The best Kitchenaid stand mixer attachments and accessories

If you own a Kitchenaid stand mixer, then you know they’re a prized possession among home bakers and cooks. Similar to how Stanley has become a paradigm of insulated reusable water bottles, Kitchenaid’s stand mixers have become a symbol of a home cook’s personality and overall passion for culinary arts, especially since they’re available in a range of shades and designs. 

To further customize your cooking experience, there are tons of different accessories and attachments that you can use with your stand mixer. Since they’ve become such a staple in many households, brands offer stand mixer-compatible gadgets and attachments that make baking and food prep much easier. 

Below, I rounded up some of the best Kitchenaid-compatible stand mixer attachments and accessories that’ll streamline all of your culinary projects.

How I picked the best Kitchenaid stand mixer attachments and accessories

Here’s what I recommend prioritizing when looking for a Kitchenaid stand mixer attachment or accessory, based on my experience as a home cook and insight from Dan Langan, a food content creator and author.

• Practicality: All of the attachments and accessories on this list serve a particular purpose or provide some sort of service that ultimately makes baking, cooking or food prep easier, faster and/or more organized. While there are some accessories that are trendy or stylish, I prioritized functionality in creating the list of attachments below rather than aesthetic.
• Cooking style: Most of the attachments below are best suited for either baking or for preparing savory food. I chose attachments that home bakers will get a lot of use out of, such as a pouring shield since they often use ingredients like flour. On other hand, I included a food processor attachment, which is ideal for people who cook savory food but don’t want to spend a lot of time chopping food.
• Kitchenaid compatibility: All of the attachments and accessories below are compatible with all models of Kitchenaid’s stand mixers, with most of them attaching to the power hub on the top. Some, however, either stick to or cover the stand mixer itself. 

The best Kitchenaid stand mixer accessories and attachments

All of the products below are either direct recommendations from experts, NBC Select staff or have at least a 4-star average rating from 500 reviews or more on Amazon.

Best for home cooks: Kitchenaid Pasta Maker Attachment

What we like

• Good for home cooks
• Multiple styles

Featured in our pasta makers roundup, this attachment is an easy way to make long pastas, such as fettuccine or pappardelle, from scratch. It connects to the top of the mixer, so all you have to do is feed the pasta dough through the attachment. The attachment, which has a 4.8-star average rating from over 8,000 reviews on Amazon, also cuts the dough into even, ready-to-boil pieces. 

Best whisk attachment: Flex Edge Beater Attachment

What we like

• Good for bakers
• Saves time on cleaning
• Easy to clean

Something to note

• Nothing to note at this time

Many stand mixers often come with at least three different mixing attachments: a whisk, a dough hook and a paddle. This Flex Edge beater looks similar to the paddle attachment, except it’s much more thorough: The silicone lining makes it easier to wipe off pieces of food stuck to the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl and fully incorporate them into your mix. In other words, it prevents you from having to use a rubber spatula to lift any un-mixed ingredients hiding at the bottom of the bowl. A bonus: This will also cut down on time spent washing dishes since there’s less residue stuck to the bowl. It’s highly rated, with a 4.6-star average rating from over 9,500 reviews on Amazon.

Best for ice cream: Kitchenaid Ice Cream Maker Stand Attachment

If you bake often, but also enjoy homemade ice cream every once in a while, you don’t have to get a separate churning machine if you have a stand mixer. This attachment comes recommended by Langan. “The ice cream maker attachment is a winner,” he says. “I love that it is compact — no additional motor base needed — and the KitchenAid mixer motor can handle the ice cream as it churns to a perfectly thick finish.” While it looks like a typical mixing bowl on the outside, it’s actually meant to churn and mix an ice cream base so that it reaches the proper consistency. Keep the bowl in the freezer overnight before using it to mix your ice cream quickly.

Best for prepping food: Kitchenaid Fresh Prep Shredder

What we like

• Good for home cooks
• Great for cheese-based recipes
• Saves time

Something to note

• Better for cooks than bakers

Freshly grating cheese, such as blocks of cheddar, mozzarella or fontina, makes a huge difference when making dishes like baked mac and cheese, casseroles and homemade pizza. But grating cheese on a box grater by hand is both time-consuming and tiresome. This cheese-shredding stand mixer attachment, which has a 4.6-star average rating from over 14,500 reviews on Amazon, grates cheese in a matter of seconds, which means you save time without sacrificing the flavor and texture of your dish. Plus, you can use the grates to shred more than just cheese, including potatoes, zucchini and carrots. It comes with four types of shredders, depending on what your recipe calls for. 

Best for meat and poultry: Kitchenaid Metal Food Grinder

What we like

• Good for burgers and stews
• Saves money

Something to note

• Best for experienced cooks

While it’s easy to get pre-ground beef, turkey or chicken at the grocery store, you can also make your own using this metal food grinder, which attaches to the top of a KitchenAid stand mixer. You can use this to make homemade ground meat for hamburgers, meatballs, soups, stews and chilis. You could also use it to make your own homemade sausage for pasta sauce, too. It has a grinder attachment and a press tool that you use to push the meat into the machine. This way, you can control the texture of the meat you use for different dishes, especially since it comes with different grinding plate sizes. It has a 4.6-star average rating from over 14,500 reviews on Amazon.

Best for chopping food: Kitchenaid Food Processor Attachment

What we like

• Multifunctional
• Fast
• Good for vegetables

Similar to a stand mixer, a food processor is an important appliance to have in the kitchen, especially if you dice a lot of vegetables and herbs or enjoy making your own sauces and salad dressings from scratch. With a 4.5-star average rating from over 5,100 reviews on Amazon, this food processor attachment works just like any other one, except you can connect it to the top of the mixer and place a bowl underneath to catch all of the chopped food. Since it has flour blade attachments, you can use it to cut and shred vegetables, herbs and cheese. This helps save a lot of prep time in the kitchen, so you can get food on the table as fast as possible.

Best for organization: Cord Organizer for Kitchen Appliances

What we like

• Good for organization
• Easy to apply
• Works on many appliances

Something to note

• Nothing to note at this time

This small cord organizer, which sticks to any flat surface on your stand mixer, comes recommended by NBC Select associate updates editor Zoe Malin, who’s an avid baker. It holds long cords in place by giving them something to wrap around, similar to a cord on a vacuum. “Adding this to my Kitchenaid seemed like such a minor upgrade, but it ended up being a game changer because of how I hate messy cords, especially since I have a tiny kitchen,” she says. “The cord being wrapped around this little organizer prevents it from getting twisty and overall makes storage neater and easier.” Malin also uses this holder to organize cords on electric hand mixers as well.

Best for avoiding messes: Kitchenaid Secure Pouring Shield

What we like

• Prevents messes
• Easy to install

If you’ve ever baked any dessert or recipe that calls for flour and other powdered ingredients, whether with a stand or hand mixer, then you know how often it ends up all over the counter and floor. Because stand mixers move ingredients around so quickly, it causes the flour to immediately fly into the air and over the sides of the bowl. This shield, which has a 4.7-star average rating from more than 1,400 reviews on Amazon, solves this problem entirely, and keeps all your ingredients in the bowl.

Best for cleanliness: Kitchenaid Fitted Stand Mixer Cover

What we like

• Prevents dust
• Pocketed
• Different colors

Something to note

• Doesn’t have a carry handle

As much as you probably clean your kitchen countertops and appliances regularly, sometimes they still get dirty, whether it’s from dust, residual flour or crumbs. This fitted stand mixer cover helps prevent your appliance from collecting dust when you’re not using it and shields your mixer from accidental spills or splashes. It comes in either a quilted or striped print in a range of shades. It also has a useful pocket on the side to keep extra attachments or accessories. It has a 4.7-star average rating from over 700 reviews on Amazon.

Best for travel: Yarwo Protective Cover with Handle

What we like

• Travel friendly
• Different sizes available
• Has pockets

Something to note

• Nothing to note at this time

While the accessory above helps keep your stand mixer clean while it sits on the counter, this option serves as both a cover and carrying case to help you take it on the go.. It’s especially useful if you plan on baking at someone else’s house and/or if you’re a caterer and often travel with a stand mixer. It has multiple pockets for keeping additional accessories such as extra whisks and spoons, and a 4.8-star average rating from 3,400 reviews on Amazon.

Best for salads: Kitchenaid Spiralizer Attachment

What we like

• Good for vegetables
• Saves time

Something to note

• Better for cooks than bakers

If you eat and cook with a lot of vegetables, such as zucchini, carrots and sweet potatoes, but you don’t love the time and effort it takes to peel or shred them, this spiralizer attachment, which has a 4.7-star average rating from over 9,800 reviews on Amazon, is a huge help. You can use it to spiralize vegetables and turn them into “noodles” or peel produce like potatoes and apples for a range of dishes. This way you don’t spend most of your prep time using a y-shaped peeler to peel by hand — you can simply attach the vegetable to the blade and let the machine do the work.

Best for avoiding food waste: Whisk Wiper Attachment

What we like

• Great for making cakes
• Prevents waste

Something to note

• Better for bakers than cooks

While the wire whisk attachment helps make frosting, whipped cream or meringue in a pinch, it can be tedious to try and get every last bit of it off and into the bowl. Usually, you have to use a spoon or rubber spatula to try and push all of the remaining whipped food off of the whisk, but even then there’s still some left. This whisk wiper, which has a 4.1-star average rating from over 3,900 reviews on Amazon, helps get all of that stuck-on food off the whisk and into the bowl so you’re not wasting any ingredients. All you have to do is keep the attachment at the top of the whisk when mixing and when you’re done, push it downward to remove any frosting left on the wires of the whisk.

Best for adding flour: New Metro Design Pouring Chute

What we like

• Prevents messes
• Good for baking

Similar to the shield, this pouring chute makes it easy to use powdery ingredients like flour without making a mess. If you’ve ever used a stand mixer, then you know it’s sometimes hard to add flour as it’s mixing because the space at the top is small and awkwardly shaped. A pouring chute makes it easy to gradually pour in the flour as the mixer is moving, which many baking recipes often call for. It has a 4.6-star average rating from more than 9,200 reviews on Amazon.

Meet our expert

At NBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience. We also take steps to ensure all expert advice and recommendations are made independently and without undisclosed financial conflicts of interest.

• Dan Langan is a baker, food content creator and the author of Bake Your Heart Out.

Why trust NBC Select?

I’m a commerce editor at NBC Select, where I write roundups and product reviews on kitchen and home appliances, such as Cuisinart’s air fryer toaster oven, Anyday’s cookware and pasta makers. I chose highly rated products and sourced product recommendations from an experts and NBC Select staff for this story.