making pizza with the bread machine

[jd_1138]

My in laws bought us a bread machine (Emeril by T-Fal), and it sat unused for a year, so today I opened it up for the first time and decided to make some pizza with it. I think I messed up by not using warm water (I let it come to room temp first). Also the recipe called for veggie oil in the bread machine. I think EVOO would have been better. And I think I used the wrong type of yeast. And I should've sprinkled some Italian seasonings into the mixture.

After the machine finished with the dough (after an hour and a half), I removed it and kneaded it a little and then I spread it on a sheet pan (that I had rubbed some EVOO on) and then I rubbed some EVOO on top of the crust and then covered it in a cloth and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then I spread some homemade style marinara sauce on it (from our local Italian deli) and topped it with some hand sliced Gallo salami, pepperoni, diced garlic, some banana peppers and mozzarella. I baked it for 23 minutes at 400 degrees F.

I think I made some blunders, but it still came out awesome. Most of the recipes differ. And while there is a pizza dough setting on the machine, the recipe book that came with it didn't have a recipe for pizza dough (unless they meant for you to use the basic bread recipe). So I just grabbed a bread machine pizza dough off the internet. Some recipes call for rolling the dough into a ball and oiling it and letting it sit for 30-45 minutes, but I didn't do that. I only let it sit for 15 minutes after I had kneaded it and spread it out in the pan. Kinda confusing as to all the variations, but it still came out great. I think we'll be using this bread machine a lot. I think next time, I will fine tune it and not make the mistakes, and I will work with the dough to make it thinner. It's all brand new to me.

 

[Mick]

I make my pizza dough in a bread machine.

 

[barrycv]

I've used my bread machine for making pizza dough, too. It has been several years, though.

Mine just basically uses the bread machine for a kneader. After you add the ingredients, you stop the cycle before the heater gets turned on (right after the mix/knead cycle). Worked OK IIRC. I never let the dough rest afterwards, which I think I should have done.

 

[nickturbo]

we have used our bread machine to make pizza dough many times.......lately I have been baking it in a cast iron frying pan....gives a very nice crustiness to the finished product

 

[Jut]

i use my kitchenaid and it works great

 

[dannymayo]

If you make the dough a day in advance it will develop a mild sourdough flavor, a lot of pizza joints by me do this and I really dig it.

 

[Klopstick]

You can make extra dough and store it in the fridge for a few days. It does get a bit of a sourdough whang to it, which makes it even better. Just keep an eye out for mold if you go over a week in the fridge.

 

[maxman]

We used to make our dough in the breadmaker.
It makes it easy that's for sure.

 

[PugslyCat]

I've been doing this for a couple of months. I am using a recipe from The Bread Machine Cookbook by Donna Rathmell German. I can use her small or medium size recipes and get several pizzas out of each. Usually I have to add a couple tablespoons of water to make the dough come together.

I have tried a number of variations on her basic recipe. I have changed the mixture of whole wheat and white flour, substituted bread flour for AP, substitute vegetable oil for olive oil, and sometimes added a little sugar to the mix to feed the yeast, or increased the yeast to get a pan pizza.

Usually I wind up rolling the dough and then doing some board stretching. Tossing it just doesn't seem to work for me. The dough just doesn't seem "stretchy" enough to make that work.

Normally I grease a regular pizza pan with shortening and then dust it with flour or corn meal, but have had good luck with one of the pizza pans with holes in it as well. The corn meal adds an interesting bit of texture. Maybe tonight I'll try cooking directly on the rack. My dough seems stiff enough for that to work. One thing I haven't tried is grilled pizza. I've heard it works well but have no first hand experience.

A strange combination of toppings that I have tried recently is bacon lardons with sautéed onion, and asparagus. Sounds odd, but works out pretty well.

 

[Alacrity59]

It is not very hard to make pizza dough by hand. Might as well make a few pizza's worth. I always make at least three pizza's worth . . . letting the yeast work on the dough in the fridge does add to the flavor.

 

[Luc]

The bread machine is pretty cool to make all those breads and dough. I use it mainly to mix the ingredients. Olive oil taste better in dough than veggie oil that's for sure.

 

[barrycv]

Normally I grease a regular pizza pan with shortening and then dust it with flour or corn meal

Corn meal is better to use - loose flour will burn at typical pizza cooking temps.

One thing I haven't tried is grilled pizza. I've heard it works well but have no first hand experience.

I've cooked pizza on the grill. Few pointers: (1) keep them small & thin. The whole thing cooks fast, so not enough time to get a nicely cooked exterior & properly cooked interior if the dough is thick. You'll get either a nice outside but raw inside, or the opposite. Neither is good. (2) Keep your toppings at the ready & cooked (if appropriate). In the same vein as #1, cook time is real quick. Anything like sausage or anything that needs cooking has to be done separately ahead of time. If doing a traditional sauce, have it heated slightly when applying. Go modest w/ cheese - it will barely melt. You'll be in danger of burning crust if you wait for it to be totally gooey.

Grilled pizza is decent, but IMO more of a novelty than anything.

 

[john187]

Hi, I'm an avid baker. You can make pizza in 10 minutes by hand. Forget all the machines they just mess it up and waste time. Heat 1.5 cp h2o to 105 deg (feels warm not hot). Add a tsp yeast. add a cup of bread flour and a tsp salt. Add alternating cups of whole wheat and bread flour until it forms a thick shaggy dough you can not stir with a wooden spoon. Now begin kneading. Add flour until it is slightly moist but not sticky. Knead until it is springy, 6 mins. Note: there is only one measurement required, the water.

For thin crust, flatten and bake immediately. For thick raise for up to several hours. After it doubles knead a minute and raise again. Then flatten raise and bake. For Chicago deep dish bake in a casserole.

Preheat oven 1 hour, Bake @500 12 mins to perfection. We have homemade pizza every Friday, takes a few minutes...family loves it. Takes a bit of practice but like a good shave it's well worth it.

Ps you now know how to bake bread as well. Same process different shaping. Throw that bread machine on Craigslist.

 

[PugslyCat]

I am using a recipe from The Bread Machine Cookbook by Donna Rathmell German...

Usually I wind up rolling the dough and then doing some board stretching. Tossing it just doesn't seem to work for me. The dough just doesn't seem "stretchy" enough to make that work.

Last night I tried this with just AP instead of half AP and half whole wheat flour. This seemed to produce the consistency of dough I am used to seeing in pizza shops. I like to have some whole wheat in the mix, so I'll probably experiment with 2/3 AP and 1/3 whole wheat to see how that turns out.

Normally I grease a regular pizza pan with shortening and then dust it with flour or corn meal...

Corn meal is better to use - loose flour will burn at typical pizza cooking temps.

Yea, that's kind of been my experience with the flour, thus the move to corn meal. I like the texture the corn meal brings to the party as well. Besides, corn meal is one of those things I have in the cupboard that I need to come up with a few more uses for as I can't use the smallest package available in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[barrycv]

Are you trying to get a Great Plains Sauce & Dough Co wheat pizza thing going? Eat the crust w/ some honey?

 

[PugslyCat]

Are you trying to get a Great Plains Sauce & Dough Co wheat pizza thing going? Eat the crust w/ some honey?

For those not in the know, GPS&D Co. is a local pizzaria here in Ames. They are best known for their whole wheat crust.

I wasn't actually trying to copy them, but now that you mention it the recipe I mentioned earlier does come kind of close. I try to do whole wheat and whole grains as much as I can, so it was a happy coincidence that the first recipe I found used some whole wheat flour.

 

[barrycv]

GPS&D is the one thing from college I do miss food-wise from out there a bit.

And the occasional Lucullan's fish bowl.

 

[Omak]

Two words, pizza stone.

I'll never look back

 

[jd_1138]

I'll have to get a pizza stone. I hear that it makes a crispy crust.

I made a thin pizza today for an appetizer to our BBQ. I worked with the dough and got it thin, and topped with marinara sauce (from the local Italian deli), olives, peppers, salami, garlic and herb seasoning, and mozarella. It came out nice and crispy. I guessed on the cooking times, 18 minutes, and it was done. I used Gold Medal (for bread) flour.

 

[langod]

Corn meal is better to use - loose flour will burn at typical pizza cooking temps.
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I've cooked pizza on the grill. Few pointers: (1) keep them small & thin. [/FONT][/SIZE]The whole thing cooks fast, so not enough time to get a nicely cooked exterior & properly cooked interior if the dough is thick. You'll get either a nice outside but raw inside, or the opposite. Neither is good. (2) Keep your toppings at the ready & cooked (if appropriate). In the same vein as #1, cook time is real quick. Anything like sausage or anything that needs cooking has to be done separately ahead of time. If doing a traditional sauce, have it heated slightly when applying. Go modest w/ cheese - it will barely melt. You'll be in danger of burning crust if you wait for it to be totally gooey.

Grilled pizza is decent, but IMO more of a novelty than anything.

I grill pizza on a regualr basis. (We have "Pizza Night" every week -- usually baked, but on hot summer nights we crank up the grill)
One thing I'd add though is to cook the dough by itself for a few minutes on one side (to firm but not browned) then flip it, add sauce and toppings and cook the rest of the way. Makes a nice crispy crust and avoids any problems with soggy interior.

I'll have to get a pizza stone. I hear that it makes a crispy crust.

I made a thin pizza today for an appetizer to our BBQ. I worked with the dough and got it thin, and topped with marinara sauce (from the local Italian deli), olives, peppers, salami, garlic and herb seasoning, and mozarella. It came out nice and crispy. I guessed on the cooking times, 18 minutes, and it was done. I used Gold Medal (for bread) flour.

A pizza stone (or plain, untreated stone tiles from Home Depot, etc) works great. Get the biggest one that'll fit (or an entire racks worth of tiles). You can leave it in the oven full-time -- it'll help even out the temperature in the oven when cooking other things too.
If you're cooking your pizza for 18 minutes, your oven isn't hot enough. Crank it ALL the way up. Most home ovens can hit 450-500°F. My pizza takes 10 minutes at 500, 12 at 450. Also -- preheat the oven and get it to temp with the pizza stone in the oven for at least 30 minutes before cooking.