Brought to you by a brand that’s best known for pizza ovens, the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer is an absolute tank of a stand mixer whose key functionality is specific to dough. Not cookie dough, mind you. That’s actually a batter. We’re talking about pizza dough, bread dough — anything where gluten needs to be seriously strong-armed into existence. As a stand mixer, it’s a major investment, but if you’re hoping to take your pizza or sourdough sensibilities to the next level, here’s everything you need to know about the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer before you buy.

ooni-halo-pro-spiral-mixer
Both the bowl and the hook rotate for gluten development.

Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer at a glance

  • Style: Heavy-duty stand spiral mixer with rotating 7.3 Quart-capacity bowl and dough hook. Additional attachments include mixing paddle, whisk and breaker bar.
  • Dimensions: 13.5″ (H) x 9.9″ (W) x 17.2″ (D)
  • Watts: 650
  • Weight: 32 lbs
  • Price: $799

Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer operation

The Ooni Halo Pro is a spiral mixer, which typically means that the bowl rotates on a base while the dough hook or mixing paddle holds still. This is different from planetary mixers, where the hook or paddle do the rotating in the head of the mixer while the removable bowl remains stationary in the base. The Ooni Halo Pro does both, which is the key to its gluten-developing potential, manipulating and pulling dough from multiple angles while both elements rotate.

The head tilts backwards by gripping two levers on both sides near the front, and the dough hook is interchangeable with several other attachments: a mixing paddle with built-in scraper, as well as a wire whisk, should you choose to put the mixer to use for non-dough projects. The speed is changeable via a dial on top of the mixer. A digital display indicates a percentage of the highest available speed, which moves in 5% increments. The dial is also a start/stop button for both the motor and the timer. Smaller buttons near the front of the mixer allow you to toggle between setting the speed or setting the timer. Long-pressing the mixer speed button allows you to switch between speed percentage or RPM.

What I liked about the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer

The Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer feels like a professional-grade appliance, yet it operates completely intuitively and easily. While the size and heft of the box was intimidating, the mixer is essentially in two major pieces, including the bowl, with only attachments to contend with in order to get it operating. Its footprint isn’t as demanding as its weight would imply, and I scarcely consulted the manual before I had sourdough starter and water churning away in the mixing bowl, according to a recipe provided on Ooni’s website. The Lights underneath made me wonder how I ever lived without this feature before.

The bowl is giant, at 7.3 quarts. The recipe allowed for comfortable mixing of enough dough to make four boules. (I made one large boule and a reasonably successful pizza, with dough to spare.) Unlike many spiral mixers, the bowl is also detachable and locks into place. A hinged splash guard is included, which stays snugly on top of the bowl, making for easy access when the hinged pane is lifted, or also via a pour spout.

Sourdough and other bread doughs can necessitate a fussy process, but Ooni’s controls allow for maximum fuss with minimal effort, given its nuanced speed control and built-in timer. (If OCD has previously prevented you from dabbling seriously in bread dough, now you can rejoice.) Even if you’re making basic batter recipes, you’re likely to find instructions such as “beat at medium speed for 2 minutes,” followed by the addition of more ingredients and another indication to beat for a certain amount of time. Having the digital timer at your fingertips while you preside over the mix is as high functioning as an appliance built for these kinds of instructions can get.

A breaker bar that can be installed into the head acts as the one stationary element, as both the bowl and the dough hook rotate, preventing the dough from creeping up the dough hook. At the end of the process, I had a glossy, springy dough that never required me to get my hands caked with it.

A spiral spinner on a stand mixer
A detachable breaker bar prevents strong dough from riding up the spiral hook

The whisk and paddle attachments operate accordingly, which is good, since owning this dough mixer should preclude the need for other appliances. Cleanup is also a relative breeze: the flat surface of the top and the flush surface underneath the head make for little opportunity for rogue flour to get stuck and are easily wiped down.

What I didn’t like about the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer

sourdough loaf on a stovetop
My sourdough turned out delicious.

Honestly, the truly hard sell of the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral is on its price. At nearly double the cost of a reliable stand mixer from KitchenAid, it’s a luxury item that can really only be justified if you’re really — I mean, really — serious about making bread or pizza dough, regularly. It’s also really heavy — 32 pounds of machine is what is evidently required to give it the necessary oomph to allow gluten to really stretch, but it’s a pretty hefty machine to consider moving onto the countertop each time you want to use it.

While its look is industrial, it wouldn’t be out of place in many contemporary kitchens. Offered in only two available colors, the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral is definitely substance over style, which isn’t a bad thing. But there are plenty of reliable stand mixers on the market that give more options where aesthetics are concerned.

Final verdict on the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer

As someone who loves baking but hates to have her hands caked with dough, the Ooni Halo Pro was thrilling in its hands-off gluten development potential. Both intuitive and fun to use, it churned out spectacular results, even for an unpracticed bread baker. If you own (and frequently use) a pizza oven, or if you’re actually committed to regular breadmaking, then this machine would be a worthy splurge to help you up your game. If the price isn’t a barrier to entry, and you seriously aspire to be a regular bread baker, it might even help you to develop doughmaking game to begin with.

If you’re considering a typical stand-mixer such as a KitchenAid, and wondering whether you should pay the extra $300 to $400 for this type of machine, however, I’d pause to seriously question what your primary use of a stand mixer is. The Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer can do all of the typical stand mixer functions for you, but basic mixing and whisking would be better handled by a lighter, more agile, potentially more colorful machine.