After half a year of research and reading reviews, I put my money on this robot. I watched a lot of YouTube videos abroad, comparisons with other brands, but in the end Ankarsrum won.
The company has been making these machines since 1940, so they have some experience I think. The machine is manufactured in Ankarsrum in Sweden. You can see the Swedish quality just by looking at it, and when lifted it is a very robust, heavy machine. It has the stuff in it for sure.
The product is guaranteed for 7 years. This also convinced me, because in today's world not many companies ad so much warranty, usually only 1-2 years.
The kneading machine has a power of 1500 watts. The stainless steel bowl is 7 litres and can knead 5 kg of dough. The previous mixer I used was struggling and overheating at 1 kg of dough, so I'm curious to see how the Ankarsrum performs at higher volumes. I've already tried it with 1 kg of dough and it didn't even try.
The main criteria for me was high performance and that the machine should be made of metal parts, not just plastic, because it is more durable and definitely more robust.
It's not a cheap appliance, but I was looking at it as a long-term investment, because I wanted to buy a quality, long-lasting, universal food processor.
I brought the machine from France with a friend who lives abroad, because it was quicker (and cheaper than at home).
The basic package includes the basic machine itself, a 7-litre stainless steel mixing bowl, two sets of kneading arms, a spiral hook and a kneading roller, a dough-removing spatula, a 3.5-litre plastic mixing bowl, a double whisking shaft, a double mixing shaft, a cream spatula and a plastic lid to prevent the dough from drying out.
You can also buy extra parts for the machine, making it a versatile universal robot machine. E.g.: meat mincer (with sausage stuffing head), pasta slicer, pastry press, grater, pasta discs, smoothie maker, citrus juicer, cereal mill, muesli mill, vegetable slicer, pasta cutter, pasta cutter (wide noodle, thin noodle, spaghetti) and ice cream maker. I will buy a few more of these for the machine and will show them in action later.
It's very easy to put together, everything has a clear place. It's not loud at all, I used a Bosch machine before and it was much louder.
Always pour the wet ingredients into the kettle first and then the dry ingredients. The dough will rise nicely in no time. The big difference compared to other machines on the market is that this model has a rotating bowl and not a kneading arm.
A dough hook and a dough roller are included in the basic package, so you can choose the most suitable one for kneading according to the volume and density of the dough.
There's also a very handy elongated spatula in the package, which, if you attach it to the machine, will prevent the dough from sticking to the sides of the bowl. I also received a recipe book, which contains everything from easy to more complicated recipes. (The recipes are not in Hungarian, but if you speak English, German, French or Italian, that's no problem.)
The machine has two control buttons, the left one for on-off and timer. The right one is the speed control, which allows you to adjust the speed of the machine between about 40 and 190 rpm.
I also tried the whisk, it did its job as it should, I got a wonderful stiff foam in a few minutes.
These were my first experiences with the machine, and I will report on it in the long term. One thing is for sure, this machine is a dream, I love it already.
