The Best Stand Mixers for Home Bakers
We baked hundreds of cookies, kneaded bread dough, and whipped meringue in 12 stand mixers.
A stand mixer transforms baking from a workout into a pleasure. After baking over 200 batches of cookies, kneading 50 loaves of bread, and whipping countless bowls of meringue across 12 stand mixers, the KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart remains our top pick for its reliability, versatility, and massive attachment ecosystem.
Best Overall: KitchenAid Artisan
The Artisan handled everything from delicate meringues at speed 2 to stiff bread doughs at speed 4 without bogging down or walking across the counter. The 5-quart bowl is the sweet spot for most home bakers — large enough for a double batch of cookies but not so large that small quantities get lost. The tilt-head design makes bowl access easy, and the planetary mixing action ensures thorough, even mixing with no scraping needed.
