Kitchenaid mixer - so now I have it (!) can you recommend your best baking books please

[changer22]

DH is very excited about the baking side of things (that I will be making) so any recommendations for good books would be great.

I have to start proving it was a good buy pretty quickly.

favourits !? sorry 'favourite'

MumtoJaydenandarmani, I love big old mixing bowls too, and use our big oldfshioned one so that dd1 can give everything a big old stir before it goes into the kitchenaid. Baking is a big deal in our house !

(Hello Habbibu, hope things are good with you!)

king arthur flour american so you have to use cups or weigh in ounces (more accurate). but i use it all the time, nigella has same book and quite a few of hers are adapted from it. i make all our bread now, sourdough, rolls, white brown pizza, it is all super easy with lovely dough hook.

i adopted strict rule re kitchen aid: it had to be used at least once a week or must live in a cupboard. the horror of putting it away and getting it out again soon got me going! mine is one of the old bowl lifts so is even more substantial than flip tops.

Thanks for the Tesco tip. Our Tescos is quite grim for some reason and I try to avoid going there if I can. My best friend said she has never been in a supermarket which made her feel less hungry so it's not just me.

Green and Blacks free cookery book could help get me through the door though!

Donna Hay book is very very good.

you need american cups though.

Am with you on Tesco, tbh - may be worth phoning them before you drag yourself through the door.

Thanks for the King Arthur book recommendation. DH off to the States next week and he works opposite a Barnes and Noble so I'll get him to get it.

Oh, I am so over excited. I must use and not just decorate my kitchen with books and equipment...

Did I mention I bought some lovely old sweet shop scales too the other day?

The Be-Ro book that's about 2.50 on the shelf with the flour in most supermarkets. Great for basics and its Dundee Cake is the best Christmas cake and/or wedding cake recipe ever. Otherwise though we have loads of books I usually think what sort of thing I fancy and then look on line. Epicurious.com (US) is good, also Daily Telegraph food column is where nearly all of my favourite and most admired cakes come from. (also on line, searchable)

With the internet how it is, lots of American stuff, it's well worth looking out a set of measuring cups, they're cheap and it's easier than glass jugs when you only need 1/3 of a cup of something. Otherwise 1 cup is half a pint (liquid measurement for everything).

Josceline Dimbleby's Christmas baking book has some brilliant recipes. I defy anyone to find a better mince pie than the mincepies with cream cheese and orange pastry contained in that book.

I was going to also suggest the little BeRo book. It is very good.

For simple recipes, like muffins that have no butter I do by hand, they are so quick it's not worth the mess of the mixer. I have an old second hand Kenwood Chef and like it but am after a Kitchenaid. Takes all the faff out of beating butter and sugar together by hand, can't be doing with it!

THere is a box in the garage with this one in it that father christmas seems to have dropped off early

You need to get it out now! There are Christmas cakes to be made...

tell me, are they really so much better than the old food processor?

i replaced my 30 yr old Braun Multi with a Kenwood, and also have a Dualit hand held mixer (which I never use) and a Mini chopper, recommended by Delia Smith, which I hadrly ever use.

Why is a KA much better? Am I just dim?

Think KAs and Kenwood Chefs are much of a muchness - KAs all shiny and in colours (pah) but they do the same thing. Different beasts from food processors though - no chopping, just mixing and whisking. Great for baking, really, and bread, etc. You can also get attachments for the Chef, so you can make sausages, peel potatoes, juice fruit, etc, and I expect the KAs are much the same.

All of Nigella's books have great cake/muffin recipes e.g. Feast has the most amazing chocolate cakes.

Message withdrawn

Habbibu, I'm tired (up at 4.45am) but fantastic, thanks!

My nan was a huge fan of her Kenwood Chef (we baked together a lot when I was younger), she always said it was the one thing she would save if there was a fire - no mention of my grandad!

I think the Kitchenaid is just a bit more glamorous. I am surprised by how much i use it. I use it to make pastry (Nigella's mince pie pastry is lovely), but don't overwhizz it.