On Tue, 21 Nov 2006 19:33:28 -0800, anthony wrote:

> my wife and I use about three loaves a week,

A Magic Mill, not only are they the best for what you want they are so
much fun to watch (well, fun for a baker, others may think you're in great
need of a long walk-about).

http://magicmill.125west.com/

It has a small motor because the design is so simple and brilliant. You
will have to tolerate others flaunting their 700-1000 watt mixers. I have
a 700 watt Bosh which I use everyday and the Magic Mill, which I also use
daily, would be faster by far in developing a good dough in the amounts
you want. I mix 10 lbs of dough with it, no sweat (the 15 lbs capacity in
the advert is IMO, bullcrap unless you want headachs, this holds for the
Bosh adverts also).

Most machines lag when the motor is being overworked, lag to a Magic Mill
means things are going along just fine. The motor is built to lag every
revolution because it does not try to bull it's way through the dough. It
sort of massages the dough. This is close to a hand kneed which makes
over-mixing nearly impossible. It also means that the mixer makes no
intrusion into the gluten structure since there is no tearing of the dough
with a hook.

The downsides a it may walk some. EZ solution being a damp towel
underneath. In the first 6 months I had mine it fell off the countertop
twice onto the floor. Did I mention they are well built? Did I
mention that I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer? That was 5 years
ago. The other (maybe) downside is it's uniqueness. It has a stationary
paddle and a roller - the bowel turns. The roller, which is under a
healthy spring tension, is adjusted away from the bowel to fit the amount
of dough that's going to pass between it and the side of the bowel. To do
this you have to crack down on a fairly large adjustment knob. This isn't
a big deal unless you have hand/joint pain then this may be a problem.