Stand Mixer opinions

Benny,

I would say that the Ankarsrum sounds like it should fit your needs pretty well. My wife purchased one for me earlier this year, and I have loved it thus far. As with any tool, there is a learning curve. I'm benefitted by the fact that I was hand mixing all my dough prior to this mixer, so I didn't have to "unlearn" anything.

While my wife still prefers to use her Kitchen Aid (it's what she's always had), she has been able to use the Ankarsrum for cakes and cookies.

There could likely be others on here who would say a spiral mixer is the best tool for the job - and with bread dough I don't doubt they are right. However, I couldn't justify a unitasker of that financial (and counter space) magnitude since I don't bake professionally (at least not yet). I also wanted to be able to use if for things other than bread dough. For bread, though, I've had pretty good success with hydrations ranging from 60-82% thus far.

As with anything, it's not perfect. I would say the biggest drawback is that you need to use the smaller plastic bowl to use the whisk attachments. I'm also not sure if the bread hook is effective, as I've only used the roller and scraper to date. I keep most of the other attachments in the original box.

Lastly, while it has nothing at all to do with performance, I do like the look of the Ankarsrum. I also know I am not alone in that. I posted a picture of some bread dough I made over the weekend on social media, and my cousin messaged me saying that she thought my mixer looked "sexy." I told her I thought there was a country song some time ago about someone's tractor being sexy, but to each their own. Hahaha.

Here's a shot of a pizza dough I made for a party this summer. In total, it was 3700 grams, naturally leavened, with 68% hydration.

- Steve

Image

Ankarsrum is a perfect mixer, Benny. However, it is not designed to handle low hydration bread dough, for example, Montreal bagels dough which is really stiff and dry. For that I use food processor or just work it by hand using a rolling pin. However, it makes great pasta dough and pasta with its pasta attachment.

Otherwise, Ankarsrum will make you happy, I am sure. I am not using mine any more, it is too heavy bulky for me to take it out, to wash, to store it, but I have nothing bad to say about its performance as a mixer, or its looks. When I switched from KA to Ank I was in heaven and stayed there for years. I don't just love it, I am grateful that such a beautiful and reliable kitchen helper exists. I use it a lot to prepare meat pates and meat loaves as well. It mixes and whips ground meat preparations like God. Amazing.

For anyone who bakes more than one loaf of bread, wheat or rye, gluten or gluten free, it would be my mixer of choice.

If only they made a Ferrari red Italian double arm mixer for the home!

…several months back when I kneaded some Pan Gallego (basically a 100%+ hydration ciabatta) dough for over 30 minutes. Pretty sure I overheated the speed control board which I’m still trying to replace. I ordered the Ank, the next day after hand kneading (groan) a 2.5 kg batch of ciabatta that was already in flight when I killed the KitchenAid.

Anyway, I’m super happy with the Ank. I mostly use the dough hook for breads, though I have also used the roller with fine results. I like the way the dough hook allows me to observe the gluten as it develops. I find I have to do a a bit of dough herding with a silicon spatula early on when incorporating levain and poolish into liquid dough components, but it beats the manual bowl scraping I used to do with the KA. With the Ank I don’t think I’ve ever found hidden piles of dry flour which was why I was always scraping the KA bowl.

I also use the plastic bowl and whisk attachments for things like cheesecake, madeleines and wetter batters. My wife, who is a cookie ninja, really likes the mixer functions.

So the Ank requires a bit of mental retooling, but I think you’d find it a great addition to your batterie de cuisine.

Best always,

Phil

KitchenAid artisan stand mixers are really bread unfriendly.  They are under powered and not all that stable.  I gave mine away to a neighbor about 8 years ago and bought a Pro 610 when they were on sale.  I've not had any issues with it at all and do a lot of baking from bread to cakes to pastry and cookies.  The engine is robust and it's heavy enough so there is no vibration when it's mixing.  In short\, it never complains. 

I'll offer my 2-cents on my choice of mixer' It may not right for you, but it might be for others that happen to view this thread.

I have never used any KA model and only recently bought a small mixer, so I have no comparison. I had always mixed and kneaded by hand.

When my mixing shoulder started to give me problems last year, I decided it was time to get a mixer. I thought about a smaller KA, but even that seemed too heavy to lift to put away. I looked into the Bosch Compact and found it only weighed ≈5 kg; I could lift that with one arm, no problem.

So, I purchased one and have been pretty satisfied. It handles 1-kg WW doughs with no issues. With high% rye doughs, the dough hook can do some smearing to the bowl sides; I wish it had a flat paddle sometimes. It is a tilt head and the head will bob up and down a bit, but it hasn't tried to walk off the counter. I used it for a cookie dough, but have not yet used it for whipping cream or egg whites, or mixing a cake batter. It fits easily in a cabinet for storage.

It is a simple but powerful little mixer!

Is kneading by hand out of the question?  Keep the KA and knead bread by hand.  I do 900g flour weight loaves this way and enjoy it.  

I am happy with it overall. It is light weight and powerful with the dough hook as well as versatile with the cookie paddles and wire whisk. Mine is white plastic but the newer versions have colors and a stainless steel bowl.  Not sure if this is the model you have ruled out for appearance sake. It seems to me it is low friction with dough temps topping out around 80F but works best with interval kneading. The dough develops in half the time of a KA. It really does a great job of incorporating additional water(bassinage) which I hear the Ank does not but that is hearsay because I have never used one. All mixers have a learning curve so keep that in mind with whatever you chose. 
Don

Hi Benny. I don’t want to dissuade you from replacing your KA as it sounds like you really want something else but your kneading will be a lot more satisfying if you lock the kA Artisan head when you knead. That will eliminate the bounce and upper body exercise to control that bounce. 

I've had one since 2014, maybe longer. I too have a small kitchen and low overhead space. Mine is used almost exclusively for bread and I find it versatile enough for doughs such as the enriched and fine-crumbed products you cited above, but also for doughs that I have historically hand-mixed. Sometimes the arthritis in my hands simply won't allow me to hand mix a dough, and I find that the Ankarsrum emulates hand mixing very well, without oxidation concerns. 

I never had any more of a problem doing a bassinage with this mixer than with any other one, but things can get pretty slippery if you add too much water all at once. Just add the water in very small increments and do it slowly so the dough doesn't lose all its grip. If the dough gets too slippery, just give it a few seconds or a minute to catch up. 

There's a lot to love about the Ankarsrum, but the whisk set is its Achilles heel for sure. When my machine was still new, some of the teeth were shorn off the plastic cogs by a batter that could only be described as resinous (long story, haha!). I purchased a replacement set (not inexpensive) and have been more careful since then about what I put in it. Never had another problem with it, but I don't give it much of a work out either.

The bottom-heavy Ank is not prone to wandering, but it can happen if its little rubber shoes (or the counter) are floury. Don't put the bowl lid in the dishwasher or let it get too close to anything hot. It melts surprisingly easily. Outside of that, cleaning the Ankarsrum is almost too easy. Finally, it will look sleek and handsome on your counter. Visitors never fail to ask about mine and proclaim their love for it.  Hope this helps. Good luck and enjoy whatever you decide on.