The best stand mixer for flexibility is the Kenwood by Mary berry Special Edition Hand Mixer HM680CR Specifications: In its stand mixer role it beats, mixes, whisks and kneads, while a continuous feed shredder covers five types of chopping, slicing and shredding both finely and coarsely, and grating. A citrus press attachment transforms it into a juicer, plus there’s a mincing attachment for meat and a blender. Switching to the hook, which has a handy guard fitting at the top to keep dough out of the outlet, I added warm milk and sugar, and used speed 1 to combine it before moving up to speed 3 to knead. The dough wrapped itself around the hook but could easily be removed. After five minutes, it was pliable and doubled in size when left to rise. The finished buns were light and fluffy. Weighing 1.04kg, the hand mixer is a little on the heavy side but it’s sturdy and powerful. Besides, as you can clip the hand part onto the stand and use the mixer over the 3-litre bowl, you’ll probably find that you mostly use this product in stand mode. All of the controls are located in the hand mixer’s handle, giving you five speeds plus a pulse. Do you need a glass bowl or steel bowl? Glass bowls look great and help you see the mixture more clearly as you use the mixer. However, glass bowls don’t tend to be as good when it comes to whipping eggs. A steel bowl is generally hardier, and gives you better results when mixing eggs, although you have to peer over the top of the bowl to see what’s going on.

MUM59340GB Kitchen machine | Bosch GB

Think of a stand mixer, and the KitchenAid Artisan 4.8L Stand Mixer will probably be the model that pops into your head. There’s a good reason for this: as well as being gorgeous and available in a huge range of colours, this mixer is also one of the best. Although other mixers may have higher-power motors, the 300W motor here is excellent for speed and efficiency, whisking, whipping and kneading stealthily and silently. Perfect results: extremely powerful 1.000 watt motor - even suitable for very heavy doughs, large amounts and blending. There’s a 3-litre bowl provided with this mixer, which is good enough for your average cake and smaller amounts of liquid and eggs. It’s a nice deep bowl, too, which is great for handheld mixers. Cleverly, the bowl rotates in use to give even mixing; stand mixers have orbitary mixer heads that move around the bowl. Part stand mixer, part multi-functional kitchen machine – if the Transformers did small appliances they’d look like this. The Bosch MUM59340GB Kitchen Machine is equipped with a three-zone moveable arm, seven mixing speeds and all the attachments and functions you’d expect from a premium price mixer – but without the premium price. How big does your stand mixer need to be? Size is important as you need to find somewhere to store your new mixer, and the largest models can be huge, requiring a lot of cupboard space. Base your decision not only on your kitchen size but on how often you use your mixer, and how many you’re baking for. Traditional stand mixers will have a bowl around 5-litres in size, which lets you make big cakes and cope with larger dishes. This size is great for regular users. If you’re cooking smaller amounts or for fewer people, you can probably get buy with a smaller mixer, with a bowl around 3-litres in size.

It’s nice to see a lid, too, which can cover either bowl for proving dough or covering mixtures. It’s a neat eco touch and will save on using single-use plastic wrap. Sometimes a hand mixer is an easier way to whip up ingredients, so why not have a tool that can do the job of both a hand and stand mixer? That’s where the excellent little Kenwood by Mary Berry Special Edition Hand Mixer HM680CR comes in. Mixer type: Stand mixer | Size: 350 x 220 x 390, 11.17kg | Controls: 10 speeds | Motor power: 300W | Accessories included: 4.8-litre bowl, whisk, flat beater, dough hook The Pros: Mixer type: Stand mixer | Size: 402 x 221 x 378mm, 9.5kg | Controls: 10 speeds | Motor power: 800W | Accessories included: 4.8-litre bowl, whisk, flat beater, dough hook The Pros:

Bosch CreationLine MUM59340GB 3.9L Stand Mixer - Anthracite Bosch CreationLine MUM59340GB 3.9L Stand Mixer - Anthracite

Want more? On the front, an attachment hub can power optional accessories, such as meat grinders, pasta rollers and cutters, so its capabilities are easily expanded. All of this means that you need space to place all of your accessories, but that’s not always a bad problem to have. This is a particularly mess-conscious machine, with a slow-start function to each of its 10 speed settings that ensures you don’t end up looking like a floury snowman the minute you switch it on. What accessories do you need? The basic accessories should be a paddle for mixing cake batter, and a balloon whisk for getting air into ingredients, such as whipped egg whites and cream. If you want to make bread, then lookout for a machine with a dough hook. Look at the other optional accessories that you can buy, too: KitchenAid machines, for example, can have accessories that includes attaching a juicer and mincer to the front. In the box, you get beaters and dough hooks, but no whisk. You can use the beaters for whisking egg whites and cream, although this takes longer than using a regular whisk. Mixing dough and cake mixture was easier, although you may need to scrape the side of the bowl down to combine everything. Mixer type: Stand mixer and kitchen tool | Size: 282 x 280 x 270mm, 7.49kg | Controls: 7 speeds | Motor power: 1000W | Accessories included: 3.9litre bowl, shredding attachment, citrus press, beater, dough hook, whisk The Pros:Mixer type: Stand and hand mixer | Size: 270 x 345 x 390mm, 1.04kg | Controls: 5 speeds and pulse | Motor power: 350W | Accessories included: 3-litre bowl, two beaters, two dough hooks The Pros: