Recently we moved to a beautiful house in the countryside and with this move we wanted to embrace a slightly more grown up, homely lifestyle, so when I invited my friends over I decided to provide some homemade cookies and banish my long-standing reputation of being a hopeless baker. I had total faith in my new Cuisinart Precision Stand Mixer and even found a recipe in the booklet provided: white chocolate and cranberry cookies. I decided if I followed it word for word, I couldn’t go wrong. This mixer was one of the first things we put on the worktop as it looks beautiful with its minimalist, glossy design and rounded edges, I was happy to leave it out even if I never switched it on, however if you need to store it in the cupboard all the accessories fit in the bowl, keeping everything together in one place.

The Precision Stand Mixer is so easy to use, there is a little button at the back that that flips up the head of the unit, the bowl attaches with a simple twist and the speed is set by a large, clearly numbered dial with 12 different speeds to perform everything from delicate folds to intense whipping. It comes with three attachments: a mixing paddle, a whisk attachment and a dough hook, making it suitable for making bread, batter, sauces, whisking egg whites, cake, cookies and even homemade pasta and pizza dough. The large 5.2L stainless-steel (dishwasher proof) mixing bowl has a comfortable handle and a transparent splash guard that can be fitted to the top with a lift-up compartment to let you continue to add ingredients, although you will have to remove it every time you tilt the head back. I was half way through following the recipe when I realised there was a printing error and it failed to tell you when to add the flour, salt and baking power, I immediately panicked, chucked in all the ingredients and followed the last few instructions. To my amazement the cookies turned out beautifully.

My friends demolished them and couldn’t believe I had made them myself; I would like to say this was the beginning of a sophisticated evening where no one ended up falling asleep under the kitchen table at 3am…I would like to say that. What this mixer did struggle with was very small amounts, like icing for example, as it doesn’t quite reach all the way down, so you may have to go manual (or use a hand mixer) for small tasks, but other than that it is almost foolproof, and provides a fast and efficient way of creating delicious things.  RRP £275

Current Cheapest Price

5 out of 5

Pros

High performance 500W motor

12 speed settings for a range of recipes

Easy to use and clean

5.2L large capacity, dishwasher safe, bowl

Splash guard with pour spout

Quiet

Head-lift locks in upright position

Robust die cast metal housing and base

Cons

Splash guard needs to be removed when lifting the head

It struggles when mixing very small amounts

Printing error in recipe booklet