If you own a KitchenAid stand mixer, you might also have some attachments in it that you don't fully understand and have maybe never used. Dough hooks make kneading a breeze, and whisk attachments mean you have less mixing to do. The paddle attachment is one of those beaters you might not know how to use in your food processor device, but the KitchenAid paddle has its uses.
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What Is the Mixer Paddle?
The paddle attachment is a stand mixer attachment mostly used for whisking and mixing ingredients without getting too much air in them while you're stirring it all together in your mixing bowl.
"It's most commonly used to 'cream' butter and sugar, which means you beat butter and sugar together with the paddle attachment for a few minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy," Tasty notes. So if you need to do some creaming with your recipe, consider using it.
It is sometimes called a Tilt-Head Flex Edge Beater, and it's dishwasher safe. It can be good as a scraper when it comes to getting ingredients in something like bread dough out from around the edges of a bowl, and you can grab one from Amazon. Often these will have a silicone flexible edge to make scraping the edges of the bowl a breeze.
What Can You Make with the Paddle Attachment?
Bakin' Care of Business says the attachment is essentially a "catch-all beater," and it's great for making cookie dough for things like chocolate chip cookies, cake batter, brownies, and even meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
What Other Attachments Are There?
A lot. KitchenAid attachments include meat grinders, juicers, spiralizers, strainers, shredders, a pasta roller, a wire whip that's good for egg whites, slicers, and so much more.
What you need really comes down to what recipe you're making. Do you need a beater blade for mixing batter, or something added to your electric mixer or hand mixer that's best for whipping cream? Are you making a meringue or ice cream? There are so many attachments, the possibilities are really endless, but rest assured your paddle attachment at the very least will come in handy.
