Cuisinart Hand Mixer, Power Advantage, 5
Less air means a less likelihood of the cheesecake coming out of the oven with a big split down the middle. Madison Flager is the Lifestyle Editor at Delish.com; she covers food news and trends, travel-worthy food experiences, cuisinart pots and pans set and the products you need in your kitchen right now. As far as build, the Dash Mixer had a cheap-feeling rattle when we turned the speed up high, and the attachments felt flimsy and fell off when we dropped the machine.
Extremely lightweight, this mixer was easy to hold and maneuver, fitting easily into our hand. Getting the attachments ejected took a moment to figure out (you’ve got to give them a good yank), but after that it was a simple process and they were easy to clean. Since we saw minimal splatter with this appliance, clean up was a quick wipe down. Finally, this quiet little mixer has a storage case that snaps on the bottom, where the attachments and cord can easily be tucked away, making the mixer higher, not wider. Extra storage without a bigger footprint in your kitchen is, quite simply, amazing. If you’ve ever spent 10 minutes angrily fishing around for mixer attachments in the back of your kitchen drawers, you know that this is a fantastic feature.
Since the Cuisinart didn’t splatter any dough or batter during our testing, we simply wiped off the machine with a damp cloth to clean, no scrubbing required. The Breville BHM800SIL is another sharp-looking little appliance. Believe it or not, a capable cuisinart pots and pans set hand mixer can perform many of the same tasks as a stand mixer—and they don’t take up valuable counter space. Many newer models even come with handy storage cases for attachments so you don’t have to rummage through your utensil drawer looking for them.
The appliance easily whipped up meringue and whipped cream in five minutes, and had no problem powering through the heavy ingredients in the oatmeal cookies. The testing process for these hand mixers was comprehensive, exceptionally delicious and lasted more than a month. We really wanted to put these kitchen essentials to the test and get to the heart of what would be the priorities of someone looking for a hand mixer. We plunged beaters into cookie dough, whisks into heavy cream, beaters (again, after cleaning them!) into cake batter and dough hooks into pizza dough. We took copious notes on which mixers handled the best — both in our hands and in the mix — and how well they were built and stood up to heavy use.
“We purchased this mixer because we have gotten tired of replacing our mixer every other year,” another shopper says. “Other mixers would burn out, but this workhorse takes it in stride. Incredible how quickly it makes the lightest meringues and also great at whipped cream. So glad we found this.” When it comes to heavy-duty mixing, you can’t beat stand mixers. However, these behemoths are expensive and a bit unwieldy for lighter tasks.
The Cuisinart is relatively light to hold—about 4 pounds, just like the Breville. The mixer didn’t walk around the bowl or rattle as much as the KitchenAid, but it’s not as smooth to use as the Breville. A light at the bottom of the Breville shines into the bowl so that you can easily see the state of your batter or dough. With nine powerful speeds, the cuisinart soup maker Breville consistently mixes thick doughs as well as lighter batters, and it has more attachments and features than the competition. The Cuisinart has automatic feedback, which means a feedback mechanism automatically makes power adjustments based on the stress put on the beaters. We didn’t notice the power being too affected when the doughs got thick.
Though not as powerful or as versatile as its 9-speed mixer, the KitchenAid 7-Speed Digital Hand Mixer is lightweight and much more affordable. The Cuisinart’s storage container keeps everything contained in a tidy little package, but it’s a little harder to hook the storage case onto the mixer compared with the Breville. All of the attachments store neatly in a clear plastic case, so you won’t lose them to the depths of a drawer. Unplug your mixer when you are not using it as well as when you remove, install or replace attachments. Doing so could prevent you from injuring yourself or damaging the device.
For this price, you will not find a better hand mixer than the Hamilton Beach Hand Mixer with Snap-On Case. Though we didn’t notice splattering in our tests, we did find that the mixer can get hot when it’s working at high speeds, which we didn’t notice with the Breville. We asked Cuisinart about this, and a representative said that the motor can get warm with use .
It was powerful enough to blend the thick cookie dough without straining, and its coated beaters helped keep all of the ingredients from climbing up the sides of the bowl. Each baked cookie was well-mixed with an even distribution of the good, chunky morsels we wanted in every bite—chewy raisins, chopped walnuts, chocolate chips, and flakes of coconut. The sponge cake it produced had an even crumb, a delicate texture, and the least air bubbles of any we baked. It was also one of the loftiest, unlike the VonShef’s cake, which sunk in the middle and at the sides. We like the Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 9-Speed Hand Mixer for occasional baking and making smaller recipes. This little machine is an effective hand mixer that evenly blends cookie dough and quickly whips fluffy meringue.
Rachel tested hand mixers of all kinds, from basic mixers to multi-functional mixers. We also considered personal and online reviews, selecting options that are highly-rated across many shopping platforms, including Williams Sonoma, Walmart, and Amazon. We loved the vintage look of this mid-level mixer, which comes in black, silver, red and white. If bells and whistles get you excited in the kitchen, and budget isn’t an issue, we highly recommend this Breville.