Tag: KitchenAid 7 Qt

First, we’ve had a Keurig coffee maker for a couple of years now. It died this past week. We didn’t do a rendition of Taps for it, but we certainly missed it. We tried to fall back to our previous coffee maker and had a bit of a time figuring out the right ratios of grinds-to-water. I’m pretty sure I’ve got extra hair in places I didn’t before. But more importantly, we realized a not-so obvious other benefit to the Keurig- we used less coffee grounds to make an acceptable cup of coffee. The Wife and I both noticed it this past week- when I mentioned it this morning the Wife concurred, replying “I thought I noticed the same thing, but thought it might just be me.” She went out an purchased a new Keurig today to replace it. They’ve made some changes, like getting rid of the charcoal filter in the water tank. Also, it appears our old Keurig had been dying a slow death because our first cups with the new one were noticeably hotter than what we’d been accustomed to. Definitely for the better.

I also wanted to pass along that I had to replace our Kitchenaid 7 Qt- yes, the one we’d just purchased in December. That clicking sound I described on numerous occasions only got worse. More recently, it had turned into a horrendous grinding noise when making the dough. It made it through it’s final bit of dough last night, but I couldn’t hold onto it any longer. It was only a matter of time before it gave out entirely. So I called Williams Sonoma and to my pleasant surprise, they said they’d take it back and exchange it for another one. I assume they handle returning the broken one to Kitchenaid. Naturally, mine was the first they’d had returned. Here’s hoping I don’t have to return this one.

Speaking of the last dough I made, I tried something a little different. Mom had mentioned how she’d seen a loaf of bread made on Food Network where they used ice water and refrigerated the dough. I’ve refrigerated dough, but never used iced water when making the dough. The idea is to extend the time for the yeast to fully develop by retarding its development with the cold, thereby improving the flavor of the bread. I’d never tried it, it sounded interesting so I gave it a shot. I can say that it does make for a nice loaf of dough, but the hard part is allowing enough time for the dough to properly warm up again. In reality, I probably should have given mine a lot longer to do so.

So I’ve made bagels as well as white bread and I’m primed to make some sourdough recipes as well now. I think there’s reason to be hopeful here.

The bagel recipe was a 9-cup recipe and I had the mixer work the dough for the better part of 15 minutes. It was a stiff dough as well, so it was a decent test. Heating up in the motor area wasn’t alarming, i.e. the unit wasn’t hot to the touch. I’m pretty sure the previous mixer would’ve shut down under those circumstances. I was never comfortable using it with more than 7 cups of flour, to be honest, even though it claimed it could handle 14 cups.

I’ve also made a couple more loaves of white bread with very good results. I typically knead my dough at speed 4 and the KA-7 handles the job with aplomb. The motor had no hesitation during start-up, even once the dough is pretty well developed. Also, there’s little evidence of strain as the dough hook moves through the dough, even when it wads up on the hook. Again, the Pro6 would exhibit obvious strain during at that point.

My only cause for concern is a “ticking” noise coming from the planetary once the dough starts coming together in the bowl. Interestingly, if I stop the machine and the restart it, the ticking goes away and does not return. I’ve got no idea what might be the cause of the sound, but it’s certainly not endemic to the unit.

All in all, I’m beginning to think the big test of the unit will be longevity, and only usage and time will tell that tale.

We should be good for some sourdough a little later this week. More then.

So, this past Monday I went to take a look at the relatively new KitchenAid 7 Qt Mixer. They’re only available at Williams Sonoma stores for the time being and we have one not too far away. The folks at the store were kind enough to pull out a unit they use for demonstration purposes and allowed me to play with it a bit. Unfortunately, it’s too new to know much about it and I couldn’t mix anything up with it. So seeing it in person is of little utility to rendering a judgement on it. Somewhat ironically, the salesperson helping me revealed she owns a Bosch Universal for her bread baking “kneads”- according to her the unit can handle 5 lbs of flour with ease.

That was the comment that kind of cemented in my mind I’d have to take a chance with the KitchenAid. The Bosch is designed for larger batches of dough, and I typically don’t make such large batches. Most of my recipes are in the 3 to 4 cups of flour range. I do have a white bread recipe that uses 6 cups at a time and a bagel dough that’s similar, but that’s it. (My disappointment in the Pro600 series becomes more evident.) Thus, a mixer after the KitchenAid style is really what was appropriate. Throw in the cookies and baking that the Wife would use it for and that makes even more of a case for sticking with it.

So I walked out of the store with the 7Qt KA. It has a 90-day “no questions asked” return policy. Thus, I figure I’ll put the sucker through it’s paces ove the course of 90 days. What’s more, having un-boxed it, it has a 2-year factory warranty. A sign of confidence in the product I’d say. Either that or they’ve really dialed in the MTBF.