Saturday, May 1, 2010

OutSTANDing Stand Mixer by Breville

The stand mixer sends a serious statement to anyone entering your domain that you are serious about your cooking and serious about the equipment you use. Whether you use your mixer to mix batters for cakes, meringues for pies, or to give potatoes a good whipping, or you wish to use accessories which allow for other functions like grinding meats, kneading breads, stuffing sausages or making pastas--a stand mixer is hard to beat based on its versatility and its ability to make tasks like whipping and beating simple. Up until this point, this niche has been almost exclusively dominated by The Kitchenaid Company which first introduced the H-5 stand mixer over 90 years ago in 1919. Kitchenaid now boasts a full line of stand mixers in a variety of colors and specialty models including the pink Artisan "Cook for the Cure" stand mixer honoring Breast Cancer month, the red 90th anniversary edition released last year and even a US $900 Coppertone model. I say all of this to say that despite these prolific offerings already on the market, there is clearly room for competition. Breville, the Australian housewares company known for many products including panini presses, juicers, blenders and espresso machines has taken a bold step by introducing a new stand mixer this spring. By going where few other companies have gone before, they have developed a mixer that adds modernity, useful features, sophistication and a great price point that will undoubtedly provide many cooks in the market for stand mixers with a tempting option. This new stand mixer is a delight to use with many surprising features not found on other models including an LCD screen that indicates your mixing level the way that a stereo inflects the treble and bass of a pop tune. The design which includes a beautiful die cast stainless finish, harnesses the motor and includes a handle that is easy to manuever. The push button release ensures that the machine head locks in place both when in use and when in the tilt-back position. A ten-minute backlit LCD timer allows for a unique countdown feature which allows you to effectively time your mixing, a perfect feature for a novice baker and a convenient one that allows the experienced baker who also likes to multitask and move between the stove, refrigerator, oven and other appliances to do so without always having to monitor the mixer. Twelve different mixing speeds allow you to perform every task from folding to mixing to whipping to aerating with ease. Sold exclusively in the US at Williams-Sonoma, the mixer retails for a competitively priced US $299.95 and comes equipped with a 5-quart stainless steel mixing bowl, a splash guard and three additional attachments including a flat beater, dough hook and wire whisk. The scraper beater syncs with the planetary dual mixing rotation action of the head to effectively scrape the sides of the mixing bowl, to effectively mix all ingredients which provides professional results. The dial is also a wonderful feature that lets you easily turn on the machine, pause it and increase the speed of the mixer. The mixer has a powerful 550 watts and is an easy to move 16 pounds. The motor purrs like a well-tuned engine in a luxury vehicle at both high and low speeds. For more information on using a stand mixer contact us at cooklikejackie@gmail.com.