Stand Mixer doubles as Hand Mixer...nice

Just before Christmas I was given a $25 gift certificate for Target. My first thought was; "Great, this will help pay for my husband's Christmas gift." So I stuck it in my wallet, to wait for the day. Meanwhile, I had promised my daughter that this year we would make cookies together. But my arm was dreading it. I knew that this was going to involve a lot of mixing, and all I had was a hand mixer that had been my mother-in-law's. So I kept putting her and the cookies off.

My daughter and I went shopping a few days later to Target to purchase my husband's gift, and while we were there we decided to check out the mixers. I honestly had no intension of buying one, I knew how expensive they were and was not about to spend that much right before Christmas. But when we turned the corner into the aisle, I stopped short. There in front of me was this great looking stand mixer for under $35.00. And it was a brand that I had heard of!

The Hamilton Beach Stand Mixer was exactly what I was looking for. It was light weight and came with a few attachments that I could even use, flat beaters for general mixing and dough hooks for kneading bread. In the hand mixer mode the mixer has a bowl rest feature that can be used when the appliance is off and you need to add an ingredient or check the recipe, instead of trying to balance it on the edge of the bowl. It is a bit tricky getting the hand mixer off the stand the first few times, but if you read the instructions first (I didn't, but my daughter did) It's not difficult at all. The weight of the hand mixer is also quite comfortable to use. In the stand mixer mode it has a shift lever on the turntable that shifts the bowl from side to side, making it easier to add additional ingredients while the mixer it running.

I found this mixer to be quite a durable little machine. My daughter and I mixed up 3 different batches of cookie dough in a row and the appliance just started to get a little over heated at the end. All in all, a good appliance for the money.

Features-
225 watt motor
Chrome Flat Beaters
Chrome Dough Hooks
Large 4 quart Glass bowl
Detachable mixing head doubles as a hand mixer
6 Mixing Speeds
0 Off and/or Eject
1 Low speed for folding or mixing in dry ingredients, muffins, or quick breads
2 To cream butter and sugar, most cookie dough
3 Medium speed for most packaged cake mixes
4 Frosting and mashed potatoes, kneading dough
5 Beating egg whites, kneading dough
6 High speed for whipping cream, kneading dough

Instruction guide with recipes (English and French):
Lemon Chess Squares, Fluffy White Frosting, Ginger Cookie Bars, Brown Sugar Butterscotch Cookies, etc

And a website with many more recipes at www.hamiltonbeach.com

Limited 1 year warranty