Here's a KA Pro 600, 6 quart, 575 watt & a rainbow of colors.

It's on "Easy Pay" if that's useful.

Nice Christmas present!

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchenaid Mixer

Kitchen Aid makes 16 models of stand mixers. Check out their Web site, and play with the "Narrow my options" feature, beginning with whether you want a tilt-head or bowl-lift style, and go from there. My personal vote would be for the most power you can get for the price you want to pay; KA rates their mixers by "flour power," the number of cups of flour each one can handle, so if you're a frequent baker of bread or double-batches of cookies, note that capacity. The bowls are not interchangeable among models, but nearly all of the accessories fit nearly all of the models.

I prefer the tilt-head style and have a new Artisan, which is 50% more powerful than my 42-year-old KA -- the only model they ever made that couldn't accommodate a dough hook! I'm looking forward to several messy days in the kitchen, baking up a storm.

I know you will enjoy your new mixer!

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen Aid Stand Mixers

Thanks for your advice! I presently have a bread machine that I only use to knead dough, but it takes up a lot of counter space so I may do away with it if the Kitchenaid will take its place. Don't really do double batches of cookies often, & now that my kids are at college, I may not use the mixer as much as I have in the past. I had looked at the KA Pro 600, but I think it will be overkill for me. The Pro 5 may be overkill, but since it is cheaper than the one they got for me, it will probably be the way I will go. Just wish it came in other colors :)

ngraham, I have a bread machine that I use to knead dough and my KitchenAid certainly cannot take the place of that machine, as much as I love the KA.

I do bake double batches of cookies and the KA is great for divinity (which has caused me to burn up a couple of smaller mixers) and for beating fudge.

Annie

KA's are not great for bread dough. You'll strip the plastic gears if you overwork the mixer. They are great for cake batters, most cookie doughs, and whipping cream as they mix more thoroughly than old-fashioned stand blenders.

The best advice for using your new KA is to buy an extra bowl and whisk, if you bake a lot. This saves a lot of shuffling around. Also, the new Beater Blades (there's several kinds, all are non-KA but sized to fit the various KA models) are worth every penny if you often cream butter and sugar.

If you're only making bread dough once in a while, make sure your mixer has either come with the new redesigned KA bread dough spiral hook, or you can buy it separately.

I'm all giddy, just placed the order for the KA Professional 5. I've been using an old Oster kitchen center, probably 30 years old, that was a gift from my mom years ago. It gets awful reviews, has always worked well for me, but I can see that a couple of the plastic gears are broken. Never really pushed it much, although it does divinity easily. It has been getting hot occasionally, & thought I detected a burning smell from it once, so I am expecting it to go out before too long. I feel really extravagant, not used to spending that much :) But it was a present, right? & it was $30 less than the one my family bought me. I usually feel bad about exchanging a present, but they expected me to anyway. Can you tell I'm trying to convince myself :) Hopefully by Wednesday or Thursday I'll be playing with a new toy!

Well, what color did you get? I've got a black pro 5 because it is sitting on a Jan Boos butcher block stand and is in direct view from the living room. Black sort of fades away. It works for me! But I'd really like to have racing stripes on it. Anyway. What color is your new machine??????

My Bread machine died..and I've been making bread in my KA...I do miss the ease of throwing everything in the bread machine and letting it do everything but shape and bake..

But....I just don't want to spend the money on another bread machine..when with a bit more planning for time..I can make a couple batches of dough in the KA...

This is Imperial Grey, I'm hoping it will look better in person. In the picture it seems like a flat gray/black, in this case I would prefer the black. Hmmm, racing stripes might be interesting. I like some of the colors, cobolt blue or red, but this one will "go" with anything I guess. I just like shiny! I would probably get tired or red anyway, or paint my kitchen & it would clash. I'm going for the power :)
I like my bread machine too, & it makes better bread than I can make by hand kneading. Don't make bread daily but I make it at least a couple times a week. I agree, it is nice to just dump everything in & come back in an hour or so for the second rise. Would be nice to get some stuff off my counter top though.

My advice is to return the KA and buy the Cuisinart 5.5-qt, 800 watts at Overstock (last link below). The sale is on the white color.

KA no longer has the reputation it used to have. Its quality has gone sour since the DeLonghi made a strong stand mixer for Cuisinart. After alot of research & readings, I changed my mind on a KA purchase and got me a Cuisinart 7-qt. Originally, I had my eyes on the Viking but price was still bigger than my pocket. I was happy to find the Cuisinart has a 3/5-yr. warranty; whereas, KA has only 1 year.

I had my Cuisinart for 2 yrs. now and just love using it for just about everything. Mine is the brushed chrome and it looks sleek on my granite coutertop too ;o)

If you'd like to read more reviews from customers who purchased it, go to Amazaon and find out. America's Test Kitchen also agreed that the Cuisinart is a better purchase than any KA model.
For reviews on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-SM-55BC-2-Quart-12-Speed-Brushed/dp/B000MTIUSS

Here is a link that might be useful: Cuisinart 5.5-qt. White @ Overstock.com

When I was considering for the stand mixer model, I mainly wanted one that is strong for kneading dough. That's how I found out about the Cuisinart strength for kneading in high quantity. If you decide to get the Cuisinart, you can put away your bread machine for sure.

Wow, if I had seen the Cuisinart I would have gone for it. I had read ATK's opinion & knew from others that Cuisinart is a good one, but I didn't spot this one. I even checked Overstock.com but missed it somehow. Not a lot more than what I paid either. I JUST got the email that my order shipped too. I may have to think this over.

I have a KA HD model, 5 qts with 475 watts. It does a great job with my sourdough bread (it does have the corkscrew-like bread hook). It does a considerably better job with bread than my old Artisan did - my Artisan had the C shaped bread hook. I was mixing my bread in a Zo bread machine, but since I've gotten the new KA I've been competely happy with the bread that I make in that, and I don't have to have so much on my countertop.

I did briefly have a Viking mixer (similar to Cuisinart, I think) that I returned pretty quickly. It was really, really loud and didn't do a good job with my bread mixing.

I bet you're going to love your new KA.

Several people have mentioned the plastic gear issue. When KitchenAid was no longer Hobart, they manufactured it for a while with plastic gears which broke in heavy use. The Pro models have gone back to metal gears. I'm not sure about the gears in the Artisan models.

I have a KitchenAid Pro 6 quart which replaced my Hobart KitchenAid. The only significant difference I notice is that the new one has slow start which is a big improvement. The irritating thing about my Hobart one is that it would throw out flour on starting and the slow start solves that.

I have a bread machine but sometimes make bread in the KitchenAid - usually because I'm doing a recipe that exceeds the bread machine's capacity and it handles the load fine.

ngraham, where did you find the good price on the 5 quart? My old mixer that I gave my son conked out so I'm thinking of getting him a new one.

I found it for $229, much cheaper than I can get any kitchenaid mixer locally, no shipping charges or tax. I've never bought too much from on-line sites for personal use, but I've ordered from this company at work many times & never had any problem with them. I might rather had the cuisinart model above, but since this will arrive tomorrow, I will keep it. It is already in town, & I plan on making some bread as soon as I can & see how it does :) Here is the link

Here is a link that might be useful: kitchenaid