The Best KitchenAid Mixer For Bread Dough: Hassle-free kneading

You don’t need me to tell you how amazingly versatile KitchenAid stand mixers are. I’m sure you are already familiar with KitchenAid’s amazing range of attachments and all the tedious tasks these bad boys can save you from. 

One such job is the arm-aching hassle of kneading bread dough. While homemade bread frees us from unwanted additives, the burden of churning out a constant supply of fresh loaves for our hungry households takes a considerable amount of time and effort.

Thankfully, your trusty KitchenAid stand mixer can lend a helping handle here. 

Of course, there are other stand mixers available that can help alleviate some of the manual work that goes hand-in-hand with making bread. That said, I am sure many of us prefer a good (rather, a great) stand mixer like KitchenAid to lend a helping hand rather than a budget appliance that will most likely break down in a matter of weeks.

Based on my experience researching and testing stand mixers I thought I would share, what I think, is the best KitchenAid mixer for bread dough currently available.

Want to find out more about these magnificent machines? Read on! 

The Best KitchenAid mixer for bread dough: My Top 5 Picks

For my shortlist, I have chosen mixers that check a few key boxes in my books. Things I look for here are mixers with substantial motor power, a robust gear system, large bowl capacity, and the appropriate mixing attachments. 

Here are 5 KitchenAid stand mixers that are perfect for kneading bread dough.

7-Quart Pro Line

My number one pick as the best KitchenAid mixer for bread is the 7-Quart Pro-Line. This is my favorite KitchenAid mixer for serval reasons.

For starters, the 7-Quart Pro-Line is one of the most powerful mixers KitchenAid currently manufactures. It comes with a beefy 1.3 horsepower DC motor, making it more than capable of kneading large quantities of bread dough. To put this into perspective, this motor is on par with the KitchenAid commercial model, so you know this machine packs a serious punch.

Equally as important as the big motor is the direct-drive transmission, used on every KitchenAid stand mixer, which effectively transfers the energy from the motor to the mixer head. This ultimately ensures there’s plenty of torque for kneading bread and wet batter.

As with many bowl-lift mixers, the Pro-Line comes with a spiral dough hook. This clever attachment allows you to make up to 25% more dough in a single kneading cycle, allowing bigger batches of pizza or bread with smoother and spongier dough thanks to the spiral hooks’ superior kneading action.

The biggest downside of the 7-Quart Pro-Line is the hefty price tag, although this machine is guaranteed to become your trusty kitchen sidekick for years to come. It’s also a pretty bulky machine too, so this will best suit bakes with plenty of free countertop space that plan on baking a lot of bread.

Professional 6500 Design

When it comes to mixers that have enough power to knead bread, the Professional series is up there with the best of them.

The 6500 Design is the second most powerful KitchenAid for domestic use. Although this is another bowl-lift model, it is slightly smaller than the Pro-Line, coming with a 1 bhp power DC motor. 

This might not sound as impressive as the Commercial or Pro-Line motor but this is more than enough to handle even several pounds of bread dough. Like the Pro-Line, this machine also comes with the PowerKnead dough hook designed for efficient and hassle-free kneading.

The best thing about the 6500? It is the only bowl lift mixer that comes standard with a glass mixing bowl. Not only does it look great, but it also allows you to measure your ingredients straight into the mixing bowl.

Professional 5 plus

Bowl-lift mixers are usually heavier and more powerful than their tilt-head counterparts, and the Professional 5 Plus is no exception.  That said, the Professional 5 represents a good middle ground for those that want a bowl-lift model, yet don’t quite have the space, or budget, for a 7 or 6-quart machine.

This mixer is fitted with a sturdy 525-watt AC motor and a 5-quart stainless steel mixing bowl. While the Professional 5 motor produces less torque than the other mixers I have mentioned above, it’s still capable of kneading the wet and thick dough with relative ease, and in larger quantities too.

You also have the option of adding the smaller 4.5-quart bowl for extra batches of pizza or the 3.3-quart mini bowl for making a single batch of bread. 

Because of its smaller motor and bowl capacity, this model is reasonably priced compared to the other stand mixers in the Professional series.

Artisan 5 Series

If you don’t have the kitchen space, or the budget for a bowl-lift mixer, then your best bet from the tilt-head range is the Artisan series.  

When you compare it with the Classic series, you understand why this is a better machine for bread-making. For starters, the motor is 20% more powerful and the Artisan mixer comes standard with the larger 5-quart bowl, allowing you to mix larger quantities and more batches of dough.

More importantly, unlike the Classic models, the Artisan has an all-metal gear system which makes the appliance more robust, especially for kneading dough. 

As with all the tilt-head machines, the Artisan 5 Series comes with the standard C-shaped dough hooks in tilt head models are not as effective as the spiral ones, it’s still capable of sufficiently kneading dough.

Artisan Mini 

The Artisan Mini is KitchenAid’s smallest stand mixer designed for kitchens that are short on space, or those with smaller families. 

Yes, the Mini is fitted with the smallest of mixers with 250 watts of power. So how has this mini machine made it onto my shortlist? 

The reason why I think the Artisan Mini is worthy of a mention is that its motor uses DC current, making it as powerful as the AC motors of the Artisan 5 Series. Unlike the Classic model, it also uses all-metal gears, so will be more robust against the thicker dough.

Sure, this mixer is really only capable of kneading small quantities of dough thanks to its 3.5-quart bowl, but this could be the perfect mixer for bakers who live alone in a small household.

How to choose a KitchenAid stand mixers for bread dough?

Did any of my shortlisted suggestions take your fancy? If you want to continue searching for the best KitchenAid mixer for bread, allow me to offer a few of my top tips for what to look for in a stand mixer for bread dough.

Here are a few things I think you should think of before spending your hard-earned cash.

Motor Size

If you make bread on a frequent basis or plan on making larger loaves, then I strongly suggest you pick a machine with a powerful motor. This ensures that your mixer has enough power to sufficiently knead the dough and ensure it won’t overheat, or worse, burn out the motor.  

Gear System 

I’m sure most of us can agree that motor power makes perfect sense but why do gears matter for kneading dough? 

The reason why gears matter is because kneading the bread dough is a process that will put a substantial amount of pressure on the gears that make your mixer head rotate. If you frequently knead dough in your mixer, these gears will eventually start to wear down over time.  

Every KitchenAid mixer uses an all-metal gear system, with the exception of the Classic models, which use a nylon worm gear. This protects the motor and rest of the gears from shredding or overloading when mixing thicker dough.

When a Classic KitchenAid is overloaded, these worm gears will shred to protect the motor. While you can easily replace them, it is one of the few issues that reduce the almost-perfect KitchenAid mixer’s lifespan. The problem with this, however, is that if you plan on regularly kneading bread then this nylon gear is going to wear down faster than its metal counterpart.

The chances are you will find yourself replacing the worm gear every year, perhaps even more frequntly, if you opt for the KitchenAid Classic.

Bowl Lift Design

The clever design of the bowl lift mixers might look a little less streamlined than the iconic tilt head but when it comes to thicker mixtures, like bread dough, these mixers are the bee’s knees. 

The reason why bowl-lift is perfect for kneading dough is that the broader base and stationary head provide far superior stability. The bowl is also attached via two arms, that raised the bowl off the base to stop the vibrations of the bowl from being directly transferred into your kitchen countertop.

Ultimately, these clever design features ensure the machine won’t walk around your kitchen top when kneading your dough. 

Dough Hook

The type of kneading hook is also worth considering. I have previously shared the best KitchenAid attachments for bread (spoiler, it’s the dough hook!)

I often find that one of the big downfalls of budget stand mixers is that the design of their dough hooks are unable to replicate the manual kneading action of our hands.

Your stand mixer will either come with a C-shaped hook or a Spiral Hook based on the model you choose. The dough hook kneads the dough by slapping it on the side of the bowl. The c-shaped is the most common type of dough hook and is found on all tilt-head mixers.

The spiral hook, also known as the PowerKnead, is KitchenAid’s own invention and designed to work with larger mixers (the bowl-lift). This imitates the hand-kneading technique and mixes 25% more dough than the C-shaped hook.  

The spiral shape means an efficient mixing action with less dough climbing up the attachment. The exterior coating keeps the dough in the bowl and minimizes sticking.

KitchenAid mixer bread recipes

It goes without saying that you can use your stand mixer to make any bread recipe you like and follow the steps as you normally would. The mixer is only lending a helping hand during the kneading process. Unlike a bread machine that needs customized recipes, using a mixer isn’t going to affect how your bread turns out.

That said, KitchenAid does have a few recipes to help you get started kneading with your stand mixer. Here’s a quick look at their classic white loaf recipe.

In this video, you can also see KitchenAid’s Scale and Sifter in action too! If you want to hear more of KitchenAid’s bread-making top tips, you can read more here.

What’s your favorite mixer?

There you have it, my favorite KitchenAid mixers for bread dough and my top tips for what to look out for on your next mixer.

As I have repeatedly mentioned throughout this article, a stand mixer with a powerful motor makes it easier to knead bread and tough doughs. On the other hand, a machine with less powerful motors will struggle with thick dough. When you knead excessive amounts, you risk damage to your gear and overheating your motor gears. 

If you have the money to spare and bake a lot of bread, a bowl-lift mixer is worth the buy.  You always have the Artisan 5 or the Mini for modest budgets and fewer batches of bread. A tilt-head stand mixer with 375 watts will struggle with heavy dough.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment below!