“College bred is a four year loaf, using dad's dough, coming out half baked, with a lot of crust.”
I have an old Braun machine mixer that's on it's last leg, hanging on by it's toes actually, which I will have to replace soon. They haven't made that thing for years already so I've been looking elsewhere. My son purchased a Red Kitchenaid Stand Mixer
and he swears by it. So I thought I'd look into it for myself since he's not to keen to let dear old dad use his mixer, did my due diligence and this is what I found about the Kitchenaid Artisan 5 qt Mixer.
Appearance
She's a beauty. The sleek, shiny metallic chrome sits pretty in any kitchen decor. There's Candy Apple Red, Empire Red, Metallic Chrome, Tangerine, Ice, Onyx Black, Cornflower Blue, Majestic Yellow, Green Apple, White, Bay Leaf, Gloss Cinnamon. I'm partial to the candy apple red. It's the color of the sports car of my dreams.
The Bowl
I like the way they shaped the handle on the bowl. It is contoured to fit the hand which makes lifting the bowl more comfortable. I hate making a mess on my counter when I'm mixing stuff so I appreciate the pouring shield on the bowl that prevents splash over when mixing flour into the batter. It has a chute to make adding ingredients a breeze. What I really like is the tilt back head feature that make is easy to get to the beaters to change them or to add more ingredients.
Weight
“She's” don't like to talk about weight but this one's OK with it. She weighs 26 pounds or 11.8 kg. That's like the weight of 2 bowling balls for Saturday night's tournament. With that kind of weight you probably won't wipe it down and set back into the kitchen cabinets. But you won't want to because her appearance makes a great impression on your counter top. You can also purchase a cover for her but who wants to cover up her good looking features.
Size
This unit measures 14” high by 8-2/3” wide by 14” long or 41.4 cm x 27.9 cm x 41.4 cm. It fits nicely under the upper unit of your kitchen counter top.
Power
This mixer is a powerhouse of 325 watts of raw horse power and ten speeds that make kneading large batches of dough, creaming butter or whipping cream a breeze. The speeds range from stir to high. It spins the beater clockwise as the shaft spins counter clockwise all the while moving the beater to 67 different points around the bowl. This makes for a thorough mixing of the ingredients and eliminates the need to rotate the bowl.
Beaters
Like a well dress lady this machine is accessorized to add to its functionality. It comes with 3 standard beaters that will beat or virtually everything you will ever need.
* It has a flat beater for mixing cake batters and cookie dough quickly and thoroughly to mixing meat loaf and every texture in between;
* a wire beater that makes mountains out of egg whites and infuses air into the batter for fluffier whip cream cream and angel food cake for those special occasions;
* a dough hook for mixing and kneading batches of yeast dough for breads and donuts. This sure beats doing it by hand. But doing it that way was a good workout.
I've used some mixers where attaching a different beater was a challenge. Not here. The beaters easily snap into place without having to push or twist hard to get them to stay.
Other Kitchen Aid Stand Attachments
You can greatly expand the versatility of this mixer with a few additions. Accessorise it with attachments like
* An ice cream maker
that makes up to 2 quarts of delicious home made ice cream* Or a food grinder
* Or a can opener
* Or a ravioli maker
* Or a pasta roller for pasta and works well rolling fondant for cake decorating.
Here's what a few users said about the unit. (There are over 1700 reviews for this mixer.)
"It is simple to lock in the mixing bowl and it is also a breeze to clean. The different attachments are very easy to attach and remove. It would be impossible not to love it! Did I mention how easy the clean up is? I love it so much I bought the KitchenAid quilted cover for it. Once you use this mixer you will never want to use anything else! The Best!!!"
"I have wanted a Kitchen Aid for years, and finally purchased one. I am thrilled at how well it performs - exceeded my expectations."
"Add your ingredients, turn it on and it does the rest!"
Here's what one user reported about the quality of customer service
"My mixer was working reasonably well until I accidentally flipped the speed too high while mixing dough. Even though it was for a split-second, it caused some gear or bearing to break, so that it didn't work properly any more. I called KitchenAid customer support to find out how much it would cost me to have it repaired--after all, it was used, and it broke probably due to my misuse, not because of a manufacturing defect. I didn't hide any of the details of my use of the mixer, or that it was old and was a gift. Instead, KitchenAid sent me a brand new replacement mixer (same color), and it arrived within a week. They are paying for the return shipping on the old unit. They took some time to explain proper usage of the unit when making bread dough (five to six minutes maximum mixing time), but I didn't feel they were trying to blame me, just educate me on proper use. I'm blown away by that kind of customer care--they clearly want to make their customers happy and prove that they make quality equipment. And they've earned my brand loyalty because of this."
Possible problem with the mixer
A few people reported that the beater did not go down the bottom of the bowl resulting in unmixed batter in the bottom. That is easily remedied. There is a beater adjustment screw on the mixer. The manual has detailed instructions how to make a simple adjustment that will raise or lower the beater to the right spot. The perfect height for the beater to be raised above the bottom of the bowl is the thickness of a dime. So here's what you do. Simply place a dime in the bowl, adjust the beater height screw, turn on the beater. The beater should just touch the dime enough to move it about ¼ to ½ inch at each rotation of the bowl. You don't want the beat touching the bowl which over time causes wear on the beater and on the bowl.
This Kitchenaid Artisan 5qt Stand Mixer
will be a great addition to my kitchen. Maybe my wife will get it for me as a gift. If not, then maybe a candy apple red sports car
. We'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment