Kitchenaid Stand Mixers

[Lindacakes]

The pasta roller is superb. Very well made and does an excellent job. It will roll any dough you want -- such as cannoli dough.

I was going to say dog biscuits, too, but I'll add this: if you want to make your own paper, it makes an excellent beater.

[Edward J]

Have and use the panning attachment for the K.A (Got mine from D+R in Montreal)I pann chocolate coated hazelnuts with it, but you need cold air for this. One method I use in the summer is to stuff the entire K.A.--panning ball and all--into my reach-in fridge and pann that way, during the colder months I use the common (unheated) corridor outside of my suite to pan as well.

The meat grinder works O.K. Plastic will crack though, and the dishwasher seem to accelerate this process. My grinder looks like Frankenstein's bride with various cracks glued back shut with J & B weld and s/s hose clamps for good measure...

[Porthos]

I have the slicer/shredder attachment and prefer it over my food processor for shredding cheese.

[andiesenji]

I got the meat grinder for my 6-quart machine and it seized up the very first time I used it - I had difficulty getting it out of the machine and even clamped in a vise, I couldn't loosen the shaft. It went straight into the trash.

I have older KAs with the all metal (cast aluminum) meat grinders and they always worked just fine, even the ones made in the 1930s work well. The new ones are not worth the cost.

I didn't need it as I have a meat grinder but I wanted to try it.

[runwestierun]

I agree that the older model extruders were a bit whimpy, but I have the new (it's been out about a year) pasta press KA attachment and it works like a charm. It does exactly what it says it will do, and I love being able to make tubular pasta and spaghetti.

I also have the ravioli maker and that was hard to get to work. It took 2 trips back to Sur la Table to get a pasta recipe that would work--not be too sticky but still would adhere the top and bottom sheets of pasta. I like it now but the last time I looked at Amazon it was rated only one star. It's lame in that it doesn't use the KA motor in any way. You just fasten it onto the KA, which acts as a very expensive anchor.

I have the ice cream maker. It works well but the parts don't go together in an intuitive way, you should watch an instructional video online if you get one. I like that I don't have to store an extra small appliance to make ice cream. I just have the bowl in the freezer.

I have the pasta roller and cutter. The roller is the thing I use most unconventionally. Anything small you roll goes so fast--crackers, tartlet shells, canape shells, cookies. I have never had any trouble cleaning mine.

I hope you enjoy your machine. I am very attached to mine.

[SusanV.]

Ruth ~ I SO want that attachment so I can make enrobed nuts, etc. Let me know how you like it!

Edited September 23, 2010 by SusanV. (log)

[David A. Goldfarb]

If you can find the briefly manufactured DVSA attachment, it turns your mixer into a food processor as far as shredding and slicing (but not chopping) go. It takes the same discs as the KitchenAid 11-cup food processor, and for most things it cuts more cleanly than the rotary drum slicing and shredding attachment. The disc slicer is better for things like slicing cucumbers or shredding hard cheese, but the drum slicer is better for things like shredding a lot of cheddar or mozzarella cheese.

One of the more esoteric attachments is the pea sheller. You can find them on eBay sometimes.

[jsmeeker]

The KA meat grinder these days is plastic and a bit wimpy.

The German specialist manufacturer Jupiter offers a more serious bit of kit, in a version to fit the KA.

Yikes.. $150. I've wanted a grinder attachement for my KA. I know the KA branded one is wimpy. What else is out there besides this spendy German one?

[Kerry Beal]

Have and use the panning attachment for the K.A (Got mine from D+R in Montreal)I pann chocolate coated hazelnuts with it, but you need cold air for this. One method I use in the summer is to stuff the entire K.A.--panning ball and all--into my reach-in fridge and pann that way, during the colder months I use the common (unheated) corridor outside of my suite to pan as well.

The meat grinder works O.K. Plastic will crack though, and the dishwasher seem to accelerate this process. My grinder looks like Frankenstein's bride with various cracks glued back shut with J & B weld and s/s hose clamps for good measure...

The panning attachment I have is made by DeBuyer in France. It is really made to fit in a european mixer, so if you don't attach it to the right Kitchenaid it might just fall out and injure you.

I throw dry ice in with the nuts in the pan to get things cold. If they are getting too lumpy I remove a bit of the dry ice, if they are taking too long to dry and sticking together - I add a bit more.

Just bought a portable A/C unit so the hubby can adapt it to blow cold and warm air for the process.

[John Rosevear]

I don't bake much anymore (a celiac diagnosis will tend to have that effect) so mine mostly serves as a cheese grater these days, via the relevant KA attachment. It isn't an ideal cheese grater, but it's easier to clean than the Cuisinart if we're grating cheese in quantity, and I can't yet bear to just stop using the thing entirely.

I do have and occasionally use the KA meat grinder/sausage stuffer, but it is indeed wimpy.

[Pierogi]

Good to hear all the positives about the pasta roller attachment. I've been toying with the idea of buying one for some time now. I love making homemade pierogies at Christmas, and have been finding it harder and harder to roll the dough out lately, due to some physical issues. I've been thinking the pasta roller attachment would do the trick, since pierogi dough is essentially just an egg pasta dough, but have hesitated, well, just because. So it's nice to hear to many people say it works.

That said, I have the ice cream maker attachment, and LOVE IT. LOVE IT. LOVE IT. I use it constantly. And even my wimpy 5 quart model is a bread-making beast.

[Fat Guy]

I confess the following:

About 17 years ago we received as a wedding gift a KitchenAid stand mixer. I think it was whatever was the best model available at that time (KSM50P).

I have used it rarely, and rarely for its main purposes (for example, it works well with the grinder attachment when my friend brings that over). Most any time I think to use it, I resort instead to the food processor, blender, hand mixer (also KitchenAid brand) or bowl and spoon.

Yet, I still devote valuable counter real estate to the KitchenAid stand mixer. It's a thing of beauty and I just know that with a proper program of acculturation I'll get into using it.

Can you help me?

[peterm2]

Well, these days I find I use it most often as a meat grinder. But when I go through baking phases, it's the best thing I have for whipping those batters around. Especially when you fit it with one of those after-market beaters with the silicone scraping, it works particularly well and you don't have to continually scrape down the bowl, which you'd have to do with the regular beater as well as with a hand beater.

[thirtyoneknots]

I took the receiving of one as a wedding gift as an excuse to become a dedicated bread baker. As an inveterate bartender, savory cook, and jazz lover, the potential for improvisation in bread baking appeals to me in a way that pastry baking probably never will (though I can find that appealing in other ways at times). And when you get the hang of it, a KA mixer can help you whip up a badass loaf of sandwich bread in under 3 hours for maybe a dollar's worth of stuff.

[SylviaLovegren]

Bake more cakes.

Or make Greek kourambiedes. They are amazing if you beat the butter for 20 minutes or longer, like my husband's yiayia used to do (she did it without a mixer, of course).

[Darienne]

No I can't help at all because I do exactly the same things as you do, except that my mixer (Cuisinart) is in my studio and not taking up counter space. I was talking about that very issue this morning, wondering if I would use it more if it actually were in the kitchen.

[David A. Goldfarb]

One thing I like about the KitchenAid is that it has only one beater, so anything I could do with a whisk or a spoon and a bowl, I could do with the mixer (unless I want the specific control of beating by hand or to beat egg whites in a copper bowl, which I don't have for the KitchenAid), and it doesn't produce more dishes to wash or other complications.

Part of the reason I don't really feel compelled to own a food processor is that it doesn't make sense for small jobs without a dishwasher. I do have the discontinued attachment for my KitchenAid, though, that takes food processor disks for tasks that lend themselves to that treatment. I don't use it so often. Easier just to use a knife most of the time.

Bread is much less of a project with a stand mixer. Even if I don't have a starter going and just want to make a basic yeast bread, I can decide to do it just as easily as walking to one of the bakeries in my neighborhood. Then most of the work is just being around when it's time to punch it down, put it in the oven, and take it out. I'm not of the no-knead school.

[Wholemeal Crank]

My kitchenaid primarily is used for cakes and cookies--baked goods that require a lot of beating. I do breads in the food processor, and haven't generally been impressed by the functionality of the various attachments, although I recently pulled out the slicer to cut some vegetables for making stock--the food processor is a better cutter, but needs frequent emptying.

If I gave up cookies tomorrow (hell will freeze over first), I'd have very little use for mine.

[Lupinus]

I go through phases. When I get into my bread baking phases, it's wonderful. And the pasta roller attachment...without that I don't think I'd make hardly any home made pasta.

I'm on my second KitchenAid stand mixer. My first was the standard size tilt head model which I had for probably 9 or 10 years. It was a tank and was almost indestructible. It stood up to heavy home use, kneading way to much dough for the size of the bowl, being dropped on pavement from a moving truck, dropped down a flight of stairs landing on a sidewalk on another move, and who knows what abuses I've forgotten about. All with no more than a few scratches and the plastic knobs breaking off. It went strong right up to it died..and would probably still be going if I hadn't played my part in shorting it out. I now have one of the bowl lift models and seems to be just as tough as my previous one.

[RichP]

I keep mine under the counter on a shelf inside the island. And I still pull it out on a regular basis for all sorts of things because of its versatility and relative ease of clean up (particularly when compared with a food processor). Here are a few typical uses:

Dough Hook - easy fast pizza dough, 5 min prep +1hr rest (or in the fridge overnight if planning ahead), other breads, etc

Paddle - obvious baking uses, but also for mixing sausage (per Ruhlman/Polcyn)

Whisk - egg whites, whipped cream, homemade butter (aka a "whipped cream oops"). Hand mixers work here too, of course, but for things that take some time I prefer to let the KA do the work so I can multitask better.

And the grinder is my go-to play with the KA. Burgers, sausage, meatloaf, etc. Gives you control of texture, and confidence in the quality and handling safety of your food. And ground turkey never tasted so good.

[Boilerfood]

Mine is used for cookies, cakes, and the pasta attachment. When the planets align right and I decide to bake a loaf of bread, I also make that in the KitchenAid. I feel like growing up, Mom used it for a whole lot more.

[runwestierun]

I use mine with the dough hook most often for pizza dough and bao dough. Bao dough is so tough and the KA makes it so easy.

With the paddle I most often make quick breads, cookies, and cakes. I also love the after market silicone scrapy paddle. Cheesecake comes out so much better using that.

With the whisk I most often make egg whites, primarily for meringue or folding into waffles. I use the whisk alot for frosting, too.

I use the pasta roller the most of the attachments. I also regularly use the new pasta extruder. It's the only KA extruder attachment that works. I have many other attachments. I use the ice cream maker alot, but usually in spurts for some reason.

So often when a task could be done with a food processor or the KA, I would choose the KA because the bowl could go in the bottom basket of the dishwasher. The FP takes up half the room in the top basket and often it would already be full. That is really a big part of what pushed me towards using the KA so much.

[andiesenji]

I have one Kitchenaid 6qt in use at the moment. I recently gave away a 5-quart cobalt blue to a neighbor who lost hers in an accident.

(My vintage mixers are not used, although I do have "several" KAs among them)

I use the KA for cakes, some cookies - mostly for egg whites and etc., and I have the incredibly efficient Whisk-A-Bowl that does a terrific job on egg whites.

I don't have any attachments for the KA - I did try the meat grinder which seized up and the collar split the first time I tried it.

I actually have dedicated appliances for all that other stuff so don't need the attachments.

I have another mixer for bread dough.

The KA is fine for what it is. It doesn't have the guts of the old Hobart-made KAs but it is adequate for most home use. Today's prices are reasonable. My first one, purchased in 1967 cost $145.00 - at Fedco, at a discount.

[prasantrin]

There are really only two possibilities

1) Just start using it. No one here can help you do that.

2) If you bought it at Costco, just return it for a refund. They have a very liberal return policy, and people take advantage of it all the time.

[janeer]

The thing about the KA that you have to understand is that it is like an old friend, there when you need it. Mine is 36 yrs old. I have moved to the food processor for many tasks I used to do in the KA (pizza dough, pie pastry, cookie doughs), and I use it constantly. But for most cakes and buttercreams, whipped cream, and many breads, it is the only choice (aside from hand), to which I turn instinctively. and for pasta? Well, that gave my KA a new lease on life.