Breville hand and stand mixer

The Breville Hand and Stand Mixer is an innovative mixer that can be used both as a stand mixer and a hand mixer. Supplied with beaters, dough hooks and whisks, it can handle most kitchen tasks. Carefully built to have a very small footprint, it takes up little space in a kitchen and is ideal for smaller residences.

It is also the cheapest way to get a good quality stand mixer this versitile. At forty pounds it is a lot cheaper than the several hundred you would normally expect to pay,  but can still be realistically compared to the heavier stand mixers.

Features:

• three beaters, the whisk, beater, and dough hooks.
• Mixing arm detachable as stand mixer
• Rotating and detachable bowl
• Detachable attachments and bowl are dishwashable
• 10 speeds on the mixing arm
• 2 speeds on the bowl.
• Small size - ideal for compact or small kitchens and homebaking.

The Breville's smaller size makes it ideal for compact kitchens like those in flats or older houses. When closed, it has a small footprint and doesn't take up a lot of space on the side. All the beaters fit in the bowl making it easy to store.

The rotating bowl means the mixing head remains stationary (unlike standard kitchenaids). This saves mechanical space in the mixing head, allowing the mixer to be much smaller.

It has other features that help in compact kitchens when the mixer is in use. Because the beaters are offset and do not move, it is easy to add ingredients even if the mixer is running. Also, when it lifts up, the arm does not go as high as a normal stand mixer, moving up and back. This is very useful when you have lower cupboards in the kitchen above the work surface.

Because it doubles as a hand mixer, it saves on a second gadget, saving drawer space.

One of the interesting things about the Breville is that its range of features mean that it swings well above its weight.

Many of the less positive reviews for example, are comparing the forty pound Breville Hand and Stand mixer to a four hundred pound KitchenAid or Kenwood Chef stand mixer.

The fact that comparison is even being made tells you a lot about the quality of the Breville.

I have only found a couple of drawbacks. As a hand mixer, it is slightly on the heavy side and for prolonged use can be tiring. However that is easily solved by using stand mixer mode. Sometimes you will need to use the spatula to fold the mix in to ensure it all gets beaten, but because of the rotating bowl, you just hold the spatula against the side and the turning bowl does the work.

With breadmaking, you need to use a slow speed, since the heavier dough can take a toll on the motors and make it very noisy. At high speeds with large amounts of heavy dough the mixer can "walk", but this can be solved by adding a cork mat underneath (which helps with noise and protects the side as well) or by turning the speed down.

I've heard people say it is loud, but to my ears it is no louder than a normal stand mixer.

The Breville Hand and Stand Mixer
Find the mixer on Amazon.co.uk

This was ideal for me. It's useful for baking and cooking two or three times a week, doesn't take up a lot of space in my kitchen, and can be used as a hand whisk if I really need to. Before getting it, I was doing most of my baking by hand as a full-sized stand mixer would not fit in the kitchen.

And at half the size, and one fifth the cost of the next nearest alternative, I think it was a very good buy.