I absolutely love myLog In! I bought this baby around two years ago and it has been a little work horse. I make at least 3 batches of bread each week plus a batch of pastries, and it's still going strong. That isn't even counting my monthly homemade pizza days where it handles 4-5 batches of bread and runs for 2 hours straight. It's hard to find a mixer that will even stand up a few months with regular bread batches, let alone what I throw at it. Even KitchenAid can't compare... I'd know, I burnt a motor out of one already. The Bosch is a bit on the pricier end at $200, but it's worth every penny. You might be able to get a good deal on another site. They have a newer model but it's about double the price. Don't let the size fool you though! It has a standard size mixer bowl. It's called a "compact" because Bosch is normally a commercial mixer brand - and those are huge. It does stand a bit shorter than the KitchenAid mixers, just a couple inches. It's not the best mixer for tiny batches though. I'm not a big fan of frosting so I usually do 1/3 batches of frosting. It tends to have a bit of trouble with batches that small. The KitchenAid is better with this - I think it's because of the bowl design. Of course you could just buy a bread machine, but then you would only get one shape of bread! I like making rolls, croissants, french bread, loaf bread, bagels, and anything else. I'd need a dozen bread machines! Plus, I find that mixing bread by hand for the last 1-2 minutes makes for a better crumb texture and a slightly fluffier loaf. Log In Note: I have nothing against KitchenAid mixers, they're wonderful (just not for bread). I've only ever used the two kinds of mixers and since KitchenAid is popular, I chose to compare the two.
