Kitchen Mixer Help

American Eagle AE-21A Stand Mixer Product AE-21A Key FeaturesMixer Type StandSpeed Settings 3 Speeds Other Featu...

KitchenAid 325 Watts Artisan KSM150PS Stand Mixer Key FeaturesMixer Type StandSpeed Settings 10 Speeds Other FeaturesPower Output 325 Watts...

I bought the K5SS several years ago for bread. I’d been grinding my own grain and baking bread was a hobby. At the time I really didn’t know much about mixers and it was the largest and most expensive one I saw in the stores.

For lighter duty chores, such as cake and cookie dough, and for a couple of loaves of white bread, the mixer was fine. I came to regret buying the 5-quart model, as it was difficult to deal with a full bowl of batter and a dirty paddle without spilling some. Also, unlike my little 30-year-old Sunbeam, the planetary motion did NOT clean the sides of the bowl! It was necessary to stop the mixer every so often to clean the sides with a spatula. Some of the cake recipes I use call for beating five minutes at a time and it’s irritating to have to stop every minute to scrape down the sides.

However, the moment of truth came when I started working with whole wheat bread dough. Even with only a few cups of that stiff, hard dough, the mixer head became hot. I discovered early on that the outer limit of kneading was two loaves’ worth, and that really heated up the head. It turns out that Kitchen Aid themselves acknowledge the heating problem. Since I bought mine, Kitchen Aid has come out with a ‘professional’ model that has a heat overload relay that will stop the mixer before burning out the motor. Mine didn’t. One day, mixing a two-loaf recipe, the telltale horrible odor and noise told me my mixing days were over with this machine.

Kitchen Aid still has not adequately addressed this problem. Unlike the other upper-line mixers, it still doesn’t have sufficient airflow around the motor in the head. Look at other brands and you’ll see for yourself.

Because I wasn’t impressed with its mixing ability when not doing bread, I decided not to replace it. I purchased the Electrolux Assistent, sold in this country under the name ‘Magic Mill DLX’. What a mixer! The mixer bowl holds a gallon. There is no head hanging over the bowl. It’s quiet and much more powerful than any Kitchen Aid. Rather than using a paddle to beat, it uses an innovative roller and spatula combination that creams and mixes better than any machine I’ve seen. I can mix whole wheat dough or up to 3 large cake batters at one time, and the mixer never misses a beat! Electrolux has been making this machine since the 40’s, constantly developing it. It’s a standard in Europe. It can be found here at www.appliances.com, and other web sites selling top-line equipment.

I realize most home cooks won’t come close to burning up one of these machines. However, it should be noted that this machine is also not the best at simple mixing, either.

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