On Tue, 27 Dec 2005, Craig Busch wrote:

> Hello,
> A lot of you have KA or equivalent type stand mixers. What would be the
> absolute entry level mixer you could recommend- stand or hand- for
> mixing cookie dough?

As a few people have said, you can mix cookie dough by hand. You really
don't NEED any electric mixer. If you are like me and multitask in the
kitchen, having a mixer you can leave run while you work on something else
is really helpful and nice to have.

If this is the case then a hand mixer will not do. Even if you can find a
hand mixer strong enough you will find it hard to hold the bowl with one
hand and the mixer with the other. It also defeats the idea of letting it
run while you work on something else.

As for a stand mixer, I have a 525 Watt Kitchen Aid and it works fine even
on heavy doughs like gingerbread. I look at it like stereo or cars.

If I need a stereo with 500 Watts I want to buy something with more than
500 Watts. The quality at the top range is not going to be as good. If I
buy a 1000 Watt stereo system and only play it at 500 Watts then it should
sound better than a 500 Watt stereo played at 500 Watts.

Similarly, if I'm driving 100 kilometres a days to work at 100 km/h, and
100 kilometres back, I'm not going to buy a 3 cylinder economy car. It
would handle it but I'd drive it into the ground after 4 or 5 years. If I
buy a bigger car (one that will handle 160 km/h easily) then driving it at
100 km/h every day it will still have some resale value in 5 years.

Mind you, my mixer is running 3 hours a night every night for a month
straight before Christmas. Everyone I know gets a dozen each of a few
different cookies, plus my wife and my work have bake sales, plus I like
to try one or two new recipes every year (this year was lemon squares;
basically a shortbread base with a lemon curd on top).

--
Send e-mail to: darrell dot grainger at utoronto dot ca