On 25 May 2002 NuttyBakerGirl said:
> Buy a Kitchen Aid and your small appliance repair guy will love you."
> This depends on what kind of Kitchen Aid you buy. The small 4 1/2 qt
> mixers that sell for less than 200 hundred dollars are not good for
> making bread. They don't have the power to them. The Professional
> model, at 525 watts of power is a worthy model. The magic mill is
> something like 600 watts. There really isn't much difference in the
> power.
Well, I've had my K45SS with 275 watts since about 1980. It's made more
bread than I care to think about. It's made hundreds of pounds of
pasta. And more. And it's still going strong.
I don't think that the watts is a key issue. It's build quality. I've
heard it said the older machines were better built than the newer ones. I
know that mine is still going strong. And it has a 275 watt motor. Which
is about 1/2 horsepower, if remember the conversion formula correctly.
> In the end what really tears up a stand mixer is how you use it. There
> is no reason to crank the mixer up to full speed for anything that
> your mixing.
Well... there is beating egg whites and whipping cream. It's warp factor
10 on those things.
> Speed 2 on a Kitchen Aid is fine for bread kneading.
And there is high hydration ciabatta style doughs which I usually crank up
to 6 or so.
> I've never had any problem mixing any kind of bread in my machine.
If it's wet enough, the mixer will handle it well. I'd stay away from
bagels and authentic German pumpernickel though.
> If you truly want something that can knead bread into oblivion, then
> buy a VitaMix. Those things are 2 horsepower (Think about it, a lawn
> mower is 4 horsepower).
If you need more capacity, then go for the gusto. But I've been happy with
my 4 1/2 quart KitchenAid.
Mike