Gabby wrote:
> "l, not -l" wrote:
>> Gabby wrote:
>>
>>> I mostly want it for small batches of bread since arthritis is making
>>> kneading a bit difficult.
>>
>>> Opinions?
>>
>> For your stated primary purpose, a $50 bread machine would be a better
>> choice; better yet, a $10 yard-sale bread machine. They do a great job
>> kneading small batches of dough; I have used my 20 year-old Breadman mostly
>> for kneading, rather than full-cycle bread making, for the past 7-8 years
>> and reserve the Kitchenaid for other tasks.
>>
>> I already have a breadmaker but my recipes for regular bread call for
>> at lest twice as much flour& liquid as a bread maker usually
>> handles. The KA would of course be used for other things.
>
>This is a piece of information you did not provide before.
>
>A Kitchenaid will NOT knead recipes that a bread machine can't handle.
>Not no way, not no how. My Zojirushi will merrily knead dough that
>brings my Kitchenaid to a screeching halt.

ABMs much more closely replicate the kneading action of the human hand
(nothing can knead dough better than the human hand). The dough hook
is probably the very worst implement for kneading dough, in fact it
can't knead dough. Most commercial bakeries today, that can afford
the price, use dough kneading machines, not dough hooks. A dough hook
is a very inexpensive implement compared with the cost of a dough
kneading machine.

Gabby specifically says, due to her arthritis she wants a machine to
knead small batches... the ABM is perfect. The typical home stand
mixer can handle only relatively small amounts of dough anyway, no
more than the average person can easily knead by hand... and for
heavier doughs like for pizza the typical home stand mixer can't
handle more than an ABM.

As I've said many times, unless one is handicapped, there is no
benefit whatsoever to having a KA type stand mixer in the home
kitchen, its capacity is too small to be of any benefit... for the
ordinary beating/whipping one usually does a quality hand mixer will
do just as well, will cost far less, and can be hidden out of sight in
a cupboard... which comes to the real reason folks yearn for KA stand
mixers; to display them as a totem that they can cook. In my
experience folks who display their designer kitchenware can't cook a
lick, they're all show and no go. I know folks who have mega bucks
designer kitchens appointed with every high end item imaginable, but
when they have company they order from a local restaurant or call a
catering service... or more usually they just go out to eat.... their
designer kitchen is a fraud. Better than 95% of the KA stand mixers
sit on counters doing nothing but collecting dust, not hardly used to
mash spuds (a mixer can't mash anyway), nowadays when most folks talk
mashed taters they mean dehys outta a box... better than 95% of folks
haven't peeled a spud in a year.