I just wish my kitchen was big enough to have a place to store a stand mixer!
Oh it is so worth the counter space you have to give up! I use mine for bread, pasta, cakes, shredding large quantities of cheese/veg the list goes on. I have a tiny house (less than 500sq feet) but the kitchen is most of that so I guess I don’t mind giving up a little. You can even get a grain mill for it although I hear it’s not great for brewing grains (To fine a grind, to much damage to the husk)
I’d love a stand mixer too, but haven’t been able to justify it yet. It’s on sale at costco right now though :) Still SWMBO is a fan of having the counters clear, and the cabinets are getting pretty full . . .
The food processor works well, and I’d rather spend my time cleaning it (putting it in the dishwasher) than kneading dough forever. But that’s me. 
Mine is the plain aluminum or whatever potmetal it is… Definitely not steel. And yes, it bends. I figure it’s more for pastry dough than anything, but I might be wrong.
Anyway, I think I might make some more tonight.
I looked at the one on sale at Costco today. It is the right one to get. Very sturdy. The mixing bowl drops down - the head does not pivot up, and it has a 575W motor ( 0.77 HP).
Bending dough hook? wow… I make some heavy breads with mine, so much so that the motor nearly comes to a stop with the effort. 13 years later the original hook has no bending, no dings in the enamel, still in good shape. Although the machine tends to “walk” a bit when kneading a dense dough. If it were Hobart sized that wouldn’t happen.
My wife got me the mixer because she got tired of me beating the she-it out of the dough on the kitchen counter at all hours of the night. I used to work shift work at a power plant and would make bread when I got home.
She also got me the sausage grinder attachment for the PTO port on the mixer head. Lucky thing! Few here in Hawaii know what andouille or boudin is. I’ve ground close to a ton of sausage with that machine. I bought a sturdy microwave table for the mixer to live on. The accessories live in the shelf space underneath of the microwave table.
I recently started making sour dough in a bread machine acquired from a second-hand shop. Don’t scoff at that - I’m a sour dough newbie and so far this bread machine thing has been working out for me! I started a culture using yogurt and flour, so lactobacillus and who-knows-what wild bugs are present. For the first half dozen or so batches, I didn’t trust it to rise on its own so I added commercial yeast to the dough (but not to my culture) and the result was OK - nice texture as far as bread machine bread goes, and a bit of sourdough flavor. I even made a batch in which I added about half a pack of Danstar Nottingham left over from a bottling operation. Again, a decent loaf, but nothing special. But last week I tried 2 loaves using only my culture, no added yeast. I had great leavening and the flavor was fantastic. In fact, I’m going to start another loaf right now. What else to do at 3:30 AM when I can’t sleep? Grade my students lab reports and papers? Nah. I’m making bread.
Well, you’ve discovered secret #1 - Never add yeast to sourdough. I did that the first time because that’s what all the recipes called for, then I took a leap of faith.
I made dough at 1am, so don’t feel alone.
Tom…I have a KA mixer and use it all ther time during cooking/baking season. It is the bomb-diggity-dogg. 8)
Grant it, they have to be cleaned after each use but they are very easy to clean. This gadget is one of the best investments I have in my kitchen. If you make your own pizza dough or bread dough frequently, then this gadget is priceless.
They are a little pricey but well worth it IMO.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Baking season?
Can I be fined for baking out of season?
Depends on what you’re baking. ;) ;D
I guarantee you, I’ve looked at my counter space every which way, and I just can’t find a way that a mixer would fit. Fortunately, there’s a remodel on the horizon!
Some day :) I’ve been doing it so long with the food processor I can’t say I really need the KA mixer, but it would be great. Maybe with the holidays coming up I’ll find one all wrapped up. Because then I could get a grinder attachment and do some stuff I can’t do with our current gear ;D
Oh man, I couldnt live without my kitchen aid. And just think, they have a sausage attachment. 8) I really want that one. They also have some other really cool attachments.
What I wish they had (and Im not completely sure they dont) is a mastication type juicer attachment.
I used to have a separate mastication juicer that shit the bed not to long ago. Hard to live without one. Not only for making all kinds of juice but using veg juice in soups and cooking instead of plain water is just out of this world. Takes it up to a whole other level.
One of my main motivations for getting a KA is the pasta attachment. If I never had to hand roll another batch of pasta, I’d be a happy guy!
The pasta attachment is one I need to experiment with this year.
I have yet to make pasta with the KA.
I use a 50/50 blend of AP and semolina for pasta.
Is it hand roll with a dowel or rolling pin or with the clamp on counter top pasta machine? Cranking the pasta machine isn’t hard, but then I’m not old and arthritic…
It’s the clamp to the counter pasta machine, hand cranked. You;re right, it’s not too bad, but mu counters are thicker than the clamp mechanism on the machine will take. So, I have to clamp it to a cutting board, then C clamp the cutting board to the counter. A total PITA!
Baking season is defined as the time when it’s not too ungodly hot to turn the oven on.
I baked one loaf tonight, made 2 pizzas with the other. One deep dish, one regular. I made the deep dish in my cast iron skillet, and it turned out pretty well, but I can’t help but wonder if it would’ve been better if I could figure out a way to preheat the skillet.
Also, I’m glad I’m not the only one that calls it a “PTO” on the KA mixer.
I made a loaf of my usual bread today, kind of a rustic loaf. This time though, instead of 50/50 bread/ap flour, I used 50/50 bread/whole wheat flour and added two Tbs of vital wheat gluten. The loaf looks great, but we haven’t sliced into it yet. I might need to tweak the amount of gluten added and I might try to do 100% whole wheat, we’ll see how it goes.