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Thanks for all the responses---you helped so much giving me all the
information. On your recommendation-we bought a 6 qt. 525 watt Professional-I
used it for two recipes yesterday, and the results of my experience was all
my husband heard about when he came home from work!!! Wish I had bought one
20 years ago!  Many have said they'd like the info-that they are thinking
about one-so here is the good advice I received. Shop for the best price-much
variance-we were able to get a larger wattage one for the price of the 5 qt.
one-and a department store beat out the discount stores. Once again, I so
appreciate your emailing me!  Madelyn

Get at least a 5 qt bowl. I had a 4 1/2 qt bowl and
was forever overflowing the bowl when making 2 loaves
of wheat bread (olden days). My recipe made two 8 1/2"
X 4 1/2" loaves. Never have had an overflow problem
with a 5 qt bowl.

I have had a kitchenaid  41/2 quart size with just 300 watt power for about
25 years it is large enough to double almost all receipts and has plenty of
power.  If you get the bowel size to large then it is difficult to mix small
amounts, like egg whites.  I love this mixer and I highly recommend getting
one no matter which size.

I splurged and got the 6 qt 525 watt Professional Kitchenaide, and love it!!!
 Came with my choice of meat grinder or something else.  The bowl is huge,
the power is great, and when it died at age 5 months Kitchenaide expressed a
brand new one to my door, here in Hawaii and will pick up the broken one in a
few days, giving me time to repack it.

I use the 325 watt right now, but I've not made double batches of things.
This has been sufficient so far. If you make double batches of things I
would think the one with the larger bowl would be the way to go. I've been
wanting to make a double batch of pizza dough simply because one only makes
two 12-inch pizza crust. One day I'm going to give it a shot and see how it
works out. You will not be disappointed in your Kitchen Aide mixer no matter
which one you decide as far as I'm concerned they are the best out there.
I don't have one, but several friends have them...they bake a lot and
say get the biggest one you can afford!

My Kitchenaid says 300 watts on it.  I mix and bake bread about every
ten days -- have had it for at least a year  -- and I love it and the
bread.

I too, cook everything from scratch.  It's much better than anything
store bought or mail ordered, not to mention the savings.  I've had my
Kitchen Aid mixer for 24 years without a lick of trouble.  It has made
regular and gluten free breads with ease.  I have the lowest watt one, a
275 or something like that. I got it for $169. and I still see them
about $179.00 on sale.  I don't think a double batch is necessary, but
probably would work.  The watts are NOT an issue AT ALL!

I have a 325 watt with a 5 qt bowl and it does fine.  I do bake a lot, but it
used to be more fun!

I have a 325 watt with a 5 qt bowl it makkes bread better than my bread
machine. I made the gluten free pantry mix it  was wonderful.  I have
the smallest lowest wattage kitchenaid.  I love it and it is powerful
enough for what I do.  I rarely make double batches and sometimes I do
get some overspray.  So, if you are using it for a lot of double batches
I would really be concerned about the bowl size www.electronicemall.com
has great prices. I ordered a 475 watt last week and saved over $50
including shipping.

You will find a lot of people who say they have no problems with the 300
watt.  I was told the 350 was the least powerful we should get for our
doughs.  I have the 525 and love it.  I never worry.  Definately get one that
has the bowl cover.  Keeps the splatterw WAY down.

I just bought a KA this week after calling the company and asking for an
appropriate model for gluten free flour.  KA told me that if I was using
4 cups of gluten free flour or less, I could use the 300 watt model.  If
I wanted to use more than 4 cups of flour I should use a higher wattage
model.  I think I posed the question to them of the 300 watt vs. the 475
watt model the Epicurean) as those were the two I was considering.  I
looked in Bette Hageman's book and the highest amount of flour she
suggests in her recipes is four cups of flour to make a large loaf or
two smaller loaves.  I determined that I could get by with the 300 watt
model and I had about $200 to spend (the going price for that model).
Keep your eyes open right now as Christmas sales have allowed this model
to get down as low as $169 (Kohl's this past week).  I ended up getting
the 6 quart model, 475 watt Epicurean because Dillard's Department store
price matched Kohl's sale price of $299, plus I had a gift certificate
for $100 I could apply towards it.  All that brought the price of the
475 watt model down to $200, which is what I was willing to pay retail
for the 300 watt model.  Oh, and if you want the pouring shield, it
comes with the 475 watt model and you have to purchase it separately
($20) if buying the 300 watt model.

I can't really tell you if the small one will be big enough or powerful
enough for double batches, but I have the bigger one (the Epicurian) and
I love it. I didn't really find it too big for single batches (but it is
very heavy) . The things I made with it came out much better than the
things I made with my old mixer, which really strained when I made
heavier batters.  I also have a trick that I think makes a big
difference in the texture of gf baked goods. I beat the xanthan gum in
with the liquid ingredients instead of adding it with the dry
ingredients. The liquid ingredients get kind of gooey and the finished
product is much less crumbly and more springy.  I'm just diagnosed and
although we (my wife and I -- I've always done a lot of the cooking but
never bread) haven't made our own bread yet, we are also considering a
Kitchenaid mixer. A friend of ours who does tons of regular baking has
the basic model with the 4 1/2 quart bowl and she says that's big enough
for two loaves of bread. I can't tell you whether the wattage will be
enough for GF bread but these are pretty tough machines.  My guess is
that if you have the dough, you'd be happier with the larger and more
powerful model, but that the other will do the job I use the 4 1/2 quart
mixer and it's wonderful.  I used to have a bread machine, but it didn't
work well for gluten free breads (no setting adjustments) so I now make
everything using the mixer.  I too, make double batches of the food I
bake and find that the 4 1/2 quart mixer is fine.  I did purchase an
extra bowl with it in order to make it easy to mix the wet and dry
ingredients.  I can also make different batches -- one set of blueberry
muffins and in the other bowl  a set of raspberry muffins.  The second
bowl made a big difference in preparation.  If you grate, grind etc.,
your ingredients, you may want to get the attachments.  I haven't
purchased these yet but they are on my wish list.  You might also like
an extra set of mixing wands if you are switching bowls with different
flavors

-- you don't have to stop to wash them between batches.  The
possibilities go on and on.

It's a great appliance -- being gluten free without one must be quite
difficult.  I think I used my mixer twice before I was diagnosed and now
I use it almost everyday!

I have KSM90 Kitchen Aid and for double batches it struggles.  350
watts.  Get bigger.  I still have great success with it though I don't
know anything about the Kitchen Aide mixers, but I love my Bosch, and
wanted to give you another option.

It is called the Bosch Universal Kitchen System.  It
is a German mixer, that has many different attachments
that can be purchased separately.  It comes with the
blender.  Mine is 700 watts, but I think they may be
800 watts now.  I paid $500 for mine about 8 years
ago, but I think they have come down to about $350.

If you plug in "Bosch Universal Kitchen System" on a
search engine, some of the different distributors will
come up.  They can be purchased online, but they are
also available from distributors (like Watkins, Mary
Kay, etc.)  Maybe the company could put you in touch
with someone in your area.  They are expensive, but
worth every penny.

I make two big loaves of gluten-free bread at a time, and the 6 quart
Kitchenaid (525 watt) handles it. Because the dough is so thick, the double
loaf really puts the machine through the paces. I'm not sure a weaker motor
could handle it. I got the 525-watt in spite of the cost (it was $360 when I
got it)  because I many messages from other gluten-free bakers recommended
getting the most powerful model I could find.

The 300 watt Ultra Power Kitchenaid stand mixer bowl (4 1/2 quart) holds
a double recipe of gf bread batter and mixes and beats it with ease.
Another important factor to consider is that the Kitchenaid mixers
larger than 300 watts are taller.

The size of your storage/counter space may help decide which model is
best for you.  You will find the Kitchenaid mixer mixes everything so
easily you will want to use it often.  My only regret is that I waited
so long before I bought one.

If it were me, I'd go with the professional kitchenaid.  The others seem
underpowered and the bowl size is smaller as you've noted already.  If
you're going to be using it a lot, get at least 2 bowls and 2 beaters and
get a flour guard (a removable rim that sits on top of the bowl to prevent
ingredients from flying out when you turn on the beater).

I use the 325 watt for all my baking.  I've never made a single
batch of anything in my life!  I used the 325 for regular, kneaded wheat
bread before we went GF.  For these GF breads that are essentially batter
breads, it's a snap!

We have a kitchen aid mixer with a 5 quart bowl (this is from about 25
years ago or so) . . . It's a 300 watt model.  My mom has used this for
the past 25 years for cooking gluten free nearly every other day (for 3
kids and 2 adults), and finds it very useful.  We have the grain mill
attachment for the Kitchen Aid, but don't use it much, due to the fact
that it tends to cause the mixer to heat up ALOT!  I recently found a 6
quart 475 watt mixer on sale at Lechters (a kitchen store in the US)
The Lechters chain is closing out, so I was able to get it for 50% off.
It was a real bargin.  This is one of the Epicurian models, and has a
very nice cooling system, so might be better adapted to use the grain
mill attachment.

Instead of using the kitchen aid though, we have a dedicated grain mill.
It's not that large, and stores easily in the garage.  We've never had
any trouble with it overheating at all.  I'd suggest if you can afford
it to have a dedicated attachment, it's much better.

I'm not sure about the motor size, but I bought the smaller one, for which
you fold up the head on a hinge. The larger doesn't have the hinge, but the
bowl is raised and lowered. I find the motor is not adequate for cookie dough
and bread. I wish I'd bought the larger motor. Mine is a few years old, and I
bake about 20% of our bread from scratch. (My son loves EnerG tapioca bread,
and I don't eat much bread.)

For cookies and bread baking, I would definitely get the larger motor. That
was the recommendation of the person who sold it to me as well, but back then
I rarely baked as I was WAY too busy. Happily, life is a little calmer now. I
plan to move up and buy the bigger motor at one of the after-Christmas sales.
BTW, we love the Sylvan Border Farms bread and baking mixes. We use them for
cakes, crepes, cookies, breads, and they're delicious. I made cornbread
stuffing for Thanksgiving using homemade cornbread (baking mix and yellow
corn meal) and dark bread in equal parts. Even the gluten-eaters in our
larger family gobbled it up and asked for the recipe!