Delish by Dash Stand Mixer review: hands-off mixing made easy

As someone who not only subscribes to Delish but considers it to be one of the best cooking websites out there, I was excited and intrigued to test out the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer, a collaboration between Delish and Dash. The best stand mixers are perfect for those looking to multitask while cooking and baking, providing you the chance to mix, churn, whip, and beat ingredients hands-off. These devices save time, as evidenced by their presence on any respectable baking competition show.

The Delish by Dash Stand Mixer wowed me when it came to mixing liquid ingredients as well as bread dough, but I needed to be more involved when it was time to beat butter. The Bowl Shift Level is meant to move the bowl over so that the beaters and dough hooks can mix closer to the sides. While I found that moving the bowl from side to side helped most of the time, it wasn’t effective at all with the butter. 

Overall, the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer does a good job for the price. It’s a great starter stand mixer for beginners and will work well for basic recipes. The instruction manual also includes tasty-looking recipes by Delish editors such as S’mores Stuffed Cookies, Classic Coffee Cake, and, my favorite, Best-Ever Snickerdoodles.

Delish by Dash Stand Mixer: specs

• Size: 3.5QT Stainless Steel Bowl
• Dimensions: 10.4 x 8 x 11.5 inches
• Weight: 4.64 lbs.
• Settings: 5-speed power
• What’s in the box: Stand Mixer, 2 Beaters, 2 Dough Hooks, Stainless Steel Bowl, Instruction Manual and Recipe Guide 
• Power: 350 Watts
• Colors: Blue, Black, Red, Green, and Orange

Getting started with the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer 

The Delish by Dash Stand Mixer arrived at my front doorstep in a white cardboard box with touches of blue that had drawings of different items you can make with the stand mixer. The box itself is very light and one person can carry it inside to unbox. Unfortunately, the stand mixer was held into place by Styrofoam, which is notoriously non-biodegradable. I would have liked to see more sustainable packaging as I saw that the bowl and attachments were also wrapped in plastic. 

While the color of the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer is right up my alley, a light baby blue, the overall look of the appliance reminded me of a children’s plastic toy. The first half of the instruction manual goes into detail on how to set up and use the stand mixer. All the recipes provided by Delish’s editors are found in the second half. 

Making bread

At the height of the pandemic, while everyone was stuck at home with nothing to do, we were hit with a bread-making frenzy. My social media was filled with friends and friends of friends trying their hand at this centuries-old practice. I attempted to make baguettes for my family from scratch, but the mixing and kneading process of the dough was so time-consuming, I gave up that hobby before I began.

The Delish by Dash Stand Mixer comes with two dough hook attachments that are meant to make mixing and kneading bread dough a breeze. I added 500g of bread flour, a pack of yeast, and salt to the mixing bowl and lowered the head of the mixer with the dough hooks attached. Next I added 3 Tbsp and 300 ml of water to the mix and set the speed on the stand mixer at the highest level: 5.

For the next 10 minutes, I stepped away completely from the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer and let it do its thing. At first, the bowl was not spinning but slowly the ingredients began to mix and the hooks worked their way through the dough. Because of how fast the hooks were spinning, I noticed that the stand mixer was shaking all throughout the 10-minute process. Around minute 8, I touched the bowl and the stand mixer base and felt heat emanating off it but it wasn’t hot enough to cause concern. I recorded 91 decibels.

At the end of the 10 minutes, the ingredients were fully combined but the dough was still sticky so I added more flour and set the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer on speed 5 again for 2 more minutes. This time it was smooth, and I could easily handle it after dusting my hands with flour. I noticed no unmixed pockets of ingredients. Overall, I was impressed by how vigorously the dough hooks kneaded the bread though but I don’t think the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer could have kept going past the 15-minute mark at full speed.

Making cookies

For the cookie dough test, I tried out one of the Delish recipes in the instruction manual: Best-Ever Snickerdoodles. The first step of the recipe that occurs in the stand mixer is beating the softened butter, brown and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. The instruction manual states that you should use the dough hook attachments for all doughs or thicker substances. So that’s what I did.

Right off the bat, I ran into some issues. I used the Bowl Shift Lever to move the bowl from side to side but no matter what position it was in, the butter and sugar mix kept shifting to the sides of the bowl, out of reach for the dough hooks. I also found that when the bowl was placed so that the dough hooks were in the center, it stopped spinning altogether. I decided to replace the dough hooks with the beaters and found that yielded better results.

It took about 10-15 minutes (I had to stop every once and a while to push the butter with a spatula closer to the beaters a few times) for me to finally be able to get a light and fluffy consistency.  There were butter pieces that were not incorporated so continue with the recipe, I creamed those myself into the mixture with the fork. I had similar issues when I added the eggs, having to use a spatula to help the mixture make contact with the beaters.

In the second part of the recipe, adding the dry ingredients was more successful. I slowly added the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon combination and the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer came through. It took about 10 minutes to fully combine the wet ingredients with the dry but pockets of flour remained, so the device was not perfect for this recipe. All throughout I alternated between speeds 2 and 3 with decibel levels reaching 83. The recipe for the snickerdoodles? I awarded that a 10 out of 10 all around. 

Making meringue

One of my favorite aspects of the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer is how effectively it worked with liquids. I tested this out with a Meringue recipe, and it did not disappoint. The recipe I chose called for 4 oz. of egg whites at room temperature to be beaten till soft peaks formed. I attached the beaters to the stand mixer and started things out at speed 3 climbing to the highest speed, speed 5, for this first step. The bowl spun consistently and all the egg whites were beaten at the same rate. My only complaint (and I’m sure my neighbor’s too) was how loud the stand mixer was. During this entire process, I registered a high of 90 decibels.

After 5 minutes of mixing, the egg whites had formed soft peaks, so I was ready to add the next ingredients, cream of tartar and granulated sugar. For the next 5 minutes, I added the dry ingredients and slowly but surely the stiffer peaks started forming, turning into a meringue. I tasted it and was happy to note that the sugar had been completely dissolved. 

Making buttercream

My first attempt at beating the butter in the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer left me wanting to break out my trusty old hand mixer. I put the stand mixer to the test again using a recipe for buttercream and I am so glad I did. This buttercream is some of the best I have ever made, and I have the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer to thank. With this recipe, I learned that baking requires one to trust the process and have faith at each step of the recipe.

To beat the butter, I attached the beaters to the stand mixer and set the mixer at speed 3. As expected, the butter started to move to the sides of the bowl but most of it was soft by the end of three minutes. After I added half of the icing sugar is when the magic started to happen. With minimal intervention on my end, I started to see how the beaters were slowly starting to churn the buttercream into submission. After adding the rest of the icing sugar, milk, and vanilla extract, it only took 5-6 minutes to achieve the right consistency. I recorded a high of 88 decibels as the stand mixer was working.

Compared to the cookie recipe, I only had to scrape the mixture off the sides of the bowl three times and the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer took care of the rest. The buttercream was light and perfectly mixed. In the time it took to mix from start to finish, it was about 10 minutes total, plenty of time for me to wash the dishes or prepare another meal. One of the major advantages of a stand mixer is that it allows the baker to be more hands-off and work on other things while the machine assists. For this recipe, the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer really stood out as a sous chef. 

Cleaning the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer

I was pleased with how easy the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer was to clean. The bowl, dough hooks, and beater are all dishwasher safe. Even if you don’t own a dishwasher, soaking the attachments in warm, soapy water before washing by hand or placing them in the dishwasher will help make the process easier. The Main Base of the stand mixer must not be submerged in water or any liquid. Instead, you should use a damp dish cloth to wipe off any excess ingredients.  

How does it compare? 

When comparing it to top-of-the-line stand mixers, such as the KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer or the Cuisinart Stand Mixer, the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer falls short in power and useful attachments. Both the KitchenAid and Cuisinart models include attachments, such as a dough hook, whisk, and flat beater that are large enough to make sure all the ingredients in the bowl are being mixed. The Delish by Dash Stand Mixer attachments, the dough hooks, and beaters, belong on hand mixers where the user has more flexibility on where the attachments can go. 

Because of price and functionality, it is more useful to compare the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer to the Hamilton Beach 6 Speed Electric Stand Mixer. It has the same bowl capacity as the Delish by Stand Mixer (3.5QT), but has 6 speeds compared to 5. The power is slightly weaker than the Dash model, at 300 watts compared to 350 watts. While the Delish by Dash weighs 4.64 lbs., the Hamilton model weighs 11.05 lbs. making it significantly heavier. On Amazon, the Hamilton model is rated higher, earning 4.5 stars compared to 4.1 stars out of 5.  

Should you buy the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer?

If you are looking to use a stand mixer for a variety of recipes, such as meringue, butter cream and bread, then the Delish by Dash Stand Mixer will help yield great results. I found that when making cookies, the stand mixer was not efficient enough to warrant buying. In this case, a hand mixer would have been more effective for making cookies. 

The Delish by Dash usually retails for $79.99 but does go on sale from time to time. For the results that I witnessed testing the product for myself, the price is worth it. It is a good stand mixer for beginners but more experienced bakers may feel frustrated by lack of perfect results.

About this review, and our reviewer

Alexandra is a contributor to Real Homes and Homes & Gardens where she reviews household products to make your life easier at home, whether it’s cooking, cleaning or sleeping. She was sent this product to review at home to test out its hands-off mixing performance via constant use and with different types of recipes. This product was tested over the course of one month.

We are not given any compensation for our reviews, but we may be gifted the product meaning that we can test it over a greater length of time, and update our reviews if required. We also receive affiliate commissions for some products brought through our site.