KitchenAid stand mixers are powerful machines, making baking projects infinitely easier than mixing by hand. This benefit alone makes having a stand mixer worth the investment, but no matter which KitchenAid model you have, it’s built to do so much more than just mix. The KitchenAid power hub connector at the top front of every mixer connects to dozens of different appliance attachments, including pasta makers, juicers, shredders, spiralizers, grinders, and food processors.
Best Pasta Roller
KitchenAid Pasta Roller & Cutter Attachment Set
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- Solid, durable construction
- Easy for one person to use
- Easy to store
- Stylish
- Easy to store
- Expensive
One of the trickiest parts about making pasta is rolling it evenly, so you end up with noodles that are all the same thickness—a pasta roller makes that simple. Like many of the mixer’s attachments, it hooks into the motor through the knob on the mixer’s head: Simply feed the pasta into the roller and catch it on the other side. Flat sheets are great for making lasagna noodles or filled pasta, like ravioli, but the set also comes with cutters for thin and thick noodles, so you don’t have to cut the pasta by hand.
We love how fast and easy the process was compared to using a hand-crank pasta maker and found that the rollers and cutters were solidly built and easy to attach and detach. After setup, the machine basically did all the work for us, creating perfectly perforated, presentation-worthy noodles with almost no effort. The only obstacle was keeping up with the cutters as they churned out row after row of fresh pasta.
Dimensions: 9.7 x 3.8 x 2.2 inches (each) | Materials: Stainless steel | Dishwasher Safe: No, hand wipe only; do not submerge in water
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Best Beater
New Metro Design 5L-M Beater Blade Metal
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- Fits just like the original beater
- Scrapes the bowl well
- Two silicone flaps for efficient mixing
- Sturdy
- Hand wash
- More expensive than plastic model
The Beater Blade has been around for a while, saving cooks from constantly scraping down the sides of their mixer bowls, and now an updated version is available. The original version had a plastic body. Although it was sturdy, it wasn’t as sturdy as the metal beater that came with the machine. With the update that has changed, since the new version is made of coated metal with two silicone flaps that scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as it mixes.
In tests with varied ingredients, this beater did an excellent job. We still took a moment to do a final scrape, just to make sure, and to scrape off the beater blade itself, but it certainly was more efficient than the beater that came with the mixer. Then, when mixing was done, we removed the beater from the machine and used it to scrape the ingredients out of the bowl.
This is great for mixing any smooth batters, but there’s a risk when mixing super-dense or chunky batters (like with nuts or giant chunks of chocolate) that could tear or damage the silicone. Before buying, make sure the blade fits your model since there are several options.
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Dimensions: 1.5 x 7.5 x 7.25 inches | Materials: Powder-coated aluminum and silicone | Dishwasher-Safe: No
Best for Ice Cream
KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment
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- Simple and straightforward
- Saves you from buying a standalone appliance
- Quiet
- Easy to clean
- Bowl takes up a lot of freezer space
- Inconsistent freezing
Making ice cream at home is fun and allows you to customize flavors, but since ice cream is a seasonal treat and standalone ice cream makers take a bit of space, you might be reluctant to invest in one—that’s where this attachment comes in handy. It consists of a special bowl that can live in your freezer when not in use (it does take up a bit of space, though) and a paddle that attaches to the mixer to stir the ice cream as it freezes. The bowl fits directly onto the arms of the bowl-lift models, and there’s an adapter included to make the bowl work on tilt-head models.
Like other freezer-bowl ice cream makers, this allows you to freeze one batch of ice cream at a time before the bowl needs to go back into the freezer again. We followed the directions carefully and made two batches of ice cream with this attachment (blackberry and banana). Both turned out creamy and delicious with the texture of soft serve. Each recipe made 1 to 1.5 quarts of the mix, but expanded to fill the entire 2-quart bowl by the time they were finished.
During testing, one batch of plain vanilla ice cream didn’t fully freeze, though. It started to in the beginning, but partway through, condensation appeared on the outside of the bowl, and it never progressed to the desired end result. While it mixed wonderfully, we eventually poured it into a container and stuffed it in the freezer. It tasted great after it fully froze; it just didn’t reach that point when it should have.
Dimensions: 10.9 x 10.3 x 10.3 inches | Materials: Plastic | Dishwasher Safe: Yes, except freezer bowl is hand wash only
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Best Spiralizer
KitchenAid 5-Blade Spiralizer
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- Easy to attach to power hub
- Includes storage case
- Sharp blades
- Peeler isn’t effective on food of uneven sizes
If you love spiralized vegetables (zoodles for dinner, anyone?), adding a spiralizer to your KitchenAid stand mixer makes a lot of sense—it can save you time, labor, and storage space. This one comes with five blades (two for slicing, two for spiralizing, and one for peeling) that you can easily swap in and out. The peeling blade comes in handy when you need to peel lots of fruits and vegetables without slicing or spiralizing them, like potatoes, for example. All the blades are top-rack dishwasher-safe, and all the parts store neatly in the included storage case.
We found that all of the blades were sharp and effective, and we had no trouble with even dense foods, like sweet potatoes during testing. That said, the peeler didn’t work as well on unevenly shaped fruits and veggies, but it worked beautifully otherwise and stood out for its versatility.
Dimensions: 5.8 x 12.4 x 2.9 inches | Materials: Stainless Steel | Dishwasher Safe: Yes
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Runner-Up, Best Pasta Roller
KitchenAid Gourmet Pasta Press Attachment
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- Versatile
- Built-in wire cutter
- Six discs for different pasta shapes
- Discs are hard to clean
- Expensive compared to competition
Homemade pasta is easier with this pasta press that fits any current KitchenAid stand mixer model. It uses the mixer’s power hub to squeeze pasta dough through one of the six discs to make different pasta shapes, including spaghetti, bucatini, rigatoni, fusilli, large macaroni, and small macaroni.
A built-in wire cutter lets you cut the pasta to your desired length, whether you want long strands of spaghetti, medium-length rigatoni, or super-short pasta rings for soup. Along with the discs, there is also a pusher for sending dough through the press and a stainless steel cleaning tool. While the description says this includes a storage case, consumers report that it comes in a box, but there is no case.
Dimensions: 4.8 x 5.7 x 8.4 inches | Materials: Stainless Steel and Plastic | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes
Best Food Processor
KitchenAid Food Processor With Dicing Kit
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- Includes storage case
- Efficient chopping speed
- Easy to clean
- Large and heavy
- Doesn’t perform all typical processing tasks
While this attachment won’t work for some tasks, such as mixing dough or prepping pesto, it does slice, dice, shred, and julienne. The versatile accessory comes with a commercial-style dicing kit to quickly chop veggies in the size of your choice thanks to the ExactSlice System, which you can adjust using a lever on the side of the unit.
This attachment is quite large and may be challenging for some to store, but it mounts easily onto the stand mixer’s power hub, and a storage case keeps the different discs organized and protected. Reviewers rave about the ease and speed at which it cuts ingredients for recipes. Put produce or cheese into the tube and feed them into the processor using the included food pusher.
Dimensions: 6.9 x 10.2 x 9.7 inches | Materials: Plastic with Stainless Steel blades | Dishwasher-Safe: Blades are dishwasher-safe, hand wash processor body
Best Grain Mill
KitchenAid Grain Mill Attachment
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- Yields high-quality results
- Easy to use and clean
- Works with many grains
- Slow
There is a growing interest in processing small batches of grains at home for artisan breadmaking and unique pastry recipes. The KitchenAid All-Metal Grain Mill is slightly smaller than other mills, but it also costs substantially less than industrial and professional models. It’s also far easier to use than a hand-cranked grain mill that can quickly make a fun project cumbersome. It works slowly but produces commercial-quality flour, so prepare yourself to exercise a little patience for a satisfying final product.
One of the most popular uses of the mill is for grinding corn into fresh masa harina (flour) for making tortillas. KitchenAid advises using the grain mill for low-moisture and low-oil ingredients, like wheat, oat, corn, rye, barley, buckwheat, millet, rice, and other cereals. If you’re interested in processing nuts, consider breaking them down in the food processor into small pieces first and working slowly to avoid the mill overheating.
Dimensions: 8.14 x 4.38 x 8.18 inches | Materials: Metal | Dishwasher-Safe: Spot clean only
Best Food Grinder
KitchenAid Food Grinder Attachment
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- Inexpensive compared to standalone grinders
- Versatile
- Surprisingly easy to clean
- Works quickly
- Plastic body lacks durability
- Struggles with fattier cuts
This grinder attachment is easy to use and can handle 2.5 pounds of meat in 10 minutes. But it’s not just for meat; the fine and coarse plates can be used to grind can beans, cheese, bread, vegetables, and fruit, and can even make dips. A meat pusher is included to help move ingredients through the attachment, and most of the parts are dishwasher-safe.
A few add-ons are available to customize this grinder: An optional food tray expands the surface area for holding food, and a sausage attachment feeds your prepared sausage mix into casings via different-sized tubes. There is also a separate fruit and vegetable strainer accessory (sold separately) that lets you make things like applesauce, baby food, jams, and chutneys. The body of this grinder is made of plastic, which may not be the most durable choice, but a metal version is available, as well.
Dimensions: 4 x 7 x 7 inches | Materials: Plastic (metal version available) | Dishwasher-Safe: Collar, removable tray, and food pusher are dishwasher-safe (top rack only); main housing, grind screw, grinding plates, and blade must be washed by hand
Your KitchenAid Stand Mixer can do more than you think, including make perfectly proportioned pasta with no effort. That’s why we love the KitchenAid 3-Piece Pasta Roller & Cutter Attachment Set—it comes with attachments to make flat pasta sheets and cutters for thin and thick noodles. But if you are looking for a solid, everyday beater attachment, we like the one from New Metro.
How We Tested KitchenAid Attachments
We’ve tested KitchenAid stand mixer attachments in several ways—both in our official testing lab and in the kitchens of experienced at-home testers. We’ve noted how they fit onto the machine, the ease of use, how well they work, the ease of cleaning, and more. Because each attachment is different, we’ve made lots of varieties of food like pasta, ice cream, veggie noodles, cookie dough, and more.
What to Look for in a KitchenAid Attachment
Types of Attachments
Pasta Rollers, Cutters, and Presses
Pasta sheet roller: Unless you’ve had decades of practice learning from an experienced Italian nonna, you’re probably not going to be able to roll out perfectly thin and even sheets of pasta with much ease. This is exactly why the pasta sheet roller is one of the most popular mixer attachments for both home and professional cooks.
With eight thickness settings, the pasta sheet roller attachment accommodates your roughly rolled dough and sheets it to your desired thickness. At a maximum width of 6 inches, the pasta sheets are perfect for lasagna sheets or ready for cutting into noodles or ravioli.
While some people are comfortable slicing their pasta dough into noodles by hand, KitchenAid also provides pasta cutter attachments in four different widths that make slicing pasta consistent and efficient. The cutters work the same way as the sheeter (and require pre-sheeted dough). The downside is that the different widths are not sold individually but rather as part of different sets—which can get expensive if you don’t plan for which pieces you’d like to use.
Two-piece set: Includes a medium-large-width lasagnette and very small capellini cutter.
Three-piece set: Includes the pasta sheet roller as well as a small spaghetti and medium-width fettuccine cutter.
Five-piece deluxe set: Includes the pasta sheet roller and all four pasta cutters.
1-inch ravioli maker: The ravioli maker plugs into the hub of your KitchenAid for stability but is a hand-cranked machine. Using pre-sheeted pasta dough, the ravioli maker attachment creates pockets of whatever filling you place in the filling hopper, pressing and scoring the dough around the pockets into consistent ravioli shapes. Reviews of the ravioli maker are mixed, with some praising the convenience of the machine filling the pasta and others mentioning that traditional ravioli presses are just as convenient for a fraction of the price.
Gourmet pasta press attachment: Extruded pasta is a different ballgame. Instead of sheeted pasta cut into noodles, pasta dough is pressed through a patterned die to create noodle shapes (similar to spritz cookie presses). The gourmet pasta press attachment comes with six discs that extrude pasta into round spaghetti, bucatini, rigatoni, fusilli, and large and small macaroni shapes. Pasta dough is pressed through the top feeder and then cut with a wirecutter at the base when it has reached the desired length. If you’ve never made extruded pasta before, you’ll likely get the hang of feeding and cutting the dough quickly.
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Grinder Attachments
KitchenAid makes two grinder attachments: one heavy-duty all-metal set with extras and one mostly plastic grinder made for light- to medium-duty home use. Grinders are great for those interested in making their own sausages, chorizo, or even easily grinding hard cheeses, vegetables for salsa, and breadcrumbs.
Metal food grinder: This kit includes three sizes of grinding plates, a larger detachable food tray, and a plunger as well as two sizes of sausage stuffer attachments and a cleaning brush. The metal grinder attachment is meant to be refrigerated before and in between meat-grinding projects for cleaner grinding.
Plastic food grinder: This grinder includes two grinder plates and is mostly dishwasher-safe. An attachable sausage stuffer kit and a larger food tray are sold separately.
Fruit and vegetable strainer set with food grinder: This is the same plastic food grinder set with two grinding plates as listed above, with an additional fruit and vegetable strainer is attached to the front to help process ingredients for soups, sauces, chutneys, and jams.
Juicers
Citrus juicer attachment: KitchenAid makes two styles of juicers for different juicing intensities and budgets. On the lower end of the price spectrum in a classic reamer-style citrus juicer attachment, juicing a quart of fresh orange juice for breakfast is a breeze compared to a hand juicer.
Food Processors
Food processor attachments: KitchenAid makes two food processor attachments for the stand mixer, but these aren’t your typical single-blade food processors meant for just chopping nuts. These are smaller versions of commercial types of food processors that include disks for slicing, julienning, and shredding. The upgraded model includes a dicing kit and a carrying case for the discs. If you start with the base model attachment and find that you want to use the dicing kit and disc case, KitchenAid offers them separately to complete your collection.
While generally not as powerful as other standalone food processors on the market, most users love it for its convenience and range of uses while taking up so little space.
Peelers and Spiralizer Attachments
Vegetable sheet peeler: This is basically a pasta sheeter attachment, but for vegetables and apples. If you’re interested in a veggie sheet lasagna, veggie wraps, or creative pastry applications, the vegetable sheet peeler will churn out smooth sheets that would otherwise be next to impossible to make by hand.
Noodle blade accessory: Just like the pasta cutter attachments, the noodle blade accessory is here to slice your beautifully sheeted vegetables into noodle shapes. It must be used in conjunction with the vegetable sheet peeler attachment.
Fresh prep slicer/shredder: Shredding carrots for carrot cake? Cheese for a Super Bowl’s worth of nachos? Or pounds of potatoes to serve latkes to the whole family? Give your arm a break, put the box grater and mandolin away, and let the slicer/shredder do the work for you. The large and small grating attachments, as well as the slicer attachment, do all of the same work with minimal effort.
Five-blade and seven-blade spiralizer: These spiralizer attachments will produce the long vegetable tendrils you love for veggie pasta and fresh salads, and they include a peeler blade to make quick work of those apple and potato skins that would otherwise slow your cooking down. The peeler attachment can be used in conjunction with the slicing blades for efficient prep. The five-blade set includes two slicing blades, two spiralizing blades, and the peeling blade. The seven-blade set includes an additional slicing and spiralizing blade, which can be purchased separately if you decide to start with the five-blade model.
Grain Mill Attachment
Grain mill: This one’s for the serious bread bakers and exploratory pastry cooks out there. The KitchenAid grain mill attachment is easier to use than a hand-cranked grain mill and much less expensive than other standalone grain mills that can easily cost double the price of this attachment. KitchenAid claims that the grain mill will process grains such as wheat, oats, corn, and rice in textures ranging from “cracked” to extra-fine.
Scale and sifter: This attachment aims to streamline the baking process by scaling and sifting dry ingredients like flour, granulated sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda directly into your KitchenAid mixing bowl. Most reviewers love using it, but some were turned off by the large price tag—and others found it more tedious to use than typical scaling.
Bowl Attachments
Precise heat mixing bowl: This incredibly precise heated bowl can be attached to your KitchenAid mixer, but it also works as a standalone heating bowl. You may think that’s mighty fancy for fondue, but this bowl was designed and engineered for more complex and precise projects, including proofing bread and tempering chocolate. With a max temperature of 222 degrees, you can also slow-cook foods over several hours and heat delicate sauces like Béarnaise without risking scorching them on the stovetop. These attachments aren’t built for the power hub connection but instead are specialty mixing bowls that heat or freeze, using your stand mixer to keep the contents of the bowl moving.
Ice cream maker bowl: Spinning up to 2 quarts of ice cream or sorbet in under 30 minutes, the ice cream maker bowl is a convenient and space-saving ice cream making solution for those who enjoy making ice cream periodically at home. The bowl freezes for 24 hours and can be attached to either head-tilt or bowl-lift style machines (but, unfortunately, it isn’t compatible with the Artisan Mini mixer). Once assembled, the special paddle attachment spins your ice cream base until it’s soft, aerated, and chilled. To completely freeze your ice cream, you may need to finish chilling it in the freezer for an hour or two.
Because the bowl must be completely frozen before churning, you’ll only be able to spin one ice cream at a time—allowing the bowl to refreeze after washing and between uses. Depending on how often you use the ice cream bowl, you may choose to store the bowl in the freezer so it’s ready whenever you are.
Other Attachments
The popularity of KitchenAid attachments has spawned several compatible off-brand products, including a slew of pasta sheeters and cutters, grinders, slicers, and shredders. KitchenAid makes the most comprehensive and reliable attachments for their stand mixers, but other brands have developed attachments that are occasionally lower-priced or have slightly different features from the name-brand attachments.
Key Considerations
Price
Most KitchenAid attachments don’t come cheap. If price is a major consideration when looking for an additional piece of equipment, it’s a good idea to compare the attachment you’re interested in with other stand-alone machines that do the same job. Many times, you may find a separate machine that costs less than the attachment, but you might sacrifice convenience, craftsmanship, or possibly storage space—all good things to consider when judging the overall value of your equipment.
Warranty Information
All of the KitchenAid attachments come with a one-year hassle-free warranty. The warranty covers any out-of-the-box defects (which happen—so keep your receipts) as well as malfunction during proper use. The warranties do not cover your machine if it’s been used outside of the home environment or shows signs of misuse; in some cases, they don’t cover additional parts for repairs.
When looking to purchase an attachment, consider the vendor’s return policy. Some stores have a flexible return policy and will replace an attachment if it isn’t working properly without involving the manufacturer directly.
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Maintenance
When it comes to cleaning your attachments, every piece is cleaned differently. Some attachments, like the pasta sheeter and cutters, are very delicate and need to be cleaned entirely by hand or with a damp cloth. Other pieces can be cleaned in the dishwasher. Some attachments will need to be disassembled and washed partially by hand. Refer to the user manual for exact cleaning instructions.
FAQs
Do KitchenAid attachments work on all mixers?
KitchenAid attachments only work on KitchenAid mixers and will not work on mixers produced by other brands. That said, most KitchenAid attachments are designed to work on almost every KitchenAid mixer, regardless of the model. The attachments that connect to the mixer at the hub on the front of the mixer work on multiple models. There are a few exceptions though, so it’s best to check the attachment specifications before making your purchase, especially if you’re using an older model of KitchenAid mixer, or the mini tilt-head model.
Which attachments come with a KitchenAid?
KitchenAid mixers come equipped with three attachments, including a whisk, paddle, and dough hook attachment. Some KitchenAid mixer models come with a pouring shield that attaches to the bowl, and some do not.
How many attachments are available for KitchenAid mixers?
There are currently around 12 attachments listed on the KitchenAid website, not including additional bowls and standard attachments. There are also many additional designer and standard bowls and attachments. This includes bowls and attachments for both existing models and previous stand mixers models that are no longer in production.
