When my 7-qt Cuisinart stand mixer stopped working in November 2025, I replaced it with an Ankarsrum mixer in December. There is always a learning curve with a new mixer. I have never used a Kitchen Aid, so I cannot compare it to the mixer that resides in most kitchens, but I hope this thread will be helpful to people who either own an Ankarsrum or are considering whether to buy one.

I bought my mixer from Pleasant Hill Grains, and it arrived very quickly on Christmas Eve, although I did not start using it until the next week. You can read about the mixer at various sites and there are YouTube videos available, some from Ankarsrum. The mixer's bowl turns rather than having the motion from the top. The bowl is nice and wide, so it is easy to monitor as your mix. It has a roller arm, which gets positioned for kneading depending on how much dough is being kneaded, and a scraper that rests against the bowl. Initially there is some need for adjusting dough, but it is easy to do with the wide bowl.

The liquid ingredients go into the bowl first, and that includes the oil, although I wait until I have the other liquid ingredients (including proofed yeast) mixed before adding it. With my old mixer, I usually mixed in the wholegrain flours, let the dough rest for 15 minutes, then added the salt and any bread flour. However, with the Ankarsrum, it seems to be best to mix all the flour and dry ingredients together--holding back about 1/2 cup of flour, and not to do the resting period.

I find that it helps to increase the water for bread dough mixed in the Ankarsrum by 1-2 oz.

The dough is mixed on speed one, then kneaded on speed 2. The kneading period, at least with my wholegrain breads seems to be 8-12 minutes. The mixer is designed to mimic hand kneading, so I think that is why it takes longer than in my other mixer, but so far, it seems to me to give bread with a softer texture. I may be necessary at the start to "help" the mixer start kneading, and to adjust the arm. If dough starts to go out of the bowl, the arm gets moved more toward the center of the bowl.

The mixer comes with a dough hook for low hydration breads or mincemeat. I have not tried using it yet.

I will discuss in future postings the two breads that I have made with it so far: Whole Wheat Oat Bran Bread and Rustic Sourdough Wholegrain Bread in a Cloche and describe the adaptations I needed to make to the recipes.