ease the burden of baking, making it simple to mix dough or cake batter, for example. Today’s versions go way beyond what your mother or grandmother may have used.
“We sell close to 20 different attachments for our stand mixers,” says Deb O’Connor, manager of public relations for KitchenAid. “When you start using the attachments, you take your stand mixer to a whole new level.”
KitchenAid offers everything from a pasta roller and cutter attachment to a food grinder, fruit and vegetable strainer and sausage maker, all of which easily attach to the stand mixer’s base.
“Stand mixers can do things you can’t do easily with other appliances,” says Rasmusson. “From mixing up dips to making a cake, you can do any kind of baking from scratch with a mixer. A hand-held mixer works fine for many jobs, but you have to stand there and hold it. A stand mixer gives you more flexibility in the kitchen. You can have something mixing while you’re across the kitchen measuring out other ingredients.”
Ranging in size from 4.5 to 6 quarts, stand mixers also make easy work of large amounts of baking. KitchenAid’s 4.5-quart machine can handle 6 pounds of mashed potatoes, while the 6-quart version has no trouble churning out eight 1-pound loaves of bread.
Stand mixers may help mix dough, but you’re going to need a lot of it to purchase one. Most models run between $200 and $400.
It’s an investment many cooks are willing to make, says Bill Longenecker, owner of Longenecker’s True Value, Manheim, which carries KitchenAid mixers.
“The mixers that are available today are high-quality machines,” he says. “They have no plastic parts. It’s a heavier-built mixer, the drive system is better in it and they last.”
With its sheer size and weight, along with the multitude of tasks it can perform, a stand mixer may intimidate a cooking novice, but experts agree the appliance has a home in every kitchen.
“Stand mixers are easy to use, and anybody can use them,” says O’Connor. “Whether you’re making cookies around the holidays or making mashed potatoes any day, they are simple to use.”
And maybe even addictive. “For a lot of people, once they get one and start using it,” O’Connor says, “they just want to use it more and more.”
STANDS FOR CHARITY
Both Jenn-Air and KitchenAid currently feature limited-edition stand mixers, with proceeds benefiting service organizations.
Jenn-Air has teamed up with Baltimore-based glass artist Michael Weems to produce a mixer that features frosted- and etched-glass designs to pair with Jenn-Air’s antique-copper mixer stand. Jenn-Air will donate a portion of the sales of the product, which retails for $359, to Share Our Strength, a national charity that fights hunger. Visit www.jennair.com for more information.
KitchenAid sells a complete line of pink kitchen items, all to benefit breast-cancer research. The company will donate $50 from the purchase of The Cook for the Cure stand mixer, which retails for $299.99, to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
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