Three attachments come in the box with every stand mixer, and a lot of people use one of them for everything. It is an easy habit to fall into and it can be ineffective: a sponge whisked when it should have been beaten comes out tough, and cream beaten with a flat paddle takes twice as long to get nowhere. Here is what each one is for.
The flat beater or paddle attachment
The flat, paddle-shaped attachment is the one most recipes mean when they say to use the mixer, and it is the one people most often ask about by name. Its job is to combine ingredients thoroughly without deliberately forcing air into them.
Reach for it when you are creaming butter and sugar, making cake batter, mixing biscuit or pastry dough, beating icing and buttercream smooth or mashing potato. It moves mixture around the bowl rather than aerating it, which is exactly what you want when the raising agent in the recipe is doing that job instead.
The whisk
The balloon-shaped attachment made of thin wires does the opposite. Its whole purpose is to drive as much air as possible into something light, which is why it looks so flimsy next to the other two.
Use it for egg whites, meringue, whipping cream, whisked sponges and anything where volume is needed. What it will not tolerate is weight. Heavy batters and stiff doughs will bend the wires out of shape, and once they are bent the whisk never whips quite as well again. If the mixture is putting up a fight, you have the wrong attachment in.
The dough hook
The curved, spiral-shaped attachment is for bread. It pushes and folds dough against the side of the bowl in the same way hands do on a worktop, developing the gluten that gives a loaf its structure.
Use it for bread dough, pizza dough, enriched doughs and anything else that needs kneading rather than mixing. Keep the speed low: kneading is a slow, heavy job, and running it fast puts strain on the motor without improving the dough.
Which attachment for which job
The splash guard
Every model in the range comes with a splash or splatter guard, and it is worth actually fitting it. It keeps flour from clouding out of the bowl when you start on a low speed and stops liquid mixtures spraying the worktop. It also lets you add ingredients while the machine is running, which is how most recipes want you to introduce flour or eggs anyway.
Add-ons: the mincer and blender jug
Two of our models use the motor of the machine for more than just mixing. The 6.2L Multi Function adds mincing attachments and a 1.5L blending jug. The 8L Digital Multi Function goes further again with a glass blender jug, a meat mincer with three attachments and a sausage-making nozzle.
Looking after your attachments
Wash attachments soon after use rather than letting mixture dry on them, particularly the whisk, where dough sets hard between the wires and is hard to get out later. Dry them fully before storing. If one does get damaged, replacements and spares are available in our parts and accessories section.
Get started!
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