For the KitchenAid mixer, that is.
I’ve had my KitchenAid for almost exactly 11 years now. It was my Valentine’s day gift from my then-boyfriend/now-husband. The story goes… I was looking for something on Craigslist and ran across an ad for the mixer. It was Pro-Line 5-quart mixer for $175, 1-month old, never used but out of the box. The man who was selling it said that it was a wedding gift but he and his wife were getting a divorce. (Yikes! You can do the math with how long that marriage lasted.) So I forwarded the ad to my beau and told him that it was a great deal and that he should get it. I never heard anything about it since the email. Forward to a week later, Valentine’s Day, 2001 – I get a big, heavy box and was pleasantly surprised to see the mixer!
My husband got grief from his co-workers back then for giving me a mixer. They commented that it sets the tone of our relationship and how he’s insinuating that I should be “domestic.” We both knew that was not the case. He knew that I loved cooking and baking and thought this was perfect… and it was.
My dad has donated slicer attachments (he had two sets). But the one accessory that I’ve gotten the most use out of is the Beater Blade. It’s a paddle attachment with silicone flanges that scrapes the bowl as it mixes. Talk about time-saver! Since my Kitchen Aid has a bowl-lift (as opposed to the tilt-head) this has proven very useful since it was difficult to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula without completely removing the bowl and beater. It does a great job, too!
Getting it going
Watch it mix and scrape!
Nice, light and fluffy butter/sugar mixture!
The next best thing for the KitchenAid is the pouring shield. This really helps reduce the “explosion of flour” (or powdered sugar) when you’re mixing dry ingredients into your wet ingredients. Also, it helps direct the mixture in the bowl, instead of all over the counter. Which I still manage to do even with the shield – but that’s mostly because I’m not paying attention.
Today I’m baking sugar cookies (no surprise there) for Valentine’s Day. I’ve got my dough ready to refrigerate with the help of these tools!
What are your favorite tools for cooking or baking? Post them in the comments below!