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I divide my life in two eras: before buying my KitchenAid hand mixer, and after. As a kid, I went from Easy Bake Oven cakes to semi-homemade sheet cakes (boxed cake with homemade frosting) to dozens of cookies with the help of my mom's trusty hand mixer, which was always a little covered in flour and stored in the upper cupboard to the right of the sink. It wasn't until I went to college and had a (KitchenAid-less) kitchen of my own that I understood how important that thing was. I learned the pain of manually hand-mixing baked goods, my arm cramping up trying to cream together maybe-not-quite-room-temperature butter and sugar for blueberry muffins or attempting to whip egg whites for my mom's savory rice pudding soufflé when I was particularly homesick. I was lost without it.
Everything changed on a random day in 2009 when I drove (slightly over the speed limit) to the local Bed Bath & Beyond because I had brownies to bake for a friend's birthday. Armed with two 20% off coupons that we kept in a stack on top of the fridge—THEY NEVER EXPIRE!!!!—I grabbed the first one that I saw and went to the checkout. Back then, there weren't 100 colors to choose from, so I have a very utilitarian-looking black and stainless steel version; if I could buy a new one today, it'd be this adorable BOYSENBERRY number ($39.99 on Amazon). It remains my most-used appliance to this day, even though I got a used full-size KitchenAid stand mixer later that year on Craigslist for $75.
But you're not here for a long-winded story about how I got my first hand mixer. (Too bad; I already told it. If you're still here: I promise real advice is coming.) You're here to find out why a KitchenAid hand mixer is the kitchen upgrade you should make sooner rather than later. It performs the basic tasks of a fancy stand mixer for less than ¼ of the price! Yes, it will make creaming butter and sugar together for virtually any baked good easier, but it also makes super creamy dips, whips egg whites into meringues or omelet soufflés, and even emulsifies salad dressings. I use mine for everything from whisking eggs for a brunch casserole to shredding cooked chicken for salad in seconds. (Watch the magic happen here.)
It makes the creamiest base for pimiento cheese (before you fold in the cheddar) and lump-free deviled egg filling. If I could attach it to my hand permanently like Edward Scissorhands, I might. That's how dedicated I am to it. But since that would make Instagramming Alison Roman's salted butter chocolate chunk cookies and typing stories like this near impossible, I'll stick to storing it within arm's reach. But maybe in the future, I'll have an Inspector Gadget arm with kitchen tools attached. (Black Mirror, I've got a pitch for you.)
