I Tried the $ 60 ALDI Desktop Mixer and It Is Pretty Good
Everyone’s favorite inexpensive grocery store is back in this. Starting October 18th, you can buy the classic six-speed Ambiano stand mixer at any ALDI store for sixty US dollars. They sent me one to check, and I’m so happy I could try it. Not only was it fun to test, but it worked pretty well – and I put it to the test.
When the package arrived, the first thing I noticed was its lightness : my KitchenAid mixer weighs 22lbs and the Ambiano is just under 10. This is a clear plus in my opinion. Lighter mixers struggle with higher loads, but in my experience all consumer-grade stand mixers do the same. Also, if you need to clean up your stand mixer after each use – which most people do – it’s easier to do with a lighter mixer. This mixer will also appeal to people who move frequently or struggle to lift more than 10 pounds.
In terms of accessories, the Ambiano mixer comes with a 4 liter mixing bowl, air whisk, paddle, dough hook and slotted plastic bowl lid so you can add ingredients as you mix. The bowl lid is fine in theory, but I regularly miss larger targets than its roughly three-inch long slot; using it would lead to disaster. All other attachments are made of stainless steel or coated aluminum and feel durable. They claim to be dishwasher safe, but the fasteners are made of uncoated aluminum, so you can dishwasher them at your own risk.
I wanted to put this mixer through a thorough but realistic set of tests. In other words, if a KitchenAid or a commercial planetary mixer didn’t handle the recipe, it wasn’t. That meant there was no pizza, no bagel dough, no completely insane Christina Tosi cookie recipes . I chose four varied and sensible recipes: yeast dough, simple cake dough, mashed potatoes, and puff pastry. The mixer did better on some tasks than others, but overall it did well. Here’s what I learned.
Fortified yeast dough
As a general rule, I do not recommend table mixers for kneading bread dough because even the expensive and heavy-duty ones cannot handle it. Fortified dough is the exception to this rule, so I thought I could try a few sweet potato buns to get started.
I chose the King Arthur Flour flour recipe and made mise en place – it’s a dump all at once recipe, so it’s helpful to measure the ingredients and are ready to eat. After the yeast bloomed, I added the rest of the ingredients to the mixing bowl and turned on the mixer for the first time.
Verdict? Not great, but not terrible either. The mixer struggled a bit with the dough and warmed up a bit, but it worked – and whatever the mixing difficulties were, weren’t evident in the finished product. However, I think this is such a tough dough that Ambiano, as you would expect, can handle.
Grade: C +
Simple cake dough
Next, I wanted to see how the mixer handles a very simple cake dough – like the apple charlotte I’ve been craving for weeks.
After you’ve peeled, grated at the core, and sliced six or eight apples, apple charlotte becomes the simplest pie I know: put the fruit in a baking dish, spread a very simple dough, and bake. (Seriously, the dough has four ingredients: three eggs, a cup of sugar, a cup of flour, and some vanilla.) Beating the eggs and sugar by hand is just enough of a headache, which I rarely do. this, and I was thrilled to see if an ALDI mixer could help.
Unsurprisingly, it was so; with a mixer, beat the eggs and sugar thoroughly and quickly. I know it was a daunting task, but I have no complaints about how it went.
Excellent rating
Puree
I make mashed potatoes by whisking it in a mixer with butter, cream and garlic; Naturally, I wanted to see how Ambiano handles this task.
First, I put two cups of half and eight cloves of peeled garlic in a saucepan over low heat; I let it boil while peeling, dice and cook two large russet potatoes and a pound of celery. By the time the vegetables were soft enough to whip, the cream and garlic had sediment and I was ready to make some dangerous puree.
I am glad to report that I had no serious complaints here either. My only niggle is that the vegetables pick up on the sides of the bowl more than I’m used to, and I suspect this is because the top half of the Ambiano has perfectly straight sides. However, a rubber trowel cannot fix anything.
Grade: B +
Puff biscuit
Now for the big challenge: Can Ambiano handle the constant whipping required to make a biscuit flak? I went out of my way and chose a recipe that included beaten egg whites and a buttercream frosting.
The mixer competently beat the butter and sugar, beat the egg yolks, mixed the flour and buttermilk. I’ve had to scratch the sides of the bowl more often than with the KitchenAid, but not much; besides, the mashed potatoes had already prepared me for this, so it was not a problem.
It’s the same with the beaten egg whites, that is, it did its job. The center of the bowl was more whipped than the sides, and after that there was a little unbroken white on the rim; I’ve had both the best and worst experience of whipping egg whites. However, it did give steady peaks in about ten minutes.
When it came to icing, the mixer did a great job. I had to clean the bowl a lot, but I knew it was to be expected by this point, and besides, I have no complaints. Well, I have one , but it’s not the mixer’s fault: I didn’t rinse the bowl thoroughly enough between washings, and I ended up with a huge bowl of beautiful fluffy lemon cream cheese frosting that tasted like soap. Don’t be like me kids. Overall, I have to say that the puff cake test went pretty well.
Grade: B
Many passionate people become disenchanted with the value for money in consumer products. “I don’t want something good for money ,” they will say, “I want something just good. “To some extent, I understand, but this kind of thinking only works for people with a certain amount of disposable income. If you already have a KitchenAid, which in these days is not less than $ 330 , the mixer will impress you? No, of course not; but it doesn’t matter because it’s not for you. If you’re tired of whipping egg whites by hand but can’t shell out for KitchenAid, this $ 60 bench mixer is a great option and I recommend it. Happy baking!