best mixer??? | Imamother

Raisin

Tue, Jan 27 2015, 6:29 am

my magic mill doesn't jump around. Only chisaron is it is not as good looking as some other mixers so I would not leave out on the counter.

KollelWife3

Tue, Jan 27 2015, 7:36 am

Love my Bosch. It's been baking challos religiously (excuse the pun) for many years. Never had an issue.

Hashem_Yaazor

Tue, Jan 27 2015, 7:54 am

The 7 qt came out 2 years ago, and I'm not mixing up or confused. I know I had the 6 qt professional which was the best at the time, but the motor was not strong enough. I see they increased the HP somewhat, but the limit it gives is 16 C of flour, while the Bosch gives an 18 C limit.
The KA spins from the top instead of the bottom, and that makes it work harder on heavy bread doughs. There is also the issue of the dough climbing up and touching the head which I found sometimes has black grease. In mixers where the motor and attachments are on the bottom, you don't have the same problem.

If you get a mixer from BBB, they will stand behind it, no matter what happens.

amother

Tue, Jan 27 2015, 8:14 am

The Bosch machine got so much lighter makes awesome Challos cakes etc. You don't need a separate blender they last many years

amother

Tue, Jan 27 2015, 8:54 am

I have the Bosch and when I make challah with one bag of flour that's 8 and a half cups the flour spills all over unless I hold down the cover tightly. Also the mixer jumps all over the counter so I have to stand there the whole time to make sure it doesn't fall off the counter. 16 cups of flour to me is a lot of flour in one bowl I can't imagine ever needing more than that that's twenty pounds of flour who makes so much challah.

alef12

Tue, Jan 27 2015, 9:00 am

I make bread ALL the time (not just challah ) and I love my Magic Mill. Yes, it took a few minutes to figure it out the first time (years and years ago) because the way it works is very different from other home mixers, but that is not a reason to not get it. It is the best home machine for kneading dough by far. It doesn't heat up the dough when kneading which is VERY important especially in Artisan Bread making. It also does a very good job of making a smooth dough. It handles all different textures of dough from ciabatta (very wet) to bagel (very stiff ). I have used a kitchen aid and Bosch and like my Magic Mill the best. (I have a small kitchen aid I take out when I want to make cake or cookies) It's only drawback is that I don't like it for very small quantities of dough (like one small loaf) but I use my Zorijushi bread machine (for mixing and kneading) for that.

amother

Tue, Jan 27 2015, 9:04 am

amother wrote:

16 cups of flour is approximately 5 lbs of flour (look it up!)

sitting

Tue, Jan 27 2015, 9:06 am

So glad u clarified that I thought we were consuming tons!!! I make 2 bags of flours....about 16 cups....turn some into cinamon buns and choc bread for kids or make challahs for the freezer. My bosch does it all. I need to put both lids on (inner and outer) to prevent movement. Its usually ok but I wld never leave the room. I stand near it while it mixes for 10 min

Hashem_Yaazor

Tue, Jan 27 2015, 9:33 am

A bag of flour may == 1 kilo which is less than half a 5 lb bag common in the US.

nylon

Wed, Jan 28 2015, 4:27 am

HY is right about the KitchenAid--and I have one that I really like, so I should know. One correction though: Wattage doesn't mean much; that's input. What matters is output--horsepower. Also, KitchenAid is overly generous in its "flour power" estimates. My 6qt claims to handle 14 cups of flour and I would never try it.

I will repeat the advice I have given many times:

If you make a lot of cakes, foams, creamed mixtures, small batch bread baking: Buy a kitchenAid. The planetary action design is superior for a mixture that you want to form in the center of the bowl. Planetary action is not inherently bad for bread making. It is what is used in commercial mixers. The problem is that the home KitchenAid is just not powerful enough.

If you are buying a mixer to make large batch challah, you should buy a Bosch or Magic Mill.

The 7qt mixer is more powerful and has a larger bowl and may be my next mixer but it still won't make a large batch of challah for the bracha. You'd have to knead in 2 batches.

Most home bakers are using 2-3 lbs of flour max, even people who bake a lot. KitchenAid assumes people who want to bake more than that are doing it commercially and they don't rate their machines for commercial use.

Raisin

Wed, Jan 28 2015, 5:02 am

I'm not sure why people don't like magic mill for cake? It comes with a great bowl and attachment for egg beating and does a good job mixing cakes - I use the dough hook however since it does a better job then the cake attachment. Its cumbersome but I take it out thursday night and make my cake and challa and it goes back before shabbos. I can also triple recipes quite easily since it is so big.

I would never want two machines, one is plenty and Magic mill does both well.

ImaCohen4

Wed, Jan 28 2015, 5:48 am

Wanting more than one stand mixer is different than being required to have more than one. My Dh is machpid that should we be able to have two in order to separate fleishig and milchig we should do that as it is better. Simply having 2 bowls and beaters was not his comfort level. I actually ended up with 3 because we discovered that the Kitchenaid was unable to handle the dbl batch of challos for the bracha and he bought me the Bosch as a gift. I used to knead by hand for years but due to health issues we needed to invest in a stand mixer.

amother

Wed, Jan 28 2015, 6:05 am

Everyone is talking about the six quart kitchen aid. Yes that one couldn't handle five pounds of flour. But now they came out with a seven quart mixer and they even came out with an eight quart mixer. Both mixers have stronger motors and horsepower than the six quart look it up for yourself.

ImaCohen4

Wed, Jan 28 2015, 6:07 am

I have the 7 quart Kitchenaid mixer.

amother

Wed, Jan 28 2015, 6:09 am

Anyone have the 8 quart

amother

Wed, Jan 28 2015, 6:17 am

For milchigs cheese cake etc. have a hand mixer so small easy to store. You have to hold it for about 2-3 minutes.

Hashem_Yaazor

Wed, Jan 28 2015, 7:33 am

FWIW, I just searched for the horsepower on the Bosch, and I found it listed as 1.07. The larger KA has 1.3 but reviews state that not all that power is given to the mixing arm, only about a third of it. I'm not sure what it means, but it is what I thought, that the motor on bottom gives more power for heavy dough mixing.

People who have used it intensively seem to have issues:

"However I really bought it for kneading bread dough and I can see that it is not the 'pro' or as 'powerful' it is touted to be. There are explicit warnings not to use it higher than speed #2 yet I can see it going nowhere to a finished correctly kneaded dough at #2 even with 5-6 cups of flour. or maybe it would have taken 20-25mins? I didn't try that long. Rose Levy Beranbaum openly instructs in many of bread recipes to use a KA at #4 and even #6 for both paddle and dough hook for extended periods of time until the dough comes together. Well, why would she do that? I tried #4. At speed #4 there is a constant clicking, clacking sound. Its not the motor but some part hitting against another part at the higher speed. And it does begin to heat up after 10-12 mins of kneading. If it does this while brand new it is going to wear out sooner rather than later if I use it regularly for kneading (which I want to do!) I don't think I have a lemon. I think the mixer works very well but its not as powerful as I was led to believe. And upon reading the reviews more closely many people have heard the clicking which gives them pause. I think it will be inadequate for kneading whole wheat, whole grain doughs or big batches of dough. I think there are ways to work around these limitations in power, more autolysing, stopping the kneading periodically and resuming after 5-10mins of resting both machine and dough. But I don't want to, I just wanted a simple strong mixer for when I just wanted to get some kneading done quickly! Maybe my expectations are inappropriate for this type of mixer?"

I really have no vested interest in what someone gets, so I don't know why I keep on harping on this. I just think it's a whole heck of a lot of money for a lot of possible heartache, like I had. (Don't get me wrong, the KA is great for other baking, but since challah is my main intensive work, I wanted a machine better for that.)

And others have the black grease issue I had. Really, really gross.

(For the person looking at the 8 qt, it's the same motor as the 7 qt, just a bigger bowl. It doesn't have more horsepower.)

Raisin

Wed, Jan 28 2015, 8:30 am

HY I have had none of those issues with the magic mill. I've made a 5lb batch of dough weekly for many years (10?), plus often a batch of cookies or cake. It never heats up even when using for ten or more minutes at a time.

I do need to replace the knobs, one has worn out and I lost a non essential but helpful part which I need replacing.

sourstix

Wed, Jan 28 2015, 8:41 am

raisin- about 3-4 yrs a go I was looking to buy the magic mill, and dh gave one look, and asked me how in the world to use it? I had no idea I was actually looking at a friend of mines and we just gave up and got the bosch. I went to youtube to see any tutorials but I couldnt find anything, someone mentioned that I need to learn how to use the machine that someone from the company would do that. I guess it wasnt bashert at that point but is this true? how did you figure it out?

Raisin

Wed, Jan 28 2015, 8:44 am

sourstix wrote:

I don't remember having an issue. It came with a book. Its not that complicated to use.