If you have ever tried to make dough for bread, pizza or even cookies by hand you’ll know what an arm-aching experience that can be. After you have mixed the ingredients and kneaded them for a 5 minutes stretch you are worn out. My Gran used to say that she made better bread when she was angry about something because she put more power into the kneading! You can take the effort out of making bread, however and save time too by using a dough mixer.
When you start looking for one you’ll find very few manufacturers actually call their mixers “dough mixers”. That’s because they tend to create versatile products for home use which can be used for mixing everything from cakes to bread and doing quite a few other jobs such as whipping cream and even stuffing sausages. But if you want a pizza or bread dough mixer you need a particular type of mixer – one that is powerful enough to do a tough job.
Here are the things your bread or pizza dough mixer must have (even if it does a lot of other things):-
1. Weight and Power
A simple hand dough mixer might be enough to cope with a small batch of cookies, but when you are making bread or pizza dough the proportion of dry ingredients to wet ones is so high that it takes a powerful motor to deal with it and most cheap mixers will simply burn out before you make a single loaf or pizza base.
Don’t bother buying a hand held mixer unless all you want to make are cookies. You need a heavy stand mixer for making bread otherwise you will find your mixer starting to “walk” across the counter top when doing this tough job. Also choose the most powerful motor you can afford. If you make a lot of bread you might even want to consider a small scale commercial dough mixer such as those by Hobart. The Hobart dough mixers are available in sizes from 5 quarts but you would need quite deep pockets to buy one.
If you just make the occasional loaf of bread, there is no need to look at the commercial dough mixers. A professional mixer from companies such as KitchenAid or Cuisinart would be fine for your purposes. Just don’t choose the cheapest mixers from these companies if your main intention is bread making as you will wish you had upgraded for a more powerful motor before too long.
2. Capacity of the Machine
Many mixers specify a maximum capacity for cakes and a different one for bread because of the power needed to mix dough. Take this with a pinch of salt and try not to use your machine at maximum capacity to make your motor last as long as possible. This means when you are reviewing bread dough mixers for home use, you should choose one with a higher capacity than you need. You are more likely to be happy with it and not worry about your motor toiling, overheating and perhaps burning out.
With commercial mixers, it is slightly different as the companies making these would expect them to be used day in day out at capacity and not to break down. Hence the higher price tag. But you are not looking for the kind of mixer used in a bakery business. There you might use a spiral dough mixer totally dedicated to making bread and with the capacity of hundreds of loaves. With spiral mixers the bowl revolves rather than the hook.
3. Materials
Mixers which are made entirely of metal parts score on two counts. The parts are less likely to break and they are heavier which helps the stability of the product in operation. The tougher the materials, in particular the spiral dough hook attachment, the more easily bread and pizza dough mixers are able to carry out their task.
4. Additional Features
If you are planning use your bread or pizza mixer for other purposes then check the machine you are thinking of buying is suitable for everything you need it to do. You would expect attachments for whipping cream and beating cakes to be provided with a stand mixer meant for home use. It is a bonus if you can also buy further attachments to carry out other jobs in the kitchen such as grinding meat and making pasta. You may not be so interested now but hopefully your mixer will last for years and you may decide these items would be useful in future.
You will find a range of dough mixers for sale below, with our opinions of each one but in each case I recommend you look at the detailed reviews from customers if you are considering a particular machine and we show you where to find these. Dough mixers are not cheap so don’t be in too much of a hurry and make a mistake in your purchase.
 KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixers (Click the Image for More Details) |
Beautiful range of colors avaiable in these KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart stand mixers which have everything you could need in a mixer either included with your purchase or available as an optional attachment. As far as dough mixers for home use go, these machines are powerful enough to do the job unlike many cheaper models. And they look stunning in your kitchen too. If budget is a consideration take a look HERE for a huge discount and free shipping and drool over the colors as well as the reviews where over 800 reviewers give this model over 4 out of 5 stars on average. |
 KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Stand Mixers (Click the Image to see all the Color Options!) |
Over 1600 reviewers give the KitchenAid Artisan stand mixers a huge vote of satisfaction so this one is also well worth the look. Slightly cheaper than the professonal 600 series and not quite so powerful but it will still do the job as a dough mixer for you. And available in an even bigger range of colors. When choosing the color of your KitchenAid dough mixer note that each of the colors are priced differently. Scroll over the color blocks and see the price change! Free shipping. Get all the details and see the reviews RIGHT HERE.
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Many buyers report this is a great dough mixer and with the huge discount on offer HERE it must be well worth consideration. Just 3 colors this time but you can’t have everything. Plenty of optional attachment available if you want to expand your repertoire later. A good buy. Free shipping.
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 Cuisinart SM-55 5-1/2-Quart Stand Mixers (Click the Image for More Details) |
 Cuisinart SM-70 7-Quart Stand Mixers (Click the Image for More Details) |
A higher capacity Cuisinart mixer with the same good reputation as the smaller one and available in the same three colors. Click HERE for details and reviews of this Cuisinart dough mixer.
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The Viking Professional Stand Mixer has a more powerful motor than the others and so it is ideal as a dough mixer. It is also a good bit more expensive so it does depend on what you are looking for. Good reviews although from fewer buyers than the KitchenAid or Cuisinart models but I have also heard good reports elsewhere about these mixers and you can buy with peace of mind. Check out the reviews and get all the details here.
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 VIKING VSM500 Professional Stand Mixer (Click the Image for More Details) |