Mixer Guidance for a large family
Hello FreshLoafers!
I need some help. About 14 years ago, I purchased a kitchen aid artisan mixer when I was newly married. My wife (who had never seriously baked) thought I was crazy and said we would never use it. Now, 14 years later, this machine is like an old veteran and has been through many battles - including but not limited to: walking & falling off the counter, losing the ability to stay locked down so we jerryrigged the locking mechanism with hair ties, and for several years we've just held the machine down while mixing. With that said, the machine still works. All in all, I've gotta say, we have gotten our roughly $250 (or whatever we paid) worth of money out of it.
The problem now is that my family has grown quite a bit since our first days. My family count is now in the double digits. My wife cooks and bakes, but I'm the one who really loves to bake: pizza, bread, rolls, biscuits, artisan loaves, pretzels...oh man. I look forward to baking with my kids on the weekend. I grind my own wheat and most of my stuff is 100% wheat flour.
My wife and I are looking for a replacement mixer to fit our family. I'm struggling to figure out what to buy. The KA has been a workhorse and I'm tempted to just get another. They still sell for $250. If I got another 15ish years out of it, I'd be pretty happy. With that being said, the size of the KA mixer has been limiting. I end up making multiple batches. I see the Ankarsrum - and it looks tempting but for $700, I could get 3 KA mixers. With that said, since I love to bake and so do my kids, I'm willing to invest up to $1000, but at the upper end of the budget, the machine would have to do a lot like: greet me in the morning and personally make me pancakes.
We've used the KA for many things baking related, but my wife has also used it for things like making pulled pork. (Put the cooked meat in the bowl and turn on the mixer ... boom - pork is all separated!) I want something which can handle the full array of cooking we need to do.
I want a mixer which will last me another 10-15 years of fairly frequent use for my large family. Do you have any recommendations? I appreciate your time and opinions.
Regards,
-Peter