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I picked a stand mixer over a hand mixer for my cottage bakery and honestly it was overkill at first
When I started baking out of my home in Austin last spring, everyone told me to get a KitchenAid Pro 600. But I went with a cheaper hand mixer instead for about $40. After three months of struggling with thick cookie dough, I finally gave in and bought the stand mixer. It took up half my counter but now I can do double batches of my sourdough discard crackers in one go. Has anyone else found that upgrading too fast can mess with your workflow or was it just me?
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drewr151mo ago
Respectfully, that's a pretty hot take. Starting with a cheap hand mixer for a cottage bakery sounds like setting yourself up for failure from day one, especially with thick doughs. My wife runs a small cake business out of our kitchen and she went straight for a refurbished stand mixer. Having to stop and rest a hand mixer every few minutes because it overheats or the dough is too stiff would mess with my workflow way more than having a big machine on the counter. You're basically saving counter space but losing time and frustration.
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emeryj661mo ago
Roll your eyes all you want at the hand mixer struggle, but sometimes you gotta learn the hard way that burning out a $40 motor on stiff dough is just paying for a really expensive lesson. Your wife had the right idea going straight for the refurbished stand mixer, though I bet she still has to rearrange her entire kitchen island just to fit the bowl in. Nothing says "cottage bakery success" like having to choose between counter space and actually being able to finish a batch of cookies.
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pat_stone1mo ago
That $40 hand mixer burn out story hits close to home honestly. I did the exact same thing with a kitchenaid hand mixer and chocolate chip cookie dough a few years back. The smell of burning plastic is something you don't forget. I mean your wife is right about the refurb stand mixer being the better move but she's also right about the counter space thing. My kitchen island is a mess of flour and bowls every time I bake now and I kinda miss the days when I could just shove everything in a drawer.
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