Ooni Halo Professional Spiral Stand Mixer Evaluate

Ooni is a stalwart of yard pizza ovens. However its newest providing leaves the outside and enters the kitchen: Meet the Ooni Halo Professional Spiral Stand Mixer. It’s marketed as a robust machine that’ll support your quest to make the perfect Neapolitan pizza dough—stretchy, ethereal, and never liable to dreaded rips. It differs from different stand mixers in that it has a rotating bowl quite than spinning attachments, and it sports activities a digital interface and dial management. Might simplicity and a smooth type issue make it a winner? I examined the Ooni stand mixer for weeks to seek out out, utilizing it to make pizza dough, rolls, whipped cream, and cookies. 

The Assessments

• Dinner Rolls Check: I made dinner rolls utilizing the dough hook attachment. This check examined how effectively the Ooni stand mixer might combine and knead a sticky, tender, buttery dough. 
• Pizza Dough Check: Ooni is understood for its pizza ovens, so in fact, I needed to make Neapolitan pizza dough. I used the breaker bar, which attaches to the middle of the mixer, and the dough hook to knead it. 
• Sugar Cookie Check: The Ooni stand mixer comes with a paddle attachment, which I used to cream butter and sugar for sugar cookies. 
• Whipped Cream Check: The Ooni additionally comes with a whisk attachment. I examined it by beating one cup of heavy whipping cream and timing how lengthy it took to type stiff peaks. 

What We Realized

Ooni vs. KitchenAid Stand Mixers: What’s the Distinction?

For starters, the Ooni is a spiral mixer, which means it has a bowl that rotates, just like the Ankarsrum stand mixer. KitchenAid stand mixers are planetary mixers, which means they make use of an arm that spins the attachments. A spiral mixer’s spinning bowl can attain sooner speeds and thus higher kneading and gluten formation in dough. It additionally makes it simpler to succeed in in with a spatula and scrape the perimeters with out hitting the attachment. 

One other distinction between the 2 is the form of their bowls: The Ooni’s giant, seven-quart bowl has a flat backside, which helps stop dry pockets of elements when kneading dough. It is a widespread drawback with the extra sloped KitchenAid bowl, the place dry elements are inclined to sink to the middle and stay unmixed. Lastly, the Ooni makes use of a touchscreen show and dial for its controls, whereas KitchenAids have a lever for switching between speeds. 

The Ooni Stand Mixer Was Sturdy, Highly effective, and Simple to Use

The Ooni is tremendous straightforward to arrange: Press the hinges on each side of the pinnacle to raise it, twist on the bowl and screw within the attachment, press the ability button on the again, and the machine involves life. I appreciated the digital touchscreen interface, which encompasses a timer and pace settings, each related to the only dial. To regulate the pace or set a timer, you solely have to faucet the digital show and switch the dial.

The Ooni can be extremely sturdy: It weighs 33 kilos, making it one of many heaviest stand mixers I’ve examined. It has a robust engine on it, too, at 650 watts, which is a whopping 150 watts greater than our favourite KitchenAid stand mixer. 

It Excelled at Making Bread Dough 

When it got here to kneading bread dough, it was the Ooni stand mixer’s time to shine. The rotating bowl ensured even ingredient integration and a correct knead, and the detachable breaker bar, which slots in subsequent to the hook, helped knead and stretch. The Neapolitan pizza dough I made emerged sturdy however supple, whereas dinner rolls baked up into buttery, tender buns. The timer perform was tremendous useful, too, particularly for longer kneading instances. 

It Wasn’t so Nice at Different Duties

Whereas the Ooni excelled at kneading, it struggled to cream butter and sugar and whip cream. It took practically 5 minutes at its highest pace to whip one cup of heavy cream into stiff peaks. That is fairly lengthy contemplating the Ankarsrum, the same type of mixer, took 35 seconds in our assessments. The splatter guard was important throughout this course of, for the reason that cream flung all over the place. Nonetheless, it didn’t sit totally flush with the bowl, so some drops nonetheless escaped. 

It additionally struggled to cream butter and sugar for cookies. I used the paddle attachment and set the Ooni to 75% energy, per the recipe’s directions. Nonetheless, the silicone-lined paddle simply pushed the elements round. I needed to bump up the pace and use a spatula to scrape the perimeters to assist incorporate the elements. Nonetheless, the cookies nonetheless baked up tender and effectively blended, so there’s that. 

The Verdict

In case your yard appears to be like prefer it was transplanted from a pizza restaurant otherwise you nerd out about dough hydration, then the Ooni Halo Professional Spiral Mixer will seemingly make you content. Its rotating bowl ensures complete ingredient incorporation for bread dough (no pockets of flour within the heart of the bowl), and the timer perform is useful for lengthy kneads. It made wonderful bread dough, together with a sticky, buttery dinner roll dough and a well-kneaded Neapolitan pizza dough. Nonetheless, it did battle at different duties, like creaming butter and sugar for cookie dough and whipping heavy cream, making it much less versatile than different stand mixers I’ve used. 

It was tremendous straightforward to arrange, although: To regulate the pace or change the timer, simply flip the dial. Its hefty weight prevented it from wobbling on my countertop, which is at all times a very good factor with a stand mixer. It is not tremendous tall both, and simply suits beneath my cupboards when the arm is down. 

The Execs

The Ooni stand mixer excels at making bread dough, which is sensible, contemplating the model is understood for its pizza ovens. The dough hook seamlessly integrated butter into tender dinner roll dough, leading to gentle and tender buns. When mixed with the breaker bar, which slots in near the dough hook, it additionally kneaded completely elastic Neapolitan pizza dough that baked up gentle and ethereal with the requisite chew the type’s identified for. 

Past its efficiency, the Ooni stand mixer was additionally straightforward to make use of: Simply pop the highest of the mixer upward, add the attachment, safe the bowl, and toggle the ability change. The person interface is a straightforward single dial with a touchscreen for selecting between time and pace. It was straightforward to toggle between the 2, and the timer perform was useful for lengthy kneads. The bowl spun easily, and it was straightforward to succeed in in with a spatula to scrape the perimeters because it blended, one thing you possibly can’t do with a planetary stand mixer like a KitchenAid. 

The Cons

The silicone-lined paddle attachment was gradual to cream butter and sugar, although the cookies baked up properly. I might’ve most well-liked a non-silicone-lined paddle, which I believe would have gripped and overwhelmed the combination higher and sooner. The machine was additionally downright sluggish whipping cream. 

The Ooni stand mixer is sort of costly, much more so than the Ankarsrum, one among its principal rivals. It’s additionally heavier than most of our favourite stand mixers and takes extra effort and energy to maneuver. I might have appreciated if the bowl had a deal with on it for simple dough switch.

Key Specs

• Weight: 33 kilos
• Dimensions:10 x 13.5 x 17 inches 
• Acknowledged bowl capability: 7.3 quarts
• Wattage: 650 watts
• Wire size: 63 inches 
• Attachments: Whisk, dough hook, bar breaker, paddle, pouring protect
• Colours: Charcoal gray or polar white
• Care directions: Bowl, lid, and attachments are dishwasher-safe. Wipe whisk gear field and base clear with damp material. Dry totally.
• Supplies: Die-cast aluminum, chrome steel

Why We’re the Consultants 

• Grace Kelly is a senior editor at Severe Eats, the place she’s been testing and reviewing kitchen gear for practically three years. 
• To check the Ooni Halo Professional Spiral Stand Mixer, Grace used it to make dinner rolls, Neapolitan pizza dough, whipped cream, and sugar cookies.