I’m not much of a baker, but as the holidays approach, I dust off my apron, pull out my cookie cutters, and bake my annual, obligatory holiday cookies. I always expect it to be a delightful experience, but after three hours in the kitchen, I am usually covered in flour, with a pile of bowls to wash, regretting the whole thing.
This year, however, the process was far less messy and laborious. That’s because I got to test GE Appliances’s newest machine, the Profile Smart Mixer, which launches today at Crate & Barrel and is the first of its kind on the market. It’s equipped with many handy features, like Alexa-enabled voice controls, a precise built-in scale, a timer, and auto-sense technology that monitors texture. All of these fancy features are pricey: At $999, it’s two or three times more expensive than other premium stand mixers on the market. But upon testing it, I found that the mixer was thoughtfully designed to make baking less stressful.
The company first started making small kitchen appliances in 1907, but in 1984, it sold off that division, focusing instead on the larger appliances it is now known for, like dishwashers and fridges. In 2020, it once again began making countertop appliances, like toaster ovens and ice makers. With its mixer, GE Appliances is trying to establish itself as a tech-forward player in this space. “This is a way for us to say, ‘We’re back’,” says André Zdanow, executive director of small domestic appliances for GE Appliances.
Over the last decade, both startups and established companies have flooded the market with internet-connected kitchen appliances, such as the Brava oven and the Mellow sous-vide machine. In each case, the goal is to make cooking more convenient for people who don’t have the time or interest to do it the old-fashioned way. But so far, technology hasn’t revolutionized cooking: These devices generally shave off a few minutes of cooking time or allow you to automate features on an app. And given the significantly higher price of these devices, the question is whether the cost justifies these enhancements. That’s what I was trying to assess when I tested the Profile Smart Mixer.
Out of the box, the mixer was easy to set up. You can click the bowl and attachment into place with one hand thanks to well placed handles, which is useful when you’re multitasking in the kitchen. Then I surveyed the tech features, which were all clever, useful additions. Baking experts say that weight is a more accurate measurement than volume, which is why GE Appliances’s mixer comes with a precise, built-in scale. You can weigh an ingredient in the bowl, then reset the scale to zero to add your next ingredient, which reduces the number of dishes you have to clean. There’s also a timer function, so if the recipe calls for you to mix the batter for two minutes, you can program it to mix then shut off automatically, allowing you to step away as the mixer does its thing.
There are also voice-activated controls that work using Alexa or Google Home assistant. At first, I thought this would be superfluous, but as I was working on banana bread, with my hands covered in egg and butter, it was suddenly clear how useful it would have been to not have to switch the mixer on manually (I wasn’t able to test this function before launch).
To use the mixer’s most futuristic features, you need to connect it to GE Appliances’s app, which is loaded with recipes optimized to use with the appliance, including cakes, cookies, and savory items, like aioli. When you use a recipe on the app, the mixer follows along as you go through each step. For instance, if a recipe calls for 80 grams of butter, the mixer will automatically set the scale’s weight; if the butter needs to be creamed for three minutes, the timer will set itself.
Most ingeniously, the mixer is equipped with technology that senses the texture of the mixture, so you never under or overmix your ingredients, both of which are problematic (overmixing can lead to too-chewy baked goods, while under-mixing can result in clumps that don’t cook properly). This feature only works with GE Appliances’s preloaded recipes, which is a major shortcoming. But when in use, it’s a particularly helpful feature for inexperienced home cooks like myself, since getting a recipe right often relies on intuition and experience. “Lots of people got into baking for the first time during the pandemic,” says Alicia Waters, EVP at Crate & Barrel. “But baking can be very intimidating for people who are just starting out, and this mixer is designed to take out some of that guesswork.”
One issue is that there are only about a dozen recipes uploaded to the app right now, though GE Appliances says it will continually be adding new ones. Perhaps more importantly, most people want to use their own recipes when baking. When you reference a favorite cookbook or a recipe passed down in your family, the mixer suddenly becomes a lot less “smart.” The scale and the voice commands still work, but those features alone won’t radically improve your baking.
Zdanow says that eventually the auto-sensing technology will work with any recipe not just the ones available in the app. The idea being that a person can input what they are making, like bread or a cake, and the mixer will stop mixing when the texture seems ready. “The stand mixer, more than any other appliance, is expected to be durable,” he says. “The vision is for the product to get better over time. We want to use predictive analytics to understand what is going on in the bowl—with the help of the scale—so we can help you improve your baking.”
The GE Profile Smart Mixer is available for preorder today ($999) at Crate & Barrel. It will be available at a wider range of retailers starting next June.
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