Earlier this year, several of my readers asked about the Breville Bakery Chef Mixer. I had been using my Breville model BEM800XL which was the model before this one and loving it. But I have to admit, I was curious and also wanted to answer their questions. So I contacted Breville and asked if they would supply a machine for me to test. And they did. Here is what I found.
As a pastry chef for a top restaurant, the best equipment is important to me. While I use larger equipment at the restaurant, this is the closest thing you can get to what I bake with at work.
One of the most popular posts on this site is the Breville vs. Kitchenaid Mixer review for the former mixer which I loved. And this model has a couple of new items that makes it even more special. And I am here to tell you this one is even better.
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Why You’ll Love This Mixer
The first thing you will notice is how beautiful the box is and well packed the mixer is. It was exciting to go down and down into the box and find yet another attachment, cover or bowl (yes it comes with two bowls, more later on that). While the color of the mixer above is Royal Champagne, It comes in a variety of colors which can be seen on their website including:
- Sea Salt.
- Black Truffle.
- Damson Blue.
- Oyster Shell.
- Royal Champagne.
The next thing that will amaze you is the beauty of this tilt head mixer. It just plain looks fantastic sitting on a counter. Breville is known for its sleek, modern designs with all of it’s equipment and this mixer is a perfect example. It not only mixes perfectly, it looks gorgeous while doing it.
The Perfect Gift
The Breville Bakery Chef and an autographed copy of my latest book, Craving Cookies is the perfect gift for yourself or for your favorite baker.
You can buy one or buy both. When buying both, they have to be ordered separately and will come to you separately.
(As an affiliate of Breville I make a small commission when the mixer is sold. If you decide to buy the mixer, I would very much appreciate it you bought it from my site.)
Let’s Talk Bowls
The Bakery Chef comes with two bowls. A 5-quart glass bowl and a 4-quart stainless steel bowl. One more than other mixers because they know you’ll need each one!
5 Quart Borosilicate Glass Bowl
I’ll be perfectly frank. I was not a fan of glass bowls for a couple of reasons. They are heavy – even empty – and this one has to be hand washed due to the rubber gasket on the bottom. But it won me over when I could see how the batters or mixtures were coming together and how completely they were or were not mixed. No more wondering if the bottom of the mix was being incorporated. Just take a look! It also has a pouring spout and is marked with cups, milliliters, and fluid ounces.
Borosilicate Glass is extremely durable which is what you want in a mixing bowl. Taken care of, it will last a life time.
Ok, I get it! You really want something lighter that can go in the dishwasher. Well that’s covered too. There’s a 5 quart stainless steel bowl that can be purchased separately. It’s the same size as the glass bowl and is just as efficient.
4 Quart Stainless Steel bowl – Why?
Why would you need a second, smaller bowl? Well, sometimes small amounts of ingredients just don’t do as well in larger bowls. Take the 2 egg whites in my recipe for Haselnussmakronen – German Hazelnut Macaroons. The smaller bowl did a much quicker job of whipping the whites than if they were in the larger bowl.
It’s also ideal when two mixtures are needed in a recipe such as egg yolks and sugar mixed in one bowl and the egg whites in another. There’s no cleaning of a single bowl to continue if that’s all you have.
The Attachments
The whisk is used to areate and increase the of volume of buttercreams or increase the volume of egg white – think meringues, angel food cakes, and chiffon cakes as well as anywhere air is the main leavening agent. This Perfectly Easy Angel Food Cake whipped up even higher with this mixer. My only concern with the beater is I think it is a strange design. The previous one whipped egg whites and cream really fast. This one seems to whip the center really well and then it takes a bit for it to pull in the edges. It does a good job, but takes a bit longer.
The dough hook is indispensable for bread baking. It’s the mini version of those used in professional bakeries. It incorporates all of the ingredients, cleaning the sides and the bottom of the bowl so well it almost looks clean. It mixes everything including at the very bottom of the bowl which is where so many other mixers fail. There is no floury mix left unincorporated. Consequently, less time is used stopping and scraping the bowl. In the photo below, you can see the sides of the bowl are clean and the rest of the dough is mixed in the bottom of the bowl.
The double sided scraper attachment is my very most favorite attachment. It scrapes the side of the bowl and cuts the mixing time down by 60%. It is best used when ingredients are to be creamed or with light ingredients. Just look at how well it cleans the side of the bowl in the picture. Even better, it picks up everything in the bottom of the bowl and incorporates that also. Having said that, I made peanut butter fudge using the scraper and it worked like a charm.
There is literally no reason to ever scrape the bowl when mixing with this attachment. I don’t know about you, but stopping and scraping down was my least favorite thing to do when mixing but really necessary for smooth batters and good results. However, this should not be used with heavy doughs. The next attachment is best for those.
The Paddle Attachment is used for heavier batters, doughs and cookies or when mixing but not necessarily blending everything completely as when making crumbs, crumbles or crisp toppings where you want them to form crumbs.
The mixer also comes with a cover for the mixing bowl that allows you to mix bread and then cover it to rise in the same bowl at room temperature.
Here you can see the yeast dough has risen in the same bowl as it was mixed. Just cover it with plastic wrap and put the black top on. Set aside and let it rise. However, if using the oven as a proofer (see the notes in the ingredient card for (Pumpkin Dinner Rolls Two Ways), I suggest removing the dough to a different container.
Last, but not least is the pouring shield with splash guard. At the restaurant, the pouring shield for my large mixer falls 3 inches away from the bowl so everything is poured on the floor. This all encompassing design won’t do that. It prevents larger amounts of cream from splattering out of the bowl before it thickens as well as keeping hazelnuts from flying out of the bowl when skinning them as in Hazelnut Gianduja Cake. Ingredients can be added by pouring them down the extension.
Innovations That I Love
- THE LIGHT – as someone who photographs food, I go for brighter pictures to make sure you can see what is going on. Well, there is a light under the head of the mixer that turns on when you start mixing. I can’t tell you how much you’ll love this. No more peering into dark bowls to see what’s happening. And it is a boon to the photos. This alone is worth the price.
- On the side of the machine there is digital timer that, by default, counts up, but it can be changed to count down and the machine will automatically stop if that is preferred.
- There is a dial on the side of the machine with 11 speeds within 4 groups including folding/kneading, light mixing, cream/beating and aerating/whipping. There is also a pause button, that allows you to interrupt mixing without stopping the timer. If you turn the machine off, the timer will start all over.
- A handle at the front of the machine makes it much easier to lift and move the mixer.
- A thermo-cutoff will automatically stop the machine if it begins to overheat. The only time this happened for me was when making Italian or French Buttercream due to their extended time beating at a higher speed. It was easily managed as the machine restarted within a minute.
What I Tested
Everything! Here are a few of the recipes but there were many more. All of these can be found on my blog.
- Cakes: Angel food cake, Spirited Chocolate Cake, Double Chocolate Mousse Cake, and Strawberry Cake, as well as Coffee Cakes, big cakes, little cakes, butter cakes, sponge cakes, heavy cakes, light cakes.
- Buttercreams: Strawberry buttercream (American), Italian Buttercream, and French Buttercream
- Breads: Large batch of flatbreads (pizza dough), No Knead Bread, Chocolate Cherry Bread and Wine and Cheese Baguettes for just a few.
- Sweet Bread: European Nut Roll, Conchas, Gibassier and Fresh as a Daisy Doughnuts
- Cookies: Levain Style Chocolate Chip Cookies, Spice Bars, Langue de Chat, Baci di Dama, and Mocha Kahlua Brownies,
- Miscellaneous: Hazelnut Meringues with Raspberry Mascarpone Mousse, Individual Wedding Cakes,
What I Found Out
THIS IS THE PERFECT MIXER FOR BAKING AND PASTRY!!
I have seen reference to the head of the machine bobbling and the mixer moving around when mixing. So, let’s address these.
I can only remember a few times in all the months I have worked with this machine that there was slight bobbling of the head of the machine. It was insignificant and in no way affected the mixing, end product or the machine itself. This most often occurs with heavy mixtures that are being beaten at too high a speed. All mixers will do this in the same conditions.
It creams butter and sugar better than I’ve ever seen. The double edged scraper attachment creams so thoroughly and quickly producing a lighter, fluffier mixture that enhances any recipe. Using this attachment, I didn’t need to scrape the bowl at any point from the start to the finish of mixing. I just put in the pans and baked it.
About Making Bread
Most breads, especially yeast breads are heavy, sticky doughs by nature.
For most bread recipes, the mixture should clean the sides and bottom of the bowl when mixed unless it is a batter or artisan breads that tend to be very wet. This mixer, even on the low speed as suggested, accomplishes that.
I particularly like the design of the bowl as the dough hook pulls all the flour in, whether from the sides or bottom without having to stop and scrape it down or push the flour into the center. The doughs cleaned the bowl without any help from me. The bread dough from the dough hook photo was removed from the bowl and this is what the bowl looked like. It wasn’t cleaned at all.
This Breville incorporates ingredients more thoroughly and completely than any machine I have used. And faster! One of the things I like about using the glass bowl for bread is that it cleans the sides of the bowl with no scraping or help. It just keeps picking up the flour and incorporating it.
I have heard comments about the head of the machine “bobbling”. I have found that, especially with bread, this can occur if the speed is raised too high. It is recommended to keep it on folding/kneading, which is the lowest speed. Truthfully, I thought it was too low, but it isn’t. Even the leading American mixer suggests that speed for bread.
As to the machine moving or bouncing when running, my testing did not find that it happened at any time with any recipe.
Conclusion
This heavy duty mixer will help make you the best baker or pastry chef around. It uses the same planetary mixing action in my professional mixers and has full 360° coverage like the ones I use at work to produce beautiful desserts.
There is free delivery within 5 to 7 days of ordering with a 30 day return. The Warranty includes 1 Year Repair with 5 Year Motor Warranty.
If you are wondering at this point if I am just blinded by my love for the Breville Bakery Chef, here are a few other reviews for your consideration.
The 7 Best Stand Mixers of 2023, Tested and Reviewed by Real Simple
We Tested 21 Stand Mixers — Here Are Our Favorite Models by All Recipes
The Best Stand Mixers of 2023 by USA Today
The Best Stand Mixers for Cookies, Cakes, Bread, and Beyond by Epicurious
The Techy Stuff – Equipment Specs
Attachments: Scraper Beater, standard flat beater, dough hook, whisk, splash guard, pouring shield and bowl cover.
Bowls: 5 quart Borosilicate Glass Bowl, 4 quart stainless steel bowl.
Construction: Die Cast Metal Mixer Body
Wattage: 550 watts
Voltage: 110-120 volts
Warranty: 1 year repair with 5-year motor warranty
Dimensions – (WxDxH)11.4″ x 14.8″ x 14.3″
Construction Materials – Die Cast Metal Mixer Body
LED Display – Counts up when starting, or use the arrow buttons to set timer to count down.
Load Sensing Technology – Detects when heavy dough and batters are being mixed and automatically adjust the power to maintain the selected speed
Pause Button – Rotate dial to PAUSE to temporarily stop mixing
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