Mixers

A stand mixer on this list is a bowl that stays put while a hook, a beater or a whisk moves through it.

The dough hook kneads bread. It works slowly, and the dough should slap the side of the bowl and then pull away. If flour is still dusting the bottom after a couple of minutes, add water a spoon at a time. If the dough is a batter, you have already added too much.

The flat beater creams butter and sugar and mixes cake batter. A scraper beater, on the machines that include one, reaches the wall of the bowl so you stop less often to wipe the side down. It is still a beater, not a dough hook. Heavy rye dough on a scraper beater loads the gearbox for no benefit.

The whisk is for egg whites and cream. A full bowl of whites will climb into the head if you walk off. Stay with it, and stop at soft or firm peaks rather than at a clock time. A drop of yolk in the whites, or a wet bowl, is why a meringue never thickens. The mixer cannot fix that.

Lock the bowl and the tool before you start. A head that is not clicked down walks across the bench once the dough catches.

Chopping and slicing are processor jobs. A finished loaf with a timer is a bread maker job.