Kitchen Mixer Help

Disappointed - DeLonghi 800 Watts Cucina DSM800 Stand Mixer My wife and I make lots of bread every week and our Kitchen Aid was struggling with a recipe that calls for 5 1/2 ...

DeLonghi 700 Watts Cucina DSM700 Stand Mixer Key FeaturesMixer Type StandSpeed Settings 6 Speeds Other FeaturesPower Output 700 WattsB...

If you’ve read some of my other reviews, you may be well aware of the fact that I’m an avid baker. I taught myself how to make bread last fall, and kept it up by hand for a good long time until summer came. It was just too hot and time consuming to knead and wait and punch down and wait and then bake. I wanted to be outside at the beach, enjoying the summer weather and beautiful crystal Lake Michigan.

So, as the weather got better, my bread making waned. At the point I stopped, I had been selling loaves of bread to my coworkers at the office, and found it difficult to keep up with bread for myself, and everyone else.

Summer passed, and here we are in the fall. I’ve got a head full of ideas for new breads I’d like to try, but my kneading muscles are all gone. I’m tuckered out these days and not as motivated to really work my dough by hand. What is a girl to do?

Well, my mother (who has been slowly recovering from a disability over the last 15 years) recently got a Kitchen Aid stand mixer to help her out around the kitchen. I shared some of my bread recipes with her and she used that mixer to the fullest. I’ve always been a big fan of doing things by hand, but at this point the idea of letting a mixer do all the hard work just started to sound so good.

Looking for the right mixer

My first instinct? I was going to head right over to Target and drop the $179.99 on the K45SS with a 250 watt 10 speed motor. What could I lose? It’s a Kitchen Aid, nearly every cooking show uses them, and how many households have them these days? But, there was this little voice in the back of my mind (this is a big purchase, let’s be sure about this,… what if it can’t handle bread too well?).

So, I looked around online at various opinion websites, and found there were a few consistent complaints about all Kitchen Aids (mind you these were found among hundreds of glowing reviews). Many people complained that their Kitchen Aids didn’t quite mix what was at the bottom of the bowl too well, or that the mixer seemed really noisy, ran kind of hot to the touch, and labored with heavy dough.

With this I looked into the more hefty Kitchen Aid Models and the highest watt motor I could find was the 525-watt on the KP2671XMW Professional model. If you check Amazon right now even you’ll see several complains on the professional model about overheating, and noise, and laboring of the motor through bread batches. A lot of people mention they used to have really old Kitchen Aids that worked better and expected their new ones to do the same,… alas they were disappointed.

I read through review after review and noticed several people mentioned the DeLonghi DSM800 Cucina Stand Mixer - which was formerly a Kenmore product (bought out by Delonghi). This puppy has an 800-watt motor and a 7-quart bowl!

I looked around for a good price, which was hard to find, but, in the end I was able to acquire a display model on Ebay for a fraction of the retail price ($175.00). What I would have spent for the cheapest model of Kitchen Aid.

So? How did things go?

The day my mixer arrived I was so excited. I had asked it to be shipped to my office and when the box came, I ripped it open, and assembled it on site. My mixer came with the paddle, whisk, dough hook, spatula, and the Blender (which fits onto a motor on the back). I was so excited about the blender, as it was an unexpected perk (the blender attachment retails for nearly $80).

This mixer is a bit on the big side. It’s about 15 inches tall, 14 inches long, and 5-6 inches wide (without the bowl). The bowl is really tall and can hold a ton! My one big loaf of bread was dwarfed by this monster. Storing it may prove to be challenging, but, I do plan to keep it in regular service. For now, I found a good home for it on my counter in a spot that usually collects mail and knick knacks.

I ran two loaves of bread through it the first night and was impressed with the results. My loaves rose faster and to their highest bulks ever. Punching the dough down it was amazing to see how fluffy the dough was. This morning I made Maple Sugar for another recipe of bread I have in mind, and it powered through the thick hot syrup, pulverizing it into a find grain.

Pros

-Huge Capacity – massive 7-quart bowl

-Powerful Motor (will make more noise through heavy, dryish whole grain dough and so I’d recommend anyone add a little more milk/water to dough on any mixer)

-Sleek Attractive Design

-Great Array of Optional Attachments

-meat grinder

-juicer

-citrus juicer

-grain mill

-potato peeler

-pasta maker

-sausage stuffer

-food processor

-fruit strainer

-Easy to Use – attachments snap in and turn off with ease

-It has many speed variations (0-min, min to 6, and 6- max) with the pulse mode if you turn the knob the opposite direction. (not something I’ve seen on a Kitchen Aid).

Cons

-Can be a bit noisy – but not the high pitched screeching sound I hear from my mother’s Kitchen Aid, it’s more of a low rumble

-A bit big for a small kitchen

-Can be hard to find them for a good cheap price (check Kelectrics on ebay)

The Conclusion

This baby and I are going to grow old together. I’ve got all the attachments on my wish list and am waiting to save up and add them to my collection. I’ll be tossing out my other food processors and grinders and all that stuff just to keep it all on this one machine (terribly convenient). I feel really confident about my purchase, all the ratings on this machine are really positive, and after giving it a good run for my money, I’d have to say it lives up to it’s reviews.

I would definitely recommend this machine to anyone who needs the extra power for dough and large batches. She just won’t let you down.

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