chas045, thank you! I've probably had mine for over 15 years. I've read the manual and I've gone on line to look. My plan was to contact KA and ask, but I couldn't find a contact us button on the site to ask when I finally remembered to go and look. I do use it for bread, but have always wondered if I was using the correct speed. I love the easy bread recipe my DD gave me, which can be stirred together by hand or with the mixer. As I can't stir anything like that, the mixer it is. I have a bread machine, but seldom use it. It's good in the winter since my kitchen stays colder than the rest of the house, but I still like my KA better for bread. I also use it for cookies and cakes, and grinding hamburger. I never thought of using it to make my own mixes! I need to find some recipes for that. Tami

I have both, a 6qt KA mixer and a 12C KA FP. I would never use a mixer for pie dough, you could never get a decent pie crust that way. I want my pie crust to be flaky, tender and have good flavor. No cardboard!!!! I have made large batches of dough, using the recipe below. I double the amounts I put in the food processor, then empty it into a large bowl. After I have the first step done and into the bowl (as many times as needed) then I add my water/vodka in the amount called for in the second step. Easy. Remember, the fat needs to be cut into the flour in a uniform manner. You wouldn't get and acceptable dough if you tried to do a larger batch on the first step. There has to be enough room in the FP for the ingredients to combine correctly. Just a word on your inquiry about how bakery's do this. I didn't have a bakery but I did own a deli a few years ago. Food service companies have all kinds of doughs available, ready to use. Some may do that. I once was helping a friend how needed to make about 100 pies for something special. He threw all the pie dough ingredients, except the liquid, into his 80qt Hobart floor mixer. Then added the water. That dough was crap....cardboard. Read through the instructions on this recipe and it will make sense. Foolproof Pie Dough Cook's Illustrated The trick to this pie crust is the inclusion of vodka. Eighty\-proof vodka, which is 60 percent water and 40 percent alcohol, adds moistness to the dough without aiding in gluten formation since gluten doesn't form in ethanol. Although the recipe includes 8 tablespoons of liquid, the alcohol vaporizes during baking, resulting in a tender crust that only contains 6 1/2 tablespoons of water. Because of the extra liquid, the dough will be moister than most standard pie doughs and will require up to 1/4 cup more flour. \- makes one 9\-inch double\-crust pie \- Ingredients 2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all\-purpose flour 1 teaspoon table salt 2 tablespoons sugar 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4\-inch slices 1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces 1/4 cup cold vodka 1/4 cup cold water Procedure 1\. Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one\-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl. 2\. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4\-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days. Nancy

The tilt heads are the lower power models handling up to 8 or 9 cups of flour at a time. The lift bowl models have higher power and handle 11 to 14 cups of flour depending on the model. I don't think there is much difference in bowl access but I've always used a bowl-lift model - if I drop the bowl, I can get in to scrape the sides when needed. Both the tilt head and bowl lift KAs use a planetary beater motion and a stationary bowl. It doesn't need much scraping as the beater covers the bowl well when properly adjusted.

Okay, I'm assuming that first sentence is supposed to be "stand mixer" rather than "miser", since Googling didn't give me any new brand names. You didn't describe your installation or which accessories you mean. Are you talking about a swing out lift from a cupboard that pops up next to the island? Or the kind that rises on a motor through a hatch in the counter? Are you talking about a honkin' big almost commercial sized one? Or a standard KA Artisan or similar? How many pounds is the lift rated for? What are the clearances. What position will it be in when you use it? Some lifts are really meant to be the work surface, while others are really too flimsy and are just meant to get the mixer up to the correct height, so you can slide without really lifting. Some people put a mat under to make sliding easier, but then the mat has to be cleaned, also, and the mixer lifted on and off the mat. One issue with a lift is a lot of juddering. Vibration. My Artisan works so hard when it's kneading that the pin holding the head to the base wiggles out, and I keep having to press it back before it pops out entirely! And that's just the dough hook. So, will you be able to use the sausage maker, pasta roller, or ice cream bowl? Sure! Will you be happy about doing it on the lift? Maybe. Maybe not. For instance, the ice cream bowl is just a bowl and it's the freezer space that's at issue. Ice cream mix has the consistency of cream/custard, so there's no undue shaking. The grinder/sausage maker really expects you to have a big bowl or tray for catching your work, and it does it's share of clunk clunking. OTOH, with the mixer doing the cranking, you can put lump of pasta dough through and catch it in your other hand--if you have skills--and that might work great with it away from the island proper. Give you more leg room. BUT what about the flour? The bits of flingy meat? Etc. I'm not a clean freak, but I don't abide a dirty kitchen. I've never been able to figure out how to contain the mess while using the mixer on a lift. I mean, a quick batch of whipped cream is a nothing, but bread? Cookies? Sausage? I don't want that mess falling all over the place--what might be a minor sponge up could turn into a crawl into a cabinet with a multiplicity of tools trying to get it really clean. And on a lift base you can just shove the mixer over to clean underneath. So if I were going that direction, rather than just assuming it belongs on the counter ready to use, I'd be one who slides it off the base, and puts away the lift/covers the hole. And then you can use it for anything on the solidity of your counter...