This is one of those subjects that is all about choices.

For all my cooking and baking from scratch, I live quite nicely without the aid of a stand mixer taking up space, but wouldn't be without my Zojirushi Bread Machine. I'm on my second one - I wore the first one out and there are just two of us at home.

I had a Sunbeam Stand Mixer I purchased for the prime reason of breadmaking because of my arthritic hands (I was in my late 20's at the time - 56 now), and it failed miserably at the task, and I rarely ever used it for mixing anything else. I hated lugging out the heavy glass bowls and the heavy machine. I don't leave any appliances setting out - I don't like clutter on my counters. All my "kitchen toys" (and I have more than most people) are stored in a tall utility cabinet designed for them.

My sister gave me her Deluxe Oster Kitchen Center complete with a pasta maker and ice cream freezer and several other totally useless attachments, 10 years ago, because she never used it, and she got a Professional 600 Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer, which she still never uses, but she wanted the red mixer to match her new kitchen. It's a status symbol. I used the Oster a few times and gave it back to her. The Oster also failed at breadmaking. My sister uses her Zojirushi Bread Machine for making dough, not the KA.

I have an ergonomic (easy to hold and use) Black & Decker Hand-Held Mixer that works for anything I would need mixed with an electric mixer, which is mainly creaming fat and sugar together. After that, I use a (hand-held) Danish Dough Whisk for mixing cakes and quick breads. People tend to over-mix these if mixing them in stand mixers or using a hand-held mixer, and over-develop gluten. When I judge foods at County Fairs, I can tell you who uses an electric mixer on a quick bread or a cake because they are nearly always over-mixed, tough, with tunnels going through them.

When it comes to making bread dough, I use what the King Arthur Test Kitchen uses for making their dough - a Zojirushi Bread Machine. It does the best job at making dough, not a stand mixer, which tends to aerate dough, and not by hand, according to their tests.

I make all our breads using freshly-milled flour I mill at home from a wide variety of grains/seeds/beans; and primarily use the bread machine for all yeast/sourdough/Artisan/flatbread dough making. I bake bread every 7-10 days.

The nice plus about a bread machine is that you can also bake it it, although I never bake in the bread machine. I prefer baking in the oven in the loaf amounts or shapes appropriate for our use. I've converted our favorite non-bread machine recipes to using a bread machine.

I generally make a 2# size recipe (or larger, using my own recipes) and then use that amount for a 1# loaf of bread (which we use one loaf per week) and the other half of the recipe I can make into any number of things - an 8-inch square pan of dinner rolls, 6-sticky pecan rolls, hamburger or hot dog buns, or another loaf of bread for the freezer...all from the same recipe.

Years ago, King Arthur had a picture in their "Baker's Catalogue" of 2 loaves of whole wheat bread in a side-by-side test. One loaf made using a stand mixer and the other loaf (using the same recipe, dough only, and baked in a loaf pan in the oven) made in the Zojirushi Bread Machine. The loaf mixed in the bread machine was at least 1-inch higher than the loaf made in a stand mixer.

So there is a little more information on the subject you probably didn't have.

-Grainlady

I'm a single old lady with very limited counter space. I would get a bread machine and use that for bread. I store mine in the basement and get it out when I make bread. It rotates in a space on my counter with the crockpot.

I've never been able to either afford or have space for one of those stand mixers and have managed ok without it, although I don't make a lot of elaborate baked goods. Muffins and quick breads is about all I do, a cake maybe once or twice a year. I cut in butter for scones, biscuits and pie crust using the food processor.

There just isn't any compact inexpensive stand mixer that will knead bread dough but they will do pretty much everything else. I don't know what "inexpensive" means to you so I'm thinking in the $50 range and there are quite a few to choose from at WalMart and Sears etc. like this Hamilton Beach on Amazon. If you're thinking in the $100 range then you can get a slightly bigger Sunbeam etc

Here is a link that might be useful: stand mixer

I agree with PKguy, I had an old Sunbeam that I burned up trying to knead bread and a Hamilton Beach (I think) that I burned up trying to make divinity. I have the big KitchenAid from Nancy that I use for most things, but I have a small hand held Kitchen Aid that I use for small jobs.

The bread though? That gets done in the Zojirushi, and I bake all my own bread, even though I'm also a "single old lady" most of the time. Elery and I live 3 hours apart and Ashley is in college plus works full time, so I am alone about 80% of the time, maybe more. Here in White Cloud there are no artisan bakeries or gourmet food shops or anywhere I can get a decent loaf of bread, so I bake all my bread, buns, cinnamon rolls, whatever. The stale bread gives me all the croutons/bread crumbs I need, LOL.

Love, love, love the bread machine for bread. Also love the KitchenAid for divinity, cake, big batches of cookies. They each have their own use.

Annie

For what it's worth, I'm an old lady also but cooking for 2. I have an Oster 2# bread maker and I use that quite often to make single loaves or two small ones. It makes good bread, I mostly use the dough cycle and can make pretty much any kind of bread in it. I also have a heavy duty KA mixer which I use if I'm going to use a 2-3 loaves bread recipe. It is heavy and not the greatest for me. I rarely use it for general mixing as it is very heavy for me and harder to move around than the bread machine. I prefer to use a hand held mixer which I keep in a drawer and pull it out for small jobs for which I can't use my stick blender, like cake making and beating egg whites, that sort of thing. A big food processor can be also used for bread as well as other duties but also heavy and many parts to clean. I also have a small cuisinart processor with a convertible stick blender which is good for chopping, blending, pureeing, etc. etc. and very easy to clean up. I use it a lot. I don't have a Zojurushi breadmaker but learned about them too late, may consider one when the $69 breadmaker I now have says its goodbyes if it doesn't outlive me, OMG!. DD bought herself a Sunbeam breadmaker for $39 and has no complaints. There are so many choices out there. Good luck.

I agree that a bread machine is your best bet, though if you're making bread infrequently in small batches and your space is limited, I wouldn't bother with the bread machine either.

The fact that a recipe only provides instructions for a mixer needn't be a barrier to doing it by hand. If you're not sure how to adapt a recipe, just come onto the forum and ask. Once you've done it a couple of times, you'll know the drill for most cases.

I have a hand-held KitchenAid which is useful for whipped cream, egg whites, the occasional use, but any mixer in the price range you probably are looking at just won't stand up to bread dough. It would be smoking in short order.

If you decide a bread machine possibly would fit your needs (I love mine and prefer it to a mixer.) you might consider keeping an eye out at GoodWill or other charity shops. They turn up fairly often at good prices so there's minimal invested and you can give it a good try-out.

But barring arthritis, carpal tunnel or other physical limitation, there's nothing wrong with continuing to work by hand either. Sometimes I choose to make bread that way because I find it therapeutic.

Carol

I vote for a Cuisinart. I am a single old lady and I use it very very often. It makes bread dough, roll dough, pie crust, slices and shreds for soups and salads....and all but the base goes into the dishwasher, it occupies about 1 square foot of counter....and costs about $100 for the basic model.

When I read this I was going to recommend club soda....as that's a universal mixer and goes with everything, adds no calories and doesn't contribute to a hangover!
Linda C

For those of you recommending the Zoji, which model do you have? Amazon seems to have a 1# and 2#, and the 2# got enough bad reviews to raise an eyebrow.

Although, most of those that I read seem to be about the baking quality, and I'm guessing you never really use it for that.

I agree that a separate bread machine and (smaller) mixer might be the way to go. I have a big fat KA that weighs a ton and use it for both but if I had to put the thing away after use, I'd probably not use it at all. Bread machines don't weigh much compared to a stand mixer that can make a big batch of bread. (Until I started making bread I used a hand mixer and didn't even know I was missing anything by not having a stand mixer--actually I still don't make anything besides bread that is easier because of the stand mixer.)