Stand mixer is absolutely a must have for every baker to have in their kitchen. These efficient appliances help you easily prepare delicious ice scream, breads, cakes, pastries and puddings and more in no time at all. While similar to a hand mixer, a stand mixer is able to prepare more food at one time, with the capabilities of standing on its own.
This is my second Kitchenaid stand mixer. I have to say I am extremely happy with the mixer. Heavy for a reason- steel not plastic–louder than most -because it has steel gears-last forever.
Over 10 colors available
There is a special kind of joy in baking (and of course in baked goodies). Through time, more people have become fascinated with baking- from kids to mommies. This is why today, baking equipments are more in-demand. And whether it is for your shop or even for your home kitchen, it is important that you got a reliable machine like a stand mixer. As compared to hand mixer, stand mixers are built with powerful motor to make mixing easier and even. Stand mixers also save your time and effort especially for busy moms and baking enthusiasts.
One popular name in the market today is the KitchenAid Professional 600, a perfect choice for heavy and dense mixtures. To know more about this product and how this would work for you, here’s a detailed review.
What’s in the Box?
Before going into details, here is what you’ll get in the box:
- 1 unit KitchenAid Professional 600 stand mixer
- 1 Stainless steel bowl, 6 quarts
- 1 Plastic pouring shield
- 1 Burnished flat beater
- 1 Burnished spiral dough hook
- 1 Stainless steel wire whip
- 1 User manual
Features
Dimension
- The KitchenAid Professional 600 stands 16.5 inches, 14.6 inches in depth, and 11.3 inches in width. The machine weighs 29 pounds.
Stainless Steel Bowl
- It features a 6-quart stainless steel bowl that yields 13 dozens of cookies, 8 ¼ loaves of bread, and 8 pounds of mashed potato. This is one advantage of stand mixer as it can accommodate huge or larger quantities or contents, which will save you time and energy.
Power
- This machine operates starting from the 575-watt motor that directly sends power to the unit through a direct-drive transfer that furthers the energy-saving feature of this machine.
10 Mixing Speeds
- KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer is equipped with ten mixing speeds that you can control via the speed control knob located on the motor head. One can easily run through the ten mixing speeds by simply sliding the lever smoothly on the knob. While there may be 10 speeds, only the STIR, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 markers are indicated on the control. The several speeds offer versatility and efficiency in mixing either wet or dry ingredients.
- The “STIR” function is primarily used to begin with in all mixing procedures. This is used for stirring, combining or mashing. For example is adding liquids to dry ingredients. Next is speed number “2” or slow mixing. The number 2 speed is intended for slow mixing or mashing and faster stirring just like when you mix and knead yeast dough. The number “4” speed, on the other hand, is used for mixing or beating including semi-heavy batters.
- The speed number “6” is utilized for medium-fast beating or creaming. The “8” speed is used for fast beating or whipping, for example egg whites and cream. Lastly, the speed number “10” is usually used for fast whipping.
Bowl-lift design
Bowl Lift Design KitchenAid KP26M1XER 6 Qt. Professional 600 Series
- The bowl-lift design allows the necessary contact between the bowl and the beater. The bowl lift helps you to correct the clearance easily whenever lowering or raising the bowl or while attaching the beater, bowl, hook, or whip, or when removing the same. The bowl-lift design improves the stability of your machine more particularly when mixing larger quantities or in huge batches.
Planetary Mixing Action
- Using the Kitchenaid Professional 600 means a more even, comprehensive and thorough mixture as the beater rotates in a planetary direction for incredible bowl coverage. The beater, hook or whip spins and rotates at 67 touch points per rotation to best incorporate or mix the ingredients.
Auto shut-off
- This stand mixer comes with an auto-shut off feature, which ensures safety inside your kitchen to enjoy using this stand mixer. The auto-shut off is activated when the mixer senses that it is overloaded. When this happens, you need to turn off the stand mixer and continue using it after a couple of minutes as indicated in the manual.
- While this could be an inconvenient scenario, you can still avoid it by not overloading the mixer and by following mixing instructions
Accessories
- The KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart stand mixer includes other mixing essentials such as dough hook, flat beater, and wire whip.
- The flat beater is a standard accessory to any stand mixer. It is what you normally use for most mixing like batter and cookies. This is indeed very helpful for normal to heavy mixtures.
- Kitchenaid claims that the unique spiral design of the dough hook replicates hand-kneading and because of its shape, it kneads 25% more as compared to other dough hooks. The Power knead spiral dough hook can be used for kneading and mixing yeast doughs like for bread, pizza dough, and buns.
- Another mixing or baking must-have is a wire whip. The 6-wire whip finds use in mixing ingredients that require air incorporation, which covers eggs, heavy cream, mayonnaise, and a lot more.
- For extra comfort, the 6-quart bowl is designed with a bowl handle. It aids in transferring mixtures especially when you need a grip to safely transfer large amount of contents from the bowl to another container.
- Mixing and baking can be a little messy, but the pouring shield of this stand mixer will lessen the cleaning required afterwards. It allows you to pour ingredients into the bowl through the pouring chute of the shield. Just make sure that the chute rests properly on to the rim of the bowl.
Performance
- Attaching, removing, raising or lowering the Kitchenaid Professional 600 bowl requires precaution on your part. To attach or remove the bowl, one has to make sure that the unit is off and unplugged. In raising or lowering the bowl, all you need to do is rotate the handle straight-up or back and down.
- When adjusting the speed of the beater, move it gradually to the entire speed to avoid splashing out of the ingredients from the bowl.
- Before you start mixing, check the distance between the beater and the bowl. Make sure that the beater does not touch the bottom or side of the bowl for proper mixing.
- The mixer stops when it overloads. In case it happens, just slide the speed knob to off and wait until the mixer automatically resets.
- Known for its time-saving features, Kitchenaid Professional 600 mixes faster than others. So you need to adjust mixing time or duration to avoid overbeating.
- The proper beater to bowl clearance will provide a more efficient or thorough mixing so scraping, while necessary in certain circumstances, is advised to be done once or twice when mixing. The unit has to be turned off before scraping.
Pros
- Kitchenaid Professional 600 is both steady and sturdy
- It comes with a heavy-duty motor that can take any mixing job from simple to heavy efficiently.
- The 6-quart stainless steel bowl can accommodate a relatively larger amount of mixtures.
- Stainless steel bowl has a handle for added comfort and convenience.
- Adjustable bowl height to achieve desired bowl to beater clearance.
- Mixer is programmed with a Soft Start feature to avoid splash-out of ingredients and flour puff.
- It is equipped with ten mixing speeds.
- Time and energy-saving
- Compatible with several attachments
- Kitchenaid Professional 600 available in 15 colors
- Bowl-lift design. The bowl lift mixers were initially designed for commercial use where higher horsepower is required to make larger batches of ingredients and knead thick bread dough. Also, the bowl-lift can stay in its place under the cabinets while in use.
Cons
- The KitchenAid Professional 600 has a large frame thus space-consuming.
- Limited mobility due to its weight
- Operates loudly
- Costly
Overall Review
Upon knowing the features of this stand mixer, no wonder why KitchenAid Professional 600 has become a household name. If you are looking for a reliable stand mixer that comes with compatible accessory and attachment features for your mixing or baking needs, then here’s the deal.
The purpose of stand mixer like this is primarily to bring you an efficient, even and comprehensive mixture, light to heavy, in less time and energy and with less effort. The key now to have long-lasting machine is a gradual build-up. Just because KitchenAid claims that the bowl could produce 13 dozens of cookies, 8 loaves of bread or 8 pounds of mashed potatoes does not mean feeding the potatoes with the same amount all at once. After all, what matters is not how fast but the taste or how good or well. Not even when it claims to be a workhorse.