It's Time. Help me Decide... New KA Mixer.

Okay so many of you super loyal followers might recall when the TWD Brioche bread blew up my loyal KA mixer of 11 years. Well it was a combo of the brioche and my complete ignorance since I had it on medium-high speed for like 10 minutes which apparently is a BIG NO NO.

Now I know. The local KA guy said $240 to fix. I said I can get a new one for that price, my hub said I can fix it for 1/2 that...so it came back home with me and bits and pieces and has sat in our garage for 3 months since then.

It's birthday this week and my better half asked what I wanted. Barring a few really ridiculous gifts... I thought a KA mixer. But he still wants to fix mine. Someday soon. However, I am not a patient girl and holiday baking is around the corner. I need a KA to do some of the things my hand mixer is pretty sucky about, like making fluffy boiled icing and SMBC to the correct consistency.

So here is where, lovely blogging followers come in. I know that many of you have a KA and I would like to know what kind. More specifically I am debating between the Artisan and the Professional HD, both 5qt bowl. My old one is a professional 6qt and it was always a little bit too big for regular baking. Even though I make a lot of cupcakes... I typically do not make 100 of the same flavor. And mixing up smaller batches of batter or frosting in the 6qt was really never a good thing.

I am leaning towards the Pro HD 5qt because of the more powerful motor and the all-steel gears... the Artisan seems like it's more a hobby cook kind of mixer, though I have read people saying they have done bread and the like in there though I guess it's not really recommended.

My main concern with the Pro HD 5qt is that I have read on various blogs here and there that sometimes KA mixers can easily overmix delicate batters such as for cakes and cupcakes. Since this is mainly what I do, I wonder if the Artisan's lesser motor is better for that. But I'd like to get a truly flexible mixer that can easily do doughs even though I make bread oh 2x a year.

I have also read that the Artisans' have lower bowl heights so that making 'double' batches of some recipes doesn't work super well, and that the tilt-back head can be a pain if you don't have a lot of cupboard clearing. I know the pro-bracket lift works because that is what I had for my old mixer...but not sure about the tilt in our kitchen.

I can get the Artisan refurb'd for about $200 (or new for like $240) and the Pro 5qt HD model refurb'd for $180. My old one was refurb'd and it lasted me 11 years and I got it for $200 on Amazon. So I am a fan of the refurb'd by manuf for these types of things UNLESS I can get a stellar deal on new for a few bucks more...so I would probably get a new Artisan but a refurb'd Pro HD.

Any thoughts??? I'd love to hear from you all in comments, what do you use and if you have either the Artisan or the Pro 5qt HD please chime in. I am going to hopefully make a decision by tomorrow.

I am really interested in hearing about the overmixing of batter with the more powerful motor. I don't have this issue with the hand mixer but the lower speeds on it are far less than the KA's lower speeds so that is where the concerns come in. And just so I'm clear, I want something I can use mostly for cake and cookie batters...but I'd *like* it to be versatile enough to handle other things too like the random dough.

Thanks in advance, lovely readers!!