An Trustworthy Assessment of Ooni’s Halo Professional Spiral Stand Mixer

Whereas the KitchenAid is much and away the most well-liked stand mixer in American dwelling kitchens, most individuals who bake bread or pizza steadily know it isn’t at all times the most effective at kneading dough. KitchenAid mixers are planetary mixers, which imply that they mainly simply rotate round a single mounted level, and even with the dough hook, aren’t superb at forming gluten. As such, many dwelling bakers covet standing spiral mixers, that are higher at producing robust, fantastically silky doughs.

The issue, although, is that almost all standing spiral mixers are big — and costly. Among the many bread lovers on nerdy hubs like r/Breadit, the Italian-made Famag is wildly well-liked — however solely for many who have upwards of $1,500 to spend on a mixer that’s fairly explicitly restricted to producing bread doughs.

Enter Ooni, the corporate behind these inescapable dwelling pizza ovens that fermentation bros throughout the nation are utilizing to provide completely charred Neapolitan-style crusts, and its newest providing, the Halo Professional Spiral Mixer.

Crocodile

In its promoting copy, Ooni takes thinly veiled jabs at KitchenAid. “The blending expertise we acquired from utilizing different home stand mixers left us pissed off,” it reads. “The dough merely wouldn’t combine correctly. It acquired clumpy and caught to the dough hook.” And actually, they’re proper. When my KitchenAid has to deal with rather more than a single pizza’s price of dough or a batch of cookies, it actually struggles. After 4 or 5 minutes of blending dough on medium, it begins to overheat and precariously leap round on the counter, and I repeatedly should spend at the very least a couple of minutes kneading my dough by hand to make sure that it’s robust sufficient. The Halo Professional hopes to unravel these issues, promising “artisanal-bakery-level” outcomes, albeit at a worth level round $800. That’s about double the price of a brand-new KitchenAid, and solely about half of what it prices to attain knowledgeable spiral mixer. However does it truly succeed?

Ooni despatched us a Halo Professional to check, and right here’s what we thought after a few bakes.

First impressions

Instantly upon taking it out of the field, it was clear that this machine is a countertop stunner. It might not have the classic enchantment of my baby-pink KitchenAid, which I’ve owned since I used to be in my early 20s, however it’s each glossy and trendy. It’s additionally surprisingly compact contemplating that the bowl is a whopping 7.8 quarts in comparison with my KitchenAid’s 4.5-quart capability, and doesn’t take up rather more room on the counter (though it does make my dinky condo kitchen take a look at least a bit of bit extra skilled). It’s managed virtually totally with a big knob on high, which you should use to regulate the velocity of the mixer or set a timer to make sure that your dough isn’t overworked.

Along with the spiral hook, the Ooni additionally features a paddle attachment for beating cake batter and cookie dough, together with a whisk for whipping buttercream frosting or fluffy whipped cream. I haven’t used the attachments but, however they give the impression of being similar to those that include a KitchenAid mixer, although the paddle attachment’s sides are lined with silicone to assist scrape errant bits of batter again into the combination, which does really feel like an improve. The Ooni’s attachments are heavier and really feel extra sturdy than the KitchenAid’s, although time will inform whether or not or not they’re — or the machine — is as sturdy. My KitchenAid has survived 13 years of abuse with large a great deal of dough, and regardless that it’s not nice for making bread, the Ooni nonetheless has big footwear to fill.

How I examined it

As soon as I’d eliminated the mixer and its many equipment from the packaging and given them a wash, I instantly got down to make a batch of those Severe Eats hoagie rolls, considered one of my favourite single-day bakes. I plopped all of the components within the drum, cranked it as much as 25 p.c, and wandered off to go stare at my telephone whereas the mixer did the work. Once I returned, the dough appeared nothing like what I used to be anticipating. When combined in my KitchenAid, it tended to clump up across the dough hook, forming a decent, clumpy ball. This dough was completely different, a bit extra slack and resembling the “pumpkin” form that many bakers describe as superb in figuring out gluten improvement. As I eliminated the dough from the mixer for a fast last knead, it was silky in my palms and shortly handed the windowpane check.

Amy McCarthy

I didn’t, nevertheless, account for the elevated temperature that the spiral mixer’s vigorous mixing would carry. Within the KitchenAid, there’s normally not sufficient friction for a big temperature improve, however that was not the case with the Ooni. My dough was fairly heat, which meant that it was going to ferment extra shortly than I anticipated. I caught it within the fridge to assist decelerate the fermentation course of, however it nonetheless ballooned inside an hour. I shortly formed my rolls, then waited for them to proof one last time earlier than sticking them within the oven. After their bake, it was instantly clear that the rolls had been barely over-fermented, which meant that they had been barely pale and a bit dense towards the underside. This was a direct results of my temperature challenge, which occurred as a result of I didn’t account for the elevated warmth generated through the mixing course of. That mentioned, the mixer supplied sufficient gluten construction that my rolls nonetheless rose moderately properly.

Realizing that the problems with this batch had been possible my fault, I got down to make the identical batch of dough once more, however this time, I used chilled water. That labored like a allure, and my dough emerged from an eight-minute combine at room temperature. It rose fantastically, formed simply, and baked fantastically. The rolls had been each ethereal and durable, making them excellent for holding tons of hoagie toppings. These are at all times fairly strong hoagie rolls, however after a spin within the Ooni, they had been decidedly — if solely barely — higher.

Amy McCarthy

After the hoagie experiment, I put the Ooni to the check with the essential sourdough loaf that I make about as soon as every week. As an alternative of blending the dough by hand, I let the machine do the work, mixing the dough at various speeds till it handed the windowpane check, which many bakers use to find out if their dough has developed sufficient gluten. After a number of hours of bulk fermenting on the counter and an in a single day chilly proof, the ensuing loaf had a lofty rise and a really open crumb.

Amy McCarthy

And maybe most significantly, I didn’t should spend upwards of 10 minutes getting flour goop throughout my more and more drained palms whereas strengthening the dough.

Do I actually need the Ooni stand mixer?

If you happen to repeatedly make yeasted or sourdough bread, pizza crust, or bagels at dwelling, it’s undoubtedly price contemplating the Halo Professional over a KitchenAid. This one is for many who are really critical about bread-baking and mixing hefiter and extra complicated doughs — and it does so with ease and panache.

Extra informal bakers — the sort who solely bake a batch or two of cookies each few months — will possible discover its hulking dimension and bread-specific attachments overkill. In truth, if a sheet cake or a pair dozen cookies is what you bake most, it’s most likely not the only option for you in any respect. The machine isn’t designed to work with smaller batches of dough, which signifies that whenever you’re creaming collectively the butter and sugar in your chocolate chip cookies, the Ooni’s large dimension signifies that it simply can’t combine these two components collectively as effectively as my KitchenAid.

It might even be good if the Ooni got here with extra recipes or strategies for which speeds to make use of and for the way lengthy. If you happen to’re used to creating your dough, this can possible come intuitively, however in the event you’re not, it can possible appear overwhelming and complicated at first. Contemplating the wealth of content material Ooni has created round its pizza ovens, it’s possible that these recipes will come, however for now, you’re form of caught counting on the early-adopter bloggers to give you optimized strategies and ideas and methods.

Professionals

• Seems nice on the counter and doesn’t take up an excessive amount of house
• Very secure and well-made, doesn’t leap round everywhere in the counter when kneading dough
• The attachments are very sturdy and — bonus — dishwasher-safe
• Fairly quiet, even when dealing with very massive batches of dough
• Does an awesome job of strengthening bread and pizza dough

Cons

• Not nice for small batch baking
• Barely larger than a KitchenAid

The decision

If you happen to’re the kind of one who spends hours twiddling with hydration percentages, biga recipes, and stone-milled flours, Ooni’s stand mixer may very well be a superb addition to your baking arsenal. That mentioned, I don’t assume this can be a gadget for the novice bread baker. If you happen to’re not conversant in what your dough ought to appear to be when it’s absolutely strengthened, it’s simple to over- or under-mix with any mixer, and the Ooni is not any exception. However for sourdough freaks, this mixer will impress.

The Ooni Halo Professional mixer is accessible at Crocodile and Williams Sonoma.