Hamilton Beach 6 Speed Electric Stand Mixer with Stainless Steel 3.5 Quart Bowl, Planetary Mixing, Tilt-Up Head, Black

I mainly bought this for bread and pizza dough and didn't want to blow $300 on a kitchen aid because I just started baking and didn't know how frequently I would be baking. I also kept reading KA classic reviews that they aren't the best with bread and aren't made as well the last couple of years. The KA pro with 500 W vs. 300 W probably blows both away and the reviews recommend that for bread if going with KA (there seem to be a couple other brands that are better if doing strictly bread), but I am not going to spend $300-$500 on a new hobby that I may stop within a month or two. This is great for someone that is starting out, doesn't bake enough to justify the extra expense, or is buying this for a teenager that bakes, or someone that does not have the money for a KA but wants a reliable mixer.Since buying this in May I have made 1-2 1lbs loafs of bread weekly, a number of pizza dough batches, homemade pitas every couple weeks, muffins weekly, chocolate chip cookies, and even mixed ground beef with seasoning for beef jerky sticks. The bread will also come out much better than kneading by hand and it will save a lot of time mixing which I think is arguably true for most stand mixers because it will mix more in 5 minutes than you by hand in 10-20 minutes.More specifically, for bread, it starts to strain a bit on 1, so I start with that so flour doesn't fly all over and then kick it up to 2 once the flour is mixed in with generally has no problem although it will sound like it bogs down here and there if it hits a dense patch. It will still power through 6 cup double batches and I have even done 8 cup pizza dough batches to make 4 large pizzas which starts to hit its limits. The KA classic reviews seem to say it is similar for bread or the plastic gear breaks so I figure I'd rather burn out an $80 mixer than a $300 classic if it burnt out quickly.... Again, the KA pro reviews seem to say that can power through dough much better, so if I continue to bake this much that may be my likely replacement down the line.Outside of bread/pizza dough it has had no issues with muffin and mixing ground beef (the batter attachment), and my sister has liked it for cakes and icing. Yes, you may have to scrape up some flour on the very bottom with batters once to ensure everything is mixed, but it is not worth $200-300 to me to avoid 15 seconds of manual mixing especially if I were only baking once a week or less. You just swirl a spoon around the bottom a couple times, turn the mixer on for 10-20 seconds and it is fully mixed. Last, I have personally not used the whisking attachment.In summary, is this the best mixer on the market? No, but for $80 it is a great option for an infrequent baker, someone just dabbling their feet into baking, or buying a mixer for a responsible teenager that bakes, or for someone that doesn't have $300-500 to throw down on a mixer. Using cars as an analogy, this is not the BMW/Mercedes of mixers. This is the Honda Civic/Accord, Toyota Corolla, Ford Focus,... of mixers. It is not the flashiest, not the prettiest, not a status symbol, and not the most powerful on the market, but it will reliably take you where you need to go for a reasonable price.

I waited to write a review until I had used this mixer for several months. Six months of use later, making bread weekly, I give it a "thumbs up." I purchased this, and use this, only to bake bread -- french style baguettes. When I purchased it, it was unclear from prior reviews how well this worked for bread making. My usual recipe is for three baguettes, and it uses 510 grams of bread flour. This mixer has no problem with that amount. It could clearly do more, if I needed. It works great, and it takes me only about 10 minutes from "get it out of the cabinet and ready" to "dough done," to make my bread. The rest is just dough rising time. I did not want a huge Kitchen-aid mixer, nor need one. This does the job, and seems like it will keep doing the job for many years. It is reasonably light in weight, easy to store in the cabinet, and easy to set up; it stays stable on the counter while in use. In summary, it is extremely easy to use. I like simple and easy.Some reviewers have had problems with the dough hook "corroding in the dishwasher." I have not -- but I never put it in the dishwasher. Be reasonable! It takes all of a minute to rinse the dough hook (and the bowl) in the sink, and then put the mixer, hook and bowl away for next week. The hook works well for making bread dough, and shows no corrosion, and no wear of any kind after six months of frequent use.Okay, it is not the counter-top display beauty that the Kitchen-aid mixer might be . But it works just fine for me, just making bread dough.Addendum: Four years later, after many weekly uses making bread and pasta, it still works perfectly. Highly recommendedAnother Addendum: I was asked for my baguette recipe. This one is really good. Here it is:For three 8 oz Baguettes: 550 gr. flour (King Arthur Bread Flour). 385 ml warm water (use a kitchen scale to measure flour and water); 1 TBS of salt. 1 TBS of yeast (SAF brand instant yeast -- using this great yeast doe make a difference). 1/2 TBS or less of sugar (optional, it speeds the rise, but the dough rise will rise well without it, just take a few min longer or so).Put dry ingredients in mixer bowel and stir with mixer. Add warm water (water should be about 120 F, like warm bath water; use a finger or a thermometer if your finger does not work normally) , mix on speed setting 2 for about 5 minutes. Remove dough and place dough in an oiled bowel, turn it over so it is coated with oil on all sides. Cover with wrap and let rise for an hour or more, until over twice the original volume.Place risen dough onto an oiled counter top. Smash it down, and fold it over. Divide the dough into three equal portions. Take each portion and press it flat onto the oiled counter top, press it into a square or rectangular shape, about 6 by 8 inch in size. Roll the flattened square of dough up, like a a scroll. Pick the roll up, and work the roll (a big "dough dong") out to about 12 inches -- just squeeze and hang it in your hands to stretch it out. Place the elongated 12 inch or more dough roll, with the seam side down, l onto a baguette pan, or onto parchment paper. Do all the three pieces the same. Cover lightly with wrap, and let rise for an hour or more -- it should rise to over 2 times the original size. Start pre-heating oven while the the dough baguettes rises.Place the dough baguettes into a well pre-heated oven at about 490 to 520 degree (depending on your oven and altitude). I use a pizza/bread stone, and put the bread on top of the stone. But any big baking sheet will work. Before placing in oven, spray the bread with a heavy mist of water. Spray more water into the hot oven as you place the bread in -- this gives the steam to help the bread rise a bit in the oven without crusting immediately in the hot oven. (Traditional French ovens are steam injected.) After ten minutes, turn the oven down to 475. Cook about 25 min, until nice and browned.Every friend I have shared this recipe with loves the results -- and they ask for the recipe after tasting my bread. Good luck. It takes about three tries to get the feel, and get it "just right." It takes me 10 minutes to make the dough, from the time I pull out the mixer, to the time I put it away.After the baguettes have cooled a bit, I cut them in half and put them in a zip lock bag, and freeze them. When needed, they defrost in about 20 minutes; I then reheat them in the oven for ten minutes or so. Reheated, they taste like crispy baguettes fresh from the French oven!

Bought as a gift for my 16 yr old daughter who has found a love for baking....and she loves it. She, of course, wanted a Kitchen-Aid, but for her needs this is a great little mixer.The good- Price!!, ease of use, mixing bowl, dough hook and whisk are stainless steel, fairly strong motor, easy to clean.the bad - all plastic body is so so quality, (but if you use it gently, it is fine), mixing blade is hard plastic (but works fine), would be nice to have a few more speeds,This is a very good stand mixer. I think that for the price it can't be beat. As stated I bought this for my daughter, who absolutely love it! We'll have to see how long it lasts as she is using the crap out of it and I have gained 5 lbs since I got for her. But she is a great baker. This machine work fine, has a strong motor, and for cakes, pasteries, cookies and the like it works great. I can see how some people have complained about the machines ability to mix bread dough (I would not recommend using it for that often) but it will get the job done, if you use a little care). It looks great, works fine (so far) and she has not had any issues with it so far. The "fold" in feature, left you manually pulse the motor to "gently" fold ingredients, it works, its more a marketing gimick then anything else, becasue you can just start and stop any other stand mixer in the low speed setting and get the same results. It will move around with a heavy batter or dough, but the suction cups keep the mixer for running all around your counter. As it is make of plastic it will shake rattle and swing with heavy batters and dough at high speed.overall, for the price this a pretty good stand mixer to get the budding baker, or if you don't need a heavy duty one for normal general baking. I would recommend.