What should I do with my new toy?

February 20, 2012 5:01 PM

What should I make with my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer?

I just got a brand new toy as an anniversary present! It's a red, 5qt Kitchen Aid mixer with a magic lifty bowl and three attachments (a paddle, a whisker, and a dough hook). So far I've made cupcakes and muffins, but want to...

-- Start baking a little healthier. I've lost about 10 pounds since moving because of eating better, and want to keep that up.

-- REALLY make use of the awesomeness of my mixer -- the cupcakes and stuff that I've made are the kinds of things I'd've done anyways.

-- Show my appreciation for my gift (seriously, I've wanted one for about 5 yrs) by using it every week.

So here's my question. It's got two parts.

PART ONE:
What should I make with my new mixer (its name is RED SONJA <3 <3) that's healthy and delicious? We're in Hawaii, so assume access to a wide array of foods.

PART TWO:
What things do you bake on a semi-weekly basis?

posted by spunweb to food & drink (30 answers total)

Bread! Your mixer is excellent for making bread dough.
posted by jeather at 5:04 PM on February 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

I NEED SPECIFICS! Assume I'm a novice to the wonderful world of breadmaking and serious baking. lol so excited!
posted by spunweb at 5:07 PM on February 20, 2012

You really want to buy the paddle with attached silicone scrapers. It is amazing for baking!! Also when I am not on my phone I will post my mixer dinner roll receipe. Also a true pound cake is practically impossible without the stand mixer. Too many parts to beat.
posted by saradarlin at 5:16 PM on February 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

Bread is such a wide subject! It fills many books.

Alt.: anything involving whipped egg whites! Meringue pies; waffles or pancakes or cakes (eg pound cake, angel food cake) using whipped egg white as leavening…
posted by hattifattener at 5:17 PM on February 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

You should make homemade butter!

Also lots of whipped cream, and perhaps some meringue?

Pizza dough?

Basically, things that would normally make your arm feel like it's going to drop off if you did them without a proper electric mixer.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 5:20 PM on February 20, 2012

Génoise cake! You need a mixer, unless you are of almost Olympic stamina, to beat the eggs. It is the most glorious of cakes - well worth the effort.
posted by caddis at 5:34 PM on February 20, 2012

This is the silicon beater mentioned by saradarlin. You don't need to keep stopping and scraping the sides of the bowl if you have one of these, and YOU NEED IT. I discovered it's existence here on Metafilter a few years ago, and after buying mine, I've given them away for gifts to everyone I know who owns a Kitchenaid. There are other types that look as if they may be easier to clean, but I own the first one. Here's a previous question with some good answers. I use mine to shred backed chicken for tacos. And here's one from chowhound.
posted by raisingsand at 5:37 PM on February 20, 2012 [4 favorites]

Joe needs to work on his Index. His posts go by subject over time. To get the full Génoise cake story start here.
posted by caddis at 5:46 PM on February 20, 2012

Mayonaise. With a mixer it's trivial, people will think you're some kind of sorcerer, and it's way, way, way better. you'll learn you can fly pretty fast and loose with the recipe. I like more mustard and less oil for a stiffer mayo. You probably do want a neutral oil, though.

If you're interested in bread, you need Beard on Bread. He discusses mixers in it, and I've made probably half of the recipes in it in the mixer with much success. I do always finish kneading by hand, though.
posted by cmoj at 5:49 PM on February 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm not fortunate enough to own a kitchenaid but I did recently get a super-budget brand stand mixer. I've been learning to make things using natural (not artificial) low GI sweeteners like xylitol, erythritol, agave syrup, maltitol syrup and the like. Recently I have been making agave marshmallows which would be extremely arduous to do by hand. They are divine on cocoa made with my sugar-free hot chocolate mix. I've had extremely good luck with muffins, cookies, cakes, and just this week I made baklava! So far, my only failures have been moist brownies with a crisp crusty top and baked meringues. I just haven't found great recipes yet, but I'm still trying minor adjustments.

Recipes using these ingredients are available all over the web, and all of those sweeteners substitute one-for-one for sugar or syrup in recipes, so you can use regular recipes. The only changes I would advise in adapting those recipes is to lower oven temp by about 25 degrees, and reduce cooking time by about 10-20%.

Kroger grocery stores (Fry's here in Tucson) in the US carry Ideal Brand xylitol under the Kroger house name in both brown 'sugar' and granulated 'sugar' varieties. There is a confectioner's (powdered) variety by Ideal that you can buy at Amazon. Agave syrup is available at most grocery stores. Maltitol syrup as a substitute for corn syrup is available at Whole Foods.

Have fun making healthier alternatives with your new toy!
posted by QuakerMel at 5:50 PM on February 20, 2012

xylitol, erythritol, agave syrup, maltitol syrup

If you have pets, please be careful with these. I know that xylitol is deadly poisonous to dogs and cats. Research the rest.
posted by Netzapper at 5:53 PM on February 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Lift bowl mixers are amazing.

Italian Bread with the dough hook!

Cheesecake

Cookies!

Lemon layer cake
posted by lyra4 at 5:55 PM on February 20, 2012

Marshmallows! Unbelievably tastier and more delicate than the store-bought version. Homemade marshmallows blow people's minds.
posted by sculpin at 6:12 PM on February 20, 2012 [4 favorites]

I make pizza dough with my stand mixer all the time. This recipe makes enough dough for two pizzas. You can make one immediately and freeze the dough to make the next one later. I make lots and lots and lots of pizzas.
posted by craichead at 6:32 PM on February 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

nth'ing bread. SO. MUCH. BREAD.

Browse amazon, and get some cool attachments and go to town!

Ice Cream Maker
Food Grinder
PASTA MAKER!
ricer
Sausage stuffer thingy
posted by frmrpreztaft at 6:34 PM on February 20, 2012

I bake a lot with my Kitchenaid but also use it for making mash quite often. The booklet that comes with the mixer gives the basic potato mash recipe but I use it to make all kinds of mixes with cauliflower, turnip, sweet potato, turnip, you name it.

But cake-wise, pavlova!
posted by marais at 6:34 PM on February 20, 2012

From-scratch angelfood cake, definitely. Beating the egg whites by hand is nearly impossible, and even with a hand-held mixer it sucks.
posted by vytae at 6:37 PM on February 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

I've been eyeing the kitchen aid stand mixers, but I haven't dove in for one yet because, like you, I'm trying to eat healthy and most recipes are massive sugar and starch bombs.

Alton Brown's cheese souffle recipe is a pretty good starting one - not too much different than a very fancy egg muffin, but so so much tastier. I usually make a large batch of batter and then bake one each morning for breakfast. Fresh basil mixed in is divine. Once you get used to them you can experiment with sweet versions (like banana or pineapple, or cocoa + espresso).

For breads, I'd make my own pizza dough, which you can then cover in all kinds of healthy ingredients or go sweet and bake it with fruit and cinnamon on top. You can also try types of bread you haven't before, like brioche, which I hear is tough, and healthier breads like pita.

(Personally, I'd buy the foot grinder attachment and start making my own sausages).
posted by subject_verb_remainder at 6:38 PM on February 20, 2012

Beer bread:

It is stupid easy and tasty results fast.

3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup sugar
1 (12 ounce) can beer


Oven to 375.

Mix all the stuff together, first dry and than beer.

Pour into greased bread pan. Bake ~1 hour
let sit 15 mins slice and enjoy. Different beer gives different results.

- add spices, poppy seeds, mustard seeds

- add chocolate chips and dried cherries to stout

- add dry cheeses such as Parmesan

.
.
.
posted by edgeways at 6:52 PM on February 20, 2012 [4 favorites]

Can I recommend brioche? The dough is so sticky it's nearly impossible to make by hand (I tried and was chipping dough off the bench for a week).

It's probably more of a 'sometimes' food though, so you could make it in those cute little brioche tins and give some away.
posted by Elcee at 6:57 PM on February 20, 2012

Food grinder attachment - make pate, sausage, meatballs. Also lots of whipped cream for all the desserts you will make. Add a little brandy or calvados to the cream when almost finshed...
posted by Cocodrillo at 7:43 PM on February 20, 2012

Elcee, one may always recommend brioche!


We are super big on making pizza dough with our mixer. We use a simple Joy of Cooking recipe. For good rising action, we place the bowl with the pizza dough bowl into a larger bowl filled with hot water. I've found the longer you let it rise, the more delicious the result.

Otherwise we have an attachment to shred vegetables, which I've used to shred cabbage for coleslaw and cauliflower to use as rice in lower carb recipes.

I used it for Valentine's to cream sugar and butter for sugar cookies, worked like a charm. The hardest part of making those cookies was lifting the mixer from the pantry to the counter.
posted by fyrebelley at 8:37 PM on February 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Mashed potatoes - don't even bother peeling; quarter and boil them as usual, throw them in the mixer with a little milk and butter, and they come out great. I dont even bother switching to thewhisks attachment at the end as some recipes recommend.

Meatloaf. You don't want to mix for too long, but I love being able to throw everything in the bowl without getting my hands all meat-y, and it comes out so nice and uniform.

Pizza dough, or any stiff bread or cookie dough in general. Having a machine to do that heavy duty stuff for you is life altering.
posted by usonian at 9:04 PM on February 20, 2012

Alton Brown's soft pretzels are one of our current favorites.

I have the same mixer, and am deeply sad that my husband currently is on a no-gluten trial.
posted by purenitrous at 9:19 PM on February 20, 2012

Make this bread recipe: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2984/jasons-quick-coccodrillo-ciabatta-bread
posted by beepbeepboopboop at 10:35 PM on February 20, 2012

Oh god, I know you said healthy, but making your own butter is so nice, and so easy.

1. Get a pot of cream, and pour it into the mixing bowl.

2. Using the K-shaped attachment on your mixer, start beating the cream.

3. Carry on until the cream goes yellow and separates into butter and buttermilk.

4. Strain off the buttermilk, and squeeze the butter between two sheets of greaseproof paper to get out the last bits of liquid.

5. Mix it with some salt if you want.

6. Enjoy. It's delicious.
posted by teraspawn at 12:43 AM on February 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

I asked a similar question after Christmas. I have tried the whole wheat bread recipe that came with the mixer, and it was easy and came out nice...not too sweet, which is something I've found with other whole wheat recipes.
posted by JoanArkham at 7:55 AM on February 21, 2012

One thing that I discovered is that you don't need a large production in order to use the mixer. For instance, if you're beating eggs to make a fancy omelette, just get the mixer to do it. You were gonna use a bowl anyway! Yesterday, I saw how to use the mixer to shred chicken perfectly. HTH.
posted by aeighty at 9:10 AM on February 21, 2012

MIND BLOWN.

Thank you all for these fantastic suggestions! I'll start going through EACH ONE this week, lol.

My girlfriend gave me a book of Nigella Lawson baking recipes to mess around with, so here goes!
posted by spunweb at 11:22 AM on February 21, 2012

I am so slow. Here's the roll recipe as promised:

Ingredients

1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup warm milk
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 (.25 ounce) package or 2.5 tsp active dry yeast

Directions

Mix water and milk, heat in microwave for 1 min 15 sec. Put in mixer bowl. Stir in sugar then yeast. Let proof for ~10 min then mix (with paddle) in salt, butter, and lightly beaten egg. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time. Switch to dough hook and kneed for ~5 min until dough comes together and is smooth and velvety. Cover with clean tea towel and let rise for 45 min until double. Punch it down, divide into 16 balls and form into rolls. Place on greased baking sheet (I like to leave an inch or so between but you could also use a lasagna dish and have them side by side). Cover and let rise for 60 min. Bake for 10 min to 15 min in oven preheated to 350.
posted by saradarlin at 8:50 AM on March 12, 2012 [1 favorite]