Dear all,
After a lot of frustration with a 6-qt, 525W KitchenAid mixer and
following the comments and adviced I received on this list over a
year ago, I have finally bought an Electrolux Assistent (aka DLX
2000, aka Magic Mill, although the latter is no longer used by the
manufacturer).
I have used it a couple of times, the second one to mix a batch of
"high extraction flour miche" (from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain
Breads). At first I was undecided as to whether I should use the
plastic roller attachment (which didn't look very strong) or the
metal dough hook. The manual (the Swedes may be good at building
powerful mixers, but they really need to work on their manual design
skills) says either one can be used to mix yeasted doughs.
I first tried the dough hook, but soon gave up because no matter how
high the speed, the dough stood in place while the bowl spun. The
scraper on the side didn't help the stuff move around, either. The
funny thing is that Reinhart says this dough would probably need to
be kneaded by hand because it would be too large for a regular home
mixer. For the Assistent, though, it seems to be too small; I imagine
that if the amount of dough were doubled it would probably start
moving around the bowl and actually mixing.
So I took out the dough hook and went for the plastic roller. I first
tried fixing it to a position towards the centre of the bowl (as per
the instructions in the manual), but the dough again wouldn't move,
thus defeating the purpose of a "mixer". So I loosened the arm screw
and let the arm move freely, and as I increased the speed the dough
finally started moving around a little. But not much: I had to give
it a push every couple of turns so it would keep moving.
To make a long story short, it took me forever to mix the dough and I
had to stand by the machine the whole time to get the dough moving in
the bowl. And who said this one doesn't "walk" around the counter?
Mine was trotting and jumping hurdles! I had to actually hold it down
so it wouldn't just walk right off the edge of the counter.
I'm wondering if anyone else who has this obviously sturdy mixer has
had any more luck than me, and if so, whether they could share their secrets.
Cheers,
Erik
Victoria, BC, Canada