Pizza Dough

JimW

Has anyone ever tried making pizza dough for the BGE in a bread maker? How did it work out? My wife and I are the champions at flunking dough making by hand.

Gfw

<p />JimW, I know what you mean about making dough. We have used "Eagle Mills Pizza Crust Mix for Bread Machines" and it works great. Even if you don't make your own dough, take the time to make Spin's sauce recipe in the recipe section of the forum. Good luck!

Mike Oelrich

JimW,[p] Haven't made pizza dough for the BGE yet, but I have used the "dough" setting on my bread machine extensively. For something like pizza dough, it works really well. I've made calzones (in the oven) in the past from dough out of my bread machine and it works fine. I've had some good and some bad results with actual bread, however (stuff that rises more times). One difference you have wih the bread machine is that it can knead moister dough than you can by hand (my hands aren't coated with teflon, anyway). You have to be careful, though, that the dough isn't too moist -- you end up adding lots of extra flour when you shape it (to keep it from sticking) and the dough seems less elastic. One important thing -- check the manual on your bread machine to see how many rises it uses in the dough cycle. You may have to remove the dough in the middle of the cycle depending on how many rises your pizza dough recipe calls for.[p]MikeO

JimW

Gfw,
Thanks for the tip. I'll see if we can get it around here.

JimW

MikeO,
Thanks. I hadn't even thought about the rises.

Brant

JimW,[p]I never had much experience with making dough, but I've found following Spin's recipe pretty easy. Just be smarter than me -- last time, I accidentally used 1/2 tbs. of salt instead of 1/2 tsp. Great volumes of beer were required to compensate.[p]And to actually answer your question, I used the bread machine once, and it worked fine. Just follow the instructions and measure very carefully because the machine can't judge whether the dough is too sticky or too dry like you can when you make it by hand.[p]Brant

Eponda

JimW,If you have one, try a food processor for pizza dough. Put the dry stuff in the bowl, dissolve yeast in water and then add oil, and then add liquid to bowl with motor running. It should form into a ball quickly. I then put the dough in a plastic bag to raise. Use the plastic dough blade for the food pro, if one came with it.

Mike Oelrich

Brant,[p] I usually look through the window in the top of my machine (a flahlight helps) and end up adding a bit of flour or liquid early in the kneading process. I've even been known to reach inside and touch the dough to see how sticky it is while the machine is churning. It doesn't hurt anything to pop the top open for a few seconds, just make sure you fine tune early in the knead.[p]MikeO