Kitchenaid mixer

[MomOnBike]

I love my Kitchen Aide. It comes out whenever I bake, or make anything that needs large amounts of grating (cheese) or grinding (oranges for marmalade, meats, walnuts for potica) or slicing (bread & butter pickles) or, well, anything.

I don't use it to knead bread - either my own two hands do that or the bread machine. In any case, I've had mine since, um, the late 70's or early 80's and it is still going strong. It's one of the best investments we made in running a kitchen.

[Mr. Bloom]

I love mine too! I use it once a year for gingerbread houses!

Silver doesn't know where it's even stored

[maillotpois]

I love mine. It is tucked away in a corner of our kitchen so it doesn't use otherwise readily accessible space. We just pull it to the front when we need it. DD uses it a lot for cookie experiments.

[withm]

I broke down and bought one last Christmas. I don't bake much, but I do make a ton of cookies and fruitcake (don't laugh - people love to get my fruitcake!).

Oh my God! What a difference! For 30 years I made heavy batter with the hand held mixer I bought in college. I can't believe I resisted this for so long, thinking I only need it at Christmastime.

Well the machine is expensive, big, and extremely heavy, all of which are good reasons to go without.

But it is a dream to operate.

I have no counterspace, and it is a real chore to set up for baking. I installed an wire rack drawer with a plexiglass insert for the floor of the drawer so I could store the machine in a lower cabinet. It works, and does make it easier to get it in and out, but someday I'm going to drop the thing on the tile floor and I don't think it's gonna be pretty.

And I just saw that they offer a pasta attachment. Must hide the credit card. That would be fun to play with but I don't know if I could make enough space to have long strands of pasta anywhere.

[smilingcat]

I'm glad I have my KA. 6 qt size. I wish I had the commercial grade one not the pro series.

The difference is that the commercial grade is NSF rated while the pro series is not. ???

Have attachement for meat grinder, and pasta maker. I make ground pork for Chinese dish, pasta maker for lasgna, raviloi... to noodles for soup. I'm very happy with it.

Oh I do have a dough hook and use it often. only takes two minutes to knead. And
ballon whisk to make whipped cream.

I've gotten lazy. I consider it one of my better purchases for the kitchen.

[papaver]

Mine goes here... very handy!





I like the design of the Kitchen Aid more, but hey, my Kenwood is the best gift i'm given so far....

[Mr. Bloom]

Those Europeans always have the sleekest and most compact designs!

[NoNo]

And I just saw that they offer a pasta attachment. Must hide the credit card. That would be fun to play with but I don't know if I could make enough space to have long strands of pasta anywhere.

Just take some plastic clothes hangers and drape the strands over them. Surely you have somewhere to place a few hangers?

[7rider]

I don't bake much, but I do make a ton of cookies and fruitcake (don't laugh - people love to get my fruitcake!).

That's what they tell you!

I also got one in '03 when we got married. It lives in a pull-out shelf on the bottom of the pantry -- along with the bread making machine.
They both come out rarely. I suppose they'd come out more if I actually did some baking!!
Oh..and I bought this slicer-dicer attachment for it...because I HAD to have it. I took it out of the box...washed each piece...and put them back in the box. I've yet to use it. Ever. Hard to justify pulling it out to slice, oh...one zucchini or something for just the 2 of us.

[violette]

I made bread and it was fine. How long do you kneed the dough in the mixer. I did it for 5 min, but someone said you have to cut it by half and the bread had a really yeasty taste to it. Don't know why???

[OakLeaf]

Yeasty taste can be from
-sweetening with honey or other high-fructose sweetener
-too much sweetener in the batter
-proofing or raising too long for the ambient temperature
-not enough salt

Personally I like the chewy texture that comes from long (hand) kneading, but it's all a matter of preference. The more you bake, the more you'll figure out what you like.