Thanks for for doing the research. I replaced my Kitchen Aid with Ankarsrum. Love the larger capacity, however there is a learning curve. Looking forward to your part 2. I still haven’t completely figured out which is better for kneading- the roller or the hook.
Same, especially with low hydration dough. I have a very wet family Swedish Rye recipe that really taxes my KA 600 Pro but it's a breeze with the Ank and roller.
Great post! I was told that I’d kill my KA while writing my bagel book. You know that’s a seriously stiff dough and my recipe requires 6 minutes of machine kneading on 4. I’ll admit my KAs sometimes squeal, but BOTH of my KA Pro mixers survived that year. I alternated using them so one could cool down while I made another batch in the other. I still expect both will expire at which time I’ll buy the Ankarsrum.
I should add "Alternate between two mixers to allow them to cool down between uses." to my tips list! Mine makes odd noises sometimes, and I have no idea if that is a sign it is failing or just "normal" use lol
I enjoyed this article and look. Forward to the next chapter. I hope you are going to include the Bosch Universal Plus in your article...with the stainless steel bowl that has the dough hook on the bottom and which gives free access to the bowl from above as there is nothing but a bowl cover on top (as the hook attaches to the bottom of the bowl). It’s a big bowl with large capacity and supposedly a great motor. People seem to consider this as an alternative when also considering an Ank. I would be interested in hearing your take on this machine.
FWIW, I've totally abused my KitchenAid for years - done quite a few batches of panettone dough in there which I've mixed on quite a high speed for at least 15 if not 20-25 minutes... and also done low hydration bagel dough a few times. I've had it for about 5 years and it's still going strong (although I'd love to replace it with a Wilfa Probaker in a heartbeat)
I believe it's the 5KSM125, which i think is one of the most basic models they sell. I'm based in the UK, not sure if that makes a difference... I also use an aftermarket spiral dough hook I found on ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/1170379832
Love this post! I do a lot of fairly intense bread mixing with my KA (usually on speed 2 or 3 out of 10) and started adding a 5-10 minute rest period maybe a year or so ago. Definitely hasn’t harmed the bread. I’m pretty sure older manuals had a “don’t mix over speed 2” instruction too -- one of my bread heroes references that in this post from 2010: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20669/sourdough-pan-de-mie-how-make-quotshreddablyquot-soft-bread.
My mixer has survived all the punishing doughs so far but if I do ever get another mixer in the future, I’ll definitely be looking at spirals!
When I graduated from pastry school, I was gifted a KA Professional 600. It gave up after 16 years. It made concerning noises on low speed toward the end of its life. I only bake bread a few times a year, and it's not unusual for me to use speed 4 for 8-10 minutes when I do. But we beat on that mixer baking 3,000 Christmas cookies every one of those years (we give platters of them for gifts). I think stiff cookie doughs are just as challenging to a mixer as bread dough is. We were mixing the last recipe of last year's bake when the spinning head (you attach the paddle to it) stopped, made awful grinding noises, then broke off and fell into the bowl! Luckily, our neighbor loaned us his that allowed us to finish. I felt the cost of shipping it back and forth and the repairs wasn't good use of money. We bought a refurbished 600 from the KA website for a bargain $250. You can still buy them there. I think they made some improvements over my last one--the motor runs more smoothly and with much less noise.
I was so shocked when I got my new mixer and it said to only do dough on low and 2 minutes. Which does...nothing much. So I’ve been ignoring the guidance and so far so good. But I bake bread sporadically.
I’ve been annoyed that this model’s paddle chips terribly. I finally called customer service, naively thinking they’d say “oh no! How awful! We’ll send you a new paddle!”
Their answer was: it’s to be expected you can order a new one. I expressed my disappointment--and my concern that my family’s clearly been eating enamel bits. “Ma’am, rest assured, it’s food safe enamel.”
LOVE this post Andrew. I started with a KA Artisan mixer, then gave it to a friend so I could upgrade to one of the KA bowl-lift models. I hate the thing. If it breaks I'm replacing it with an Ankarsrum or something similar. Looking forward to part 2 of the series.
In the old days of Hobart Kitchen-aid mixers they were built like the original Hobart professional mixers which meant that the mixer ran at a constant motor speed and the mixing speed was controlled by gears. One actually shifted gears to go from one mixing speed to another. And the gears were metal. Tough workhorse machines. At some point home mixers became a separate business line and the machines changed. Instead of being geared machines the new ones have a single plastic gear and adjust mixing speeds by adjusting motor speeds. This is why they generate so much heat and are prone to breaking down.
And, BTW, I use mine in a new modern apartment with electrical safety features and if the mixer strains at all it will generate enough resistance to throw the breaker on the electrical circuit. KA’s are pieces of appliance shit.
Excellent post Andrew. When I began baking bread, I first switched to a Bosch and then an Ankarsrum. I love the Ankarsrum and endorse it for any home baker.
Late to the game here but I have a Sunmix 6 and I really love it! It doesn't help on the price point, I think they're similarly priced to a FAMAG IM-5 or more expensive. But the build quality feels great, and the nonremovable bowl, though annoying for cleaning (but managable), means it feels like there is very little that will wobble or break over its lifetime. https://www.pizzagoods.com/small-line-mixers
The kneading of a bread dough with the dough hook simply doesn't work. The dough hook never kneads the whole dough, it always just "kneads" the part of the dough in the middle. Then I have to push the dough from the sides into the middle, start the machine again and after not even one minute stop the machine again and so on. Yesterdays bread was started with 25% less water than the recipe asked for - and this still didn't work. My old machine -4,8L - HEAVY DUTY 5KPM5 - bought in 1994 never gave me such head aches. AND I also never followed any 2 minute kneading advise. This machine still kneads and kneads - just not in my household anymore. Bread bakers, do not buy the 6,9 l professional!
I have a KitchenAid Heavy Duty stand mixer with 325 w which I was given in 2000. The instructions also say use 2 speed. No max time is given, but in all the recipes use 2 minute increments.
There is another problem KA had, at least when my family gave me my mixer. The mixer said it was rated to handle "9 cups of flour". It started to overflow with my challah recipe at about half that. KA's response was that 9 cups meant 9 cups of flour ONLY. That was kind of ridiculous.
I make a couple of bread recipes in my KA but most just overflow the 5 quart bowl. The Ank is supposed to handle much larger batches of dough and I'd like to try it but it is also pretty spendy. Of the three recipes I make the most the smallest, my sandwich bread, is still about five or six pounds of dough and that's too big.
My KA tilt mixer was a wedding present in 2010, but I didn’t seriously use it until I began my bread baking journey in 2017. In 2019 I found the manual and my type A rule following brain almost broke with terror upon reading the “speed 2” instruction. I watch it so closely when kneading now. Oh, and I make mostly no knead recipes. Someday I’m going to be very grateful for my engineer husband, because I just assume we’re going to need that gear replacement. Thank you for sharing your work on this Andrew!!!
Really enjoyed reading this post! Thank you for doing the research. I have KA Pro but I've been thinking of switching to Ank for a few years now. I hope in your next post you will talk about Ank and how it handles small batches of dough e.g cookies, 2 egg whites etc. Thank you!
Thanks for for doing the research. I replaced my Kitchen Aid with Ankarsrum. Love the larger capacity, however there is a learning curve. Looking forward to your part 2. I still haven’t completely figured out which is better for kneading- the roller or the hook.
Same, especially with low hydration dough. I have a very wet family Swedish Rye recipe that really taxes my KA 600 Pro but it's a breeze with the Ank and roller.
I've been thinking of replacing my KA with Ankarsrum too. How does it work with small amount of dough or just 2 egg whites?
stay tuned for next week's post!
Great post! I was told that I’d kill my KA while writing my bagel book. You know that’s a seriously stiff dough and my recipe requires 6 minutes of machine kneading on 4. I’ll admit my KAs sometimes squeal, but BOTH of my KA Pro mixers survived that year. I alternated using them so one could cool down while I made another batch in the other. I still expect both will expire at which time I’ll buy the Ankarsrum.
I should add "Alternate between two mixers to allow them to cool down between uses." to my tips list! Mine makes odd noises sometimes, and I have no idea if that is a sign it is failing or just "normal" use lol
I enjoyed this article and look. Forward to the next chapter. I hope you are going to include the Bosch Universal Plus in your article...with the stainless steel bowl that has the dough hook on the bottom and which gives free access to the bowl from above as there is nothing but a bowl cover on top (as the hook attaches to the bottom of the bowl). It’s a big bowl with large capacity and supposedly a great motor. People seem to consider this as an alternative when also considering an Ank. I would be interested in hearing your take on this machine.
FWIW, I've totally abused my KitchenAid for years - done quite a few batches of panettone dough in there which I've mixed on quite a high speed for at least 15 if not 20-25 minutes... and also done low hydration bagel dough a few times. I've had it for about 5 years and it's still going strong (although I'd love to replace it with a Wilfa Probaker in a heartbeat)
Which one, Sam? I'm curious to learn how many people's KAs have died and what models they were.
I believe it's the 5KSM125, which i think is one of the most basic models they sell. I'm based in the UK, not sure if that makes a difference... I also use an aftermarket spiral dough hook I found on ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/1170379832
also I say it's still going strong - the head bounces around quite a lot when kneading dough, not sure if that's entirely normal 😅
Love this post! I do a lot of fairly intense bread mixing with my KA (usually on speed 2 or 3 out of 10) and started adding a 5-10 minute rest period maybe a year or so ago. Definitely hasn’t harmed the bread. I’m pretty sure older manuals had a “don’t mix over speed 2” instruction too -- one of my bread heroes references that in this post from 2010: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20669/sourdough-pan-de-mie-how-make-quotshreddablyquot-soft-bread.
My mixer has survived all the punishing doughs so far but if I do ever get another mixer in the future, I’ll definitely be looking at spirals!
When I graduated from pastry school, I was gifted a KA Professional 600. It gave up after 16 years. It made concerning noises on low speed toward the end of its life. I only bake bread a few times a year, and it's not unusual for me to use speed 4 for 8-10 minutes when I do. But we beat on that mixer baking 3,000 Christmas cookies every one of those years (we give platters of them for gifts). I think stiff cookie doughs are just as challenging to a mixer as bread dough is. We were mixing the last recipe of last year's bake when the spinning head (you attach the paddle to it) stopped, made awful grinding noises, then broke off and fell into the bowl! Luckily, our neighbor loaned us his that allowed us to finish. I felt the cost of shipping it back and forth and the repairs wasn't good use of money. We bought a refurbished 600 from the KA website for a bargain $250. You can still buy them there. I think they made some improvements over my last one--the motor runs more smoothly and with much less noise.
I was so shocked when I got my new mixer and it said to only do dough on low and 2 minutes. Which does...nothing much. So I’ve been ignoring the guidance and so far so good. But I bake bread sporadically.
I’ve been annoyed that this model’s paddle chips terribly. I finally called customer service, naively thinking they’d say “oh no! How awful! We’ll send you a new paddle!”
Their answer was: it’s to be expected you can order a new one. I expressed my disappointment--and my concern that my family’s clearly been eating enamel bits. “Ma’am, rest assured, it’s food safe enamel.”
😳🤯
LOVE this post Andrew. I started with a KA Artisan mixer, then gave it to a friend so I could upgrade to one of the KA bowl-lift models. I hate the thing. If it breaks I'm replacing it with an Ankarsrum or something similar. Looking forward to part 2 of the series.
In the old days of Hobart Kitchen-aid mixers they were built like the original Hobart professional mixers which meant that the mixer ran at a constant motor speed and the mixing speed was controlled by gears. One actually shifted gears to go from one mixing speed to another. And the gears were metal. Tough workhorse machines. At some point home mixers became a separate business line and the machines changed. Instead of being geared machines the new ones have a single plastic gear and adjust mixing speeds by adjusting motor speeds. This is why they generate so much heat and are prone to breaking down.
And, BTW, I use mine in a new modern apartment with electrical safety features and if the mixer strains at all it will generate enough resistance to throw the breaker on the electrical circuit. KA’s are pieces of appliance shit.
Excellent post Andrew. When I began baking bread, I first switched to a Bosch and then an Ankarsrum. I love the Ankarsrum and endorse it for any home baker.
The FAMAG IM-5 isn't the only game in town for tabletop spiral mixers anymore. VEVOR has a private label Chinese mixer currently selling for only $515: https://www.vevor.com/commercial-mixers-c_10669/vevor-commercial-dough-food-mixer-spiral-dough-mixer-w-7-3qt-bowl-p_010396288289
There are many other models of Chinese tabletop mixers...hopefully they will find distribution in the USA in the near future.
I forgot about this, Allen, good point. Will discuss next week. I take it you (still) like yours?
Yes, still a big fan. You can see my detailed comments about it in the comments section towards the bottom of that page.
Are they building these under license? Otherwise i’d worry they could get sued by Famag..
Late to the game here but I have a Sunmix 6 and I really love it! It doesn't help on the price point, I think they're similarly priced to a FAMAG IM-5 or more expensive. But the build quality feels great, and the nonremovable bowl, though annoying for cleaning (but managable), means it feels like there is very little that will wobble or break over its lifetime. https://www.pizzagoods.com/small-line-mixers
I have this one:
6,9L - ARTISAN 5KSM7580X and I HATE IT!!!!!
The kneading of a bread dough with the dough hook simply doesn't work. The dough hook never kneads the whole dough, it always just "kneads" the part of the dough in the middle. Then I have to push the dough from the sides into the middle, start the machine again and after not even one minute stop the machine again and so on. Yesterdays bread was started with 25% less water than the recipe asked for - and this still didn't work. My old machine -4,8L - HEAVY DUTY 5KPM5 - bought in 1994 never gave me such head aches. AND I also never followed any 2 minute kneading advise. This machine still kneads and kneads - just not in my household anymore. Bread bakers, do not buy the 6,9 l professional!
I have a KitchenAid Heavy Duty stand mixer with 325 w which I was given in 2000. The instructions also say use 2 speed. No max time is given, but in all the recipes use 2 minute increments.
So I'm slowly killing my KA??? It's good that I don't make Japanese milk bread often, I've let it run for 12 full minutes!! 😬
Thanks. Great article!
There is another problem KA had, at least when my family gave me my mixer. The mixer said it was rated to handle "9 cups of flour". It started to overflow with my challah recipe at about half that. KA's response was that 9 cups meant 9 cups of flour ONLY. That was kind of ridiculous.
I make a couple of bread recipes in my KA but most just overflow the 5 quart bowl. The Ank is supposed to handle much larger batches of dough and I'd like to try it but it is also pretty spendy. Of the three recipes I make the most the smallest, my sandwich bread, is still about five or six pounds of dough and that's too big.
My KA tilt mixer was a wedding present in 2010, but I didn’t seriously use it until I began my bread baking journey in 2017. In 2019 I found the manual and my type A rule following brain almost broke with terror upon reading the “speed 2” instruction. I watch it so closely when kneading now. Oh, and I make mostly no knead recipes. Someday I’m going to be very grateful for my engineer husband, because I just assume we’re going to need that gear replacement. Thank you for sharing your work on this Andrew!!!
Really enjoyed reading this post! Thank you for doing the research. I have KA Pro but I've been thinking of switching to Ank for a few years now. I hope in your next post you will talk about Ank and how it handles small batches of dough e.g cookies, 2 egg whites etc. Thank you!