- A hand mixer is an appliance used to beat, mix, stir, and whip both wet and dry ingredients. It is most often used for baking rather than cooking. In order to incorporate ingredients, it has an electric motor that powers two whisks. These whisks rotate either slowly to rapidly, depending on the mixer's speed setting, to incorporate the ingredients. It is the rate at which the whisks rotate that determines whether ingredients are only just barely combined or thoroughly stirred together.
- To set up a hand mixer, attach the two whisks to it and plug it in. Then select the setting appropriate for your recipe, or the speed at which you want the whisks to rotate. Some mixers have settings you can choose such as "beat," "stir" and "whip," while other mixers have speed settings, such as "low," "medium" and "high." After you've selected your setting, place the hand mixer inside the bowl of ingredients and press "Start." Electricity flowing through the mixer prompts the motor to turn on and the motor mechanically moves the gears attached to the whisks, which in turn cause the whisks to rotate.
- A hand mixer is not the same as a stand mixer. Unlike a stand mixer, a hand mixer is not well-suited to kneading dough or mixing together large amounts of ingredients. Using a hand mixer for these items causes strain on the hands, which means that a hand mixer is best reserved for smaller amounts of ingredients, such as for cookies, brownies and other baked goods.
