The Wilfa ProBaker Speed Guide, and Which Model to Buy

Twenty speed settings and no guidance on which is which. Most ProBaker owners settle on three of them and never touch the rest, which is a shame, because the gaps in between are where the difference between a decent cake and a very good one usually lives.

The ProBaker's dial runs from 0 to 100 in steps of 5, giving twenty settings. Use 5-20 for folding and combining dry ingredients, 20-40 for kneading dough, 40-60 for creaming butter and sugar, and 50-70 for whisking. The one rule worth memorising: never run the dual whisk above 70%.

What the numbers mean

The dial isn't a percentage of power, it's a position on a scale, and Wilfa publishes exactly what each one does. Two figures matter: the stirring speed, which is how fast the attachment travels through the bowl, and the motor speed behind it.

Two things to take from this. The scale is close to linear, so moving from 40 to 60 is a genuine, predictable increase rather than a vague "a bit faster". And Pulse is full speed in short bursts, which is useful for bringing a mixture together without working it.

Which speed for what

5-20, folding and combining

Start almost every mix here. Dry ingredients combine without flour leaving the bowl, and anything already aerated, such as a batter you're folding fruit into or meringue going into a mixture, keeps the air you put into it.

It's also the speed to start at when you add flour to a wet mixture. Going straight to a middle speed is how kitchens end up dusted.

20-40, kneading dough

The spiral dough hook works in this band. The ProBaker's Dual-Action kneading rotates the bowl as well as the hook, which is why it develops gluten faster than a mixer that only spins an attachment.

The machine handles up to 5kg of dough in a 7-litre bowl, which is a great deal of bread. Heavy, stiff doughs want the lower end of this range.

40-60, creaming butter and sugar

The stage that decides how a cake rises. You're beating air into the fat, so it wants sustained medium speed and more time than most recipes suggest: five minutes is not too long for a genuinely pale, fluffy result.

Use the flexi beater here rather than the whisk. Its flexible edge scrapes the bowl as it turns, which matters because butter and sugar climb the sides and stop being mixed.

50-70, whisking cream and egg whites

And this is the ceiling, for the reason below.

The 70% rule

Wilfa is specific about this and it's the most useful thing in the manual: don't run the dual whisk above 70%.

It sounds counterintuitive, because surely faster whisking means more air. It doesn't. Above 70% the whisk moves fast enough to start knocking air back out of the mixture as quickly as it incorporates it. Cream goes from soft peaks to grainy and over-whipped in seconds, and egg whites lose the stability you're trying to build.

If your whipped cream has ever gone from perfect to split without warning, this is almost certainly why.

Related, and worth knowing before you assume something's wrong: if the whisk seems to be hitting the bottom of the bowl, there's usually too little in it. The dual whisk adjusts its height according to the contents, so a very small quantity leaves it sitting lower than you'd expect. Two egg whites in a 7-litre bowl is asking a lot, so use a hand mixer for small jobs.

Why it's noisier than you expected

The ProBaker has a bottom-mounted motor, a rotating bowl and hook, three drive belts and a metal chassis. All of that makes noise, and a metal-bodied machine transmits it rather than absorbing it the way a plastic one does.

Wilfa's own tip for reducing it while kneading is to raise the speed to around 50% or more and add liquid. A stiff dough at low speed is the loudest combination there is, because the machine is working hardest against the most resistance.

The attachments, and what each one is for

All of these come with the machine, along with a dough scraper and the 7-litre stainless steel bowl. Replacements are available separately, including a stainless steel dough hook, a flexi beater paddle and a 7L mixing bowl.

Beyond the standard set, the ProBaker Tool Adapter at £99 fits many Kenwood Twist accessories to the machine, including meat grinders, pasta rollers and vegetable slicers.

Which ProBaker should you buy?

All three share the same platform: Dual-Action kneading, a 7-litre bowl, a 700W motor, twenty speed settings and up to 5kg of dough. All three have overload protection, which is why a ProBaker stops mid-knead rather than burning out.

The NXT is the newest generation and currently the cheapest of the three, which makes it the straightforward recommendation. It's the only one with a brushless DC motor, which runs quieter and has fewer parts to wear out than a brushed motor, and it comes with the built-in timer and the stainless steel dough hook that used to be the reason to pay more for the Timer.

The Timer makes sense if you specifically want its stopwatch and countdown behaviour, which is slightly different to the NXT's timer, or if you're matching an existing machine.

The standard ProBaker Stand Mixer is the original and still an excellent machine. It has no timer, which matters more than people expect once you've had one: knowing a dough had exactly eight minutes, every time, is what makes batches consistent.

One difference in the box rather than the machine: the standard and Timer models ship with a recipe booklet and a sprinkle lid that the NXT doesn't list.

On warranty, the Wilfa warranty page names the ProBaker Stand Mixer as carrying ten-year motor cover alongside the standard five-year product warranty. The NXT product page describes its ten-year motor cover as an extension activated by registering the product, so read that page's terms if you buy one. Our warranty guide covers the rest.

Frequently asked questions

What speed should I use to knead bread dough in a ProBaker?

Between 20 and 40, with the spiral dough hook. Stiffer doughs want the lower end. The machine handles up to 5kg of dough in its 7-litre bowl.

Why shouldn't I whisk above 70% on a ProBaker?

Above 70% the dual whisk moves fast enough to beat air back out of the mixture as fast as it incorporates it. Cream over-whips and turns grainy, and egg whites lose stability. Wilfa specifically advises against running the dual whisk above 70%.

What's the difference between the ProBaker NXT and the ProBaker Timer?

Both have a 7-litre bowl, a 700W motor, 20 speeds and a 5kg dough capacity, and both have a built-in timer and a stainless steel dough hook. The NXT uses a brushless DC motor, publishes its weight and dimensions, and at £799 is currently cheaper than the Timer at £999 to £1,049.

What are the ProBaker speeds in RPM?

The dial runs from 0 to 100 in steps of 5. Level 5 gives 55 stirring RPM, level 50 gives 158, and level 100 gives 275 stirring RPM at 5,700 motor RPM. Pulse runs at full speed in bursts. The full table is published on the Wilfa UK FAQ page.

Do Kenwood attachments fit the Wilfa ProBaker?

Many Kenwood Twist accessories do, using the ProBaker Tool Adapter, sold separately at £99. That includes meat grinders, pasta rollers and vegetable slicers.

Next

Most of what separates a good bake from an ordinary one happens at a speed, and for a length of time, that the recipe never mentions. The dial is worth learning.

Browse the ProBaker range · Attachments and spare parts · If your mixer stops mid-knead