I am lucky enough to have a friend with all of the attachments and she let me borrow them. If I could buy them all I would, but I can't right now. If I had to choose one, it would be the slicer/shredder, then the strainer, then the grinder and sausage stuffer. But the slicer shredder is my first priority to get, especially since my Oster kitchen center has seen his better days. They are expensive, I have family members who are diehard flea market and yard salers keeping their eye out for me. I will wait until spring to buy any of them, i'm holding out to see what my sale scouter find after the season is over. But if I have to buy a food processor, i'd pay way more than $50 for a good one, same true for the other attachments, to buy a good one cost more than the attachments do and they take up way less room than individual appliances do. Sheri

Hmm, I've also been reading this thread with interest because I was just about to buy a KA stand mixer. On their website, it says the Professional 600 series is "Flour Power" rated for 14 cups, "8 loaves white bread, 13 dozen cookies, 8 lb. mashed potatos" Also from their website: Warranty Our Hassle-Free Replacement Warranty guarantees that if your countertop appliance fails during the first year, KitchenAid will replace it free of charge. We will: # Deliver a replacement to your door # Arrange the return of the failed appliance # Guarantee the new appliance for one year For more information or complete warranty details on KitchenAid® countertop appliances, please call Customer Service at 1-800-541-6390. Sure doesn't sound like your experience. Maybe I'll have to look at the Cuisinart instead. W.

You should note that depending upon the model KA you got, it may or may not stand up to a daily kneading of bread dough. The smaller models are designed to handle stiffer doughs only once in a while, but not every day continually. As a mixer for cakes, icings, cookie dough, etc., the KA is a kitchen staple. I have one of the old 4-qt Hobart-made KAs and I would no more get rid of it (despite its awful color) than I would trade my DH, lol. Be aware that the KA mixes so well, mixing times in many recipes have to be adjusted. If it says beat for 5 minutes, I beat for 2 min. Don't walk away when you're beating whipping cream unless it's only 2 steps and you're coming right back....it will be butter before you know it. I will say that I've bought two accessories that have made the KA perfect for my needs, over the last 35 years. First, I have a second mixing bowl and whisk attachment. This means when I do a recipe that involves making a meringue and folding it into a batter, I don't have to clean out the bowl and whisk to do them separately - I just switch out the bowl and whisk. Second, I bought one of those new scrape-the-bowl-clean paddles. I don't use them for everything, but for certain recipes they are amazingly useful. The one issue with stand mixers is having to scrape the bowl down (no matter what brand of mixer); this attachment completely eliminates that problem. I don't use it every day, but I'm thankful every time I do use it, that I finally spent the $100 (35 yrs ago that was a LOT of $$ for a mixer!) to buy the KA stand mixer.

cotehele - I only use the Zo for mixing/kneading - it replaces what my hands used to do. I used to slowly add the flour into the liquid ingredients, and beat the mixture by-hand using a Danish Dough Whisk, and using as many as 500-700 strokes to develop as much gluten as possible while the dough was in the bowl. This cut down on kneading time and made a finer bread. When making dough by hand, properly mixing the ingredients is an important step people tend to rush through and not do a good job. If a shaggy lump of dough is tossed on the counter for kneading, then there wasn't enough time spent incorporating the flour into the liquid ingredients, and not enough gluten was developed before beginning the kneading. When it comes to using the bread machine, I rarely allow the dough to rise in the bread machine, preferring to use a dough-rising bucket so I can make sure the dough doesn't over-proof. Dough doesn't tell time, and all the rises are according to time on the machines. Dough ACTUALLY rises based on the ambient temperature, humidity, amount of sugar/sweetener in the dough, and the strength of the yeast. A timed rise is just a good (or bad) guess. It's especially important when using 100% whole wheat flour to keep the dough to just UNDER "double" for the rise. Whole wheat doesn't have the extensibility bleached and unbleached flour does, so allowing the dough to rise to double is actually over-proofing it. If I'm not getting a good oven-spring, that means the dough was over-proofed during one or both of the rises and the yeast was spent before it hit the oven - which seems to happen when I leave the dough in the bread machine to rise. When I use the QUICK DOUGH cycle, I can have dough in about 30 minutes. This includes pre-heating, mixing and kneading. There is also an add-in beep (about 25-minutes into the cycle) so you can add raisins, multi-grain cereal, etc. Placing dough in a dough-rising bucket is a perfect little environment for it, normally taking anywhere from 20-45 minutes to rise (depending on the ambient temperature and the type of dough). I may decide to toss it in the refrigerator for a nice long, slow, cool rise to really develop the flavors. It's nice to have options. If using the BASIC DOUGH SETTING, it takes 67-minutes for 2 rises (45-minutes for the first, stir down, and 22-minutes for the second) for a total of 1:50 for the entire cycle. So I save a lot of time there. I can cut that time by 45-minutes to an hour. Not that speed is everything, it's not, unless you are trying to get out several recipes in a 5-hour bake-a-thon. I also never make less than 2 to 2-1/2+ pounds of dough at a time. I can make 2-3 small loaves, or divide the dough for 1 loaf, 6 sticky pecan rolls, and a pan of dinner rolls (or 6 hamburger buns, or 6 hot dog buns) - all from one recipe of dough. I can program my Zo, but I never have (I hate messing with electronics). I generally use the QUICK DOUGH setting - no rising in the bread machine. That's the nice thing about a Zo, you can use it however you like, personalize the cycles to suit your recipes, and use whatever cycle works out best for you. I have a friend who programs hers for specific breads she makes. She sells her breads, so she has using the Zo down to a fine art. Choose to use the dough cycles or bake the loaf in it. Different strokes, different folks. I do an overnight sponge for our "Everyday Bread", so the Quick Dough Cycle is perfect because most of the work was done overnight in the sponge. The flavors developed, the acidic kefir (or buttermilk) provide lactic acid to break down complex starches and irritating tannins in the wholegrain flour, and make the finished loaf easier to digest. Soaking also increases vitamin content and makes all the nutrients in grains more available. The sponge also makes the bread lighter in texture and color and I get a nice high rise not typical to loaves of 100% whole wheat bread when made with a fast mixing method associated with most of today's recipes and methods incorporated when using a bread machine. The Zo X-20 has a Sourdough cycle, but once again, it's timed and I'd never use it for rising the dough. All starters are different. Some are stronger than others, so 120-minutes for a rise may be too long, or not long enough. So for naturally-leavened breads, I use the bread machine for mixing and kneading, but never for the rise. -Grainlady