When An Electronic Food Mixer Beats Hand Mixing Hands Down
It’s funny, but some people still mix food ingredients by hand and miss out on the many benefits enjoyed by electronic food mixer owners who swear they get better results, with less time and effort wasted.
Fact is, electronic food mixers are not expensive and, for what you pay, you receive many helpful benefits. I believe that once traditional hand mixers have used an electronic mixer, they will become enthusiastic converts.
“Inexpensive” does not of course mean “cheap”. What I mean is, good electronic food mixers are not expensive but do not buy a mixer for pennies. It will return results which are commensurate. You will want to get a quality mixer for quality results.
Let’s face it, if you have ever tried to mix food ingredients by hand then you will know just how tiring and time consuming the process can be. And it also denies you the opportunity to work on other aspects of your food preparation simultaneously.
It’s also important to consider the results you are trying to achieve. The pressure has to be exactly right and the dough must be mixed uniformly so that the result will rise, or set, the way it should. This is where a good electric food mixer comes into its own.
And we’re not just talking about basic mixing. We’re also talking about folding, having to beat, and stirring voluminous amounts of ingredients briskly. Your arms become exhausted leading to pressure being uneven and a mix which is not perfectly done.
Not only does this result in poor mixing, and a poorer quality result, but it can also result in sore muscles and tendons if continued for extended periods of time, which is disastrous for those who bake large quantities on a regular basis.
And there is no doubt that electric mixers deliver excellent results. Their inbuilt motor controls the speeds at which the hook or whisk turns so that bakers get the exact result they want, with virtually no hassle at all. This allows bakers to use a uniform setting for all kinds of mixes that they bake with complete precision.
Because many settings are possible with an electric mixer it is also easy for bakers to control the exact thickness of the dough/mix they obtain. All they need to do is select their required speed, the correct mixing attachment, and they can control how thick or how thin the resulting mixture is.
Sophisticated and intricate recipes demand this consistency even more. Make even one mistake, when the challenge is really on, and the result will be very unfortunate indeed.
In addition, everyone using the same mixer, on the same setting, will get the same result. Whereas different people mixing ingredients, by hand, will have different speeds of mixing and different rates at which they can work.
This can prove especially problematic in commercial settings such as bakeries where customers are expecting consistent quality and where different people may be involved in the baking process. It’s also disappointing in a domestic setting where a housewife, praised for her most recent creation, then finds it impossible to recreate the same result again.
The great thing is that electronic food mixers are not static things but come in a wide range of styles. There are handheld mixers in which you twist the bowl, and there are the better stand mixers which turn your bowl for you as well. And they are great at reaching the parts of the mix that hand mixes miss.
A good electronic food mixer will be ergonomically designed to make life easy. It will be robust enough to handle even the toughest job, yet delicate on items which need much more care. It will be easy to use and be capable of lasting a very long time. After all, you only want to purchase one once.
As important, it will be designed to mix in a unique fashion to ensure that, where necessary, sufficient air gets into the mix to ensure results are consistently fluffy.
Douglas Barker’s key fact sheets are brief and comprehensive, embracing a wide a variety of topical make-life-easy topics. This includes his great guidance at the Kitchenaid Artisan Mixer site, where good cooks can also learn all they need to know about the Artisan Stand Mixer.