Stand Mixer Questions

[Parakeet]

I have a KitchenAid and a Bosch. The KA is dying a slow death and I only use it for making pasta now. My Bosch has the blender and food processor attachments and I use it, pretty much, every day. The Bosch can handle multiple loaves of bread at a time, which my KA could never do. If I had it to do over again, I would skip the KA all together and just go with the Bosch.

[desertblossom]

I have an Electrolux Magic Mill Assistent DLX mixer, but I had a hard time choosing between it and the Bosch. We eat mainly wheat bread, and I read the KA had a harder time with wheat breads than the Electrolux and Bosch mixers. That was confirmed by family and friends as well that had KAs.

The Electrolux is like a tank. Lots of attachments and uses as well...I need to get more comfortable using it. We just wanted a stand mixer that would last and that we wouldn't burn out the motor making bread. I think Bosch also would've worked great. In the end I let my dh decide....figures he'd go for the one that is "tank like".

There is one on craigslist (found with adhuntr.com), sometimes people will ship from craigslist (that is if you are looking for used). Fedex Ground is usually pretty good for heavy items. http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/app/3463661800.html

Otherwise there are plenty of Bosch mixers on ebay, and there are some really good stores selling those new as well.

I have had mixed results with freezing bread depending where we have lived. Sometimes it is better to freeze the dough (think braided bread) and bake later.

That said, I'd definitely check into the local laws and regulations as Summerthyme so astutely pointed out as they vary across the country and you want to make sure it will be worth your while before investing too much time, money, and effort.

[Summerthyme]

desertblossom makes a very good point- while it may not help much if your biggest problem is oven space, freezing the DOUGH just before the second rise (or, as I do at holidays in the winter, when our root cellar is at refrigerator temperatures, refrigerate it in the loaf pans overnight, then finish rising in the warm kitchen just before baking) will give you a much better product than freezing/thawing the bread itself.

The other thing to consider is going back to the "old ways". When my kids were growing up, I had the Kitchenaid mixer- and it got TONS of use- but I needed a dozen loaves of bread a week. The Kitchenaid model I have can knead enough dough for two and a half loaves- two full sized loaves and one smaller (3x5' loaf pan) one. That meant making up multiple batches.

It was MUCH faster and really not much harder to mix up the liquids in a 5 gallon pail, add the flour by hand with a big wooden spoon until it was almost impossible to mix (I usually moved it to a 16 quart shallow round stainless steel bowl for this step) and then dumping it all on the kitchen table (I made a custom-made pastry cloth out of 10 ounce unbleached cotton duck fabric, with elastic at all four corners- the elastic snapped over the table corners and held the pastry cloth in place- it works great) and kneading it (usually in 3-4 batches) by hand.

I usually baked half after two risings, and the other half got punched down and allowed to rise again, due to oven space constraints. But it worked (and now, looking back, I DO wonder where I got half the energy to get it all done... but I sure don't regret the fun we had)

One last thing- the KitchenAids biggest problem is still the silly gears- I THINK they have gone back and replaced the cheapie nylon gears with metal ones, but I'm not certain. Still, if you have anyone with a bit of mechanical knowledge and are offered a "defunct" KitchenAid, you may want to consider taking it. Mine died once, and it turned out to be nothing more but a TON of flour dust inside the case- it was shorting out one of the control switches!! My youngest son took it apart and fixed it for me that time, and it's run for over 18 years since.

The main gears aren't expensive to replace, either...

Summerthyme