Hamilton Beach Professional 5-Quart Stand Stainless Steel Mixer with Specialty Attachment Hub

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I’m one of many I believe who began making their own bread when the pandemic hit. One step really stood out and that was the kneading involved in many recipes. Of course the recommendations called for a stand mixer with a dough hook and I thought how much easier this would be instead of using my hands. I could not justify the cost of purchasing one, so I kept doing it by hand. Came upon this machine from Hamilton Beach and so far, it has been a really good choice. The price is far better than the competition and the quality of the unit is terrific. The unit weighs in at almost 16 lbs. The 5 quart bowl is stainless steel and should last a lifetime. The motor is a healthy 450 watts which should be enough to mix a fairly stiff dough which is fairly commonplace in some recipes. Something which got my attention really fast was the mixer has 4 rubber suction cup feet which adheres the unit to the countertop quite well. The mixer comes with a flat beater, a whisk, and a dough hook. There’s also a couple of clear plastic pieces which are anti-splash parts fitting over the bowl during operation. Hamilton Beach does offer attachments for this particular model and they are; 1. Meat grinder, 2. Pasta roller and cutter set, and 3. Slicer/shredder. I chose not to purchase these accessories at this time so I will not comment on them further. I decided to try this mixer out by making a artisan loaf of bread which requires kneading. I followed the instructions on the owners manual of the mixer in addition to the recipe instructions to begin with. I set the mixer to power level 4 and the unit began its kneading. There was a little movement of the mixer caused by imbalance, but this Is normal and a reason for suction cup feet to grip the counter. The recipe called for 10 minutes of kneading and near the end of that time, the base became just a bit warm to the touch due to the motor doing its thing. I don’t think I’ve really seen ingredients that has been kneaded by a machine and the results is a very smooth and elastic dough. I forgot to do the “windowpane” test, but I do believe it probably would have passed! Success! The loaf came out with a significantly bigger rise that I’m used to, and it really sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom, both great signs! Honestly, it’s just so easy to accomplish with this mixer. I don’t believe I’ll make bread any other way now that I own this Hamilton Beach Professional stand mixer! Now the only drawback is I ran out of counter space about 3 decades ago and this unit is on the large side. I did what I normally do with my other small appliances and that is to return everything neatly in its original box and place it in the garage until needed. So the bottom line is, I like this product very much and definitely would recommend it to anyone that’s perhaps in the market. I don’t think you’ll go wrong with this.