Pizza

You can make pizza dough in your food processor in under 5 minutes.

Go to your local ceramic tile outlet and pick up some assorted tiles for a buck a piece. I have been using some from when they laid the foyer floor and those tiles have been in my oven for over six years now. And...I run them through the cleaning cycle of the oven every time.

The Fine Art of Cooking involves personal choice. Many preferences, ingredients, and procedures may not be consistent with what you know to be true. As with any recipe, you may find your personal intervention will be necessary. Bon Appetit!

This is from Fine Cooking! Makes a perfect dough.

@@@@@ Now You're Cooking! Export Format

Pizza Dough/Fine Cooking

breads, italian

2 1/4 ts yeast 1 1/2 c warm water; 110F 18 oz bread flour plus more for dusting 1 1/2 ts salt 2 ts olive oil

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and set aside.

Meanwhile, put the flour and salt in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Process briefly to mix. With the machine runni8ng, add the water-yeast mixture in a steady stream. Turn the processor off and add the oil. Pulse a few times to mix in the oil.

Divide the dough. Scrape the soft doughty out of the processor and onto a lightly floured surface. With lightly floured hands, quickly knead the doughty in a mass incorporating any bits of flour or doughty from the processor bowl that wasn't mixed in.

Cut dough into four equal pieces with a dough scrapper. Roll each piece into a tight smooth ball, kneading to push out all the air.

Proceed as usual.

Extra pieces of doughty will freeze very well. Cover with extra flour and seal and freeze in a quart zip lock bag for future use.

** Exported from Now You're Cooking! v5.66 **

The Fine Art of Cooking involves personal choice. Many preferences, ingredients, and procedures may not be consistent with what you know to be true. As with any recipe, you may find your personal intervention will be necessary. Bon Appetit!

I paid $65 for my 20x15 Fibrament stone and it has a 10 year warranty. It costs twice as much as the 14x16 stone sold by Williams-Sonoma but, it's, bigger, and higher-tech. They've been in business since the 40's so i have no concerns about them disappearing now.

It doesn't really feel like it was expensive. Sure, when i was between jobs, for TWO YEARS, i resisted the purchase and used $5 worth of quarry tiles instead.

But i also resisted expenses like . . . lemme put this in perspective for you. I'd restarted my career for 6 months already, and long since paid off all my debts, when i realized, in the middle of the grocery store, that i can throw away mayonnaise that i don't like. I'd bought the wrong product, and disliked it, and had been forcing myself to use it anyway. It took me six months to realize that i can afford to throw out a dollar's worth of food.

A few months after that i started buying unnecessary cheeses. some blue here, some dubliner there, some basque, etc. I've probably spent $40 on cheese in the last three months - that basque cheese isn't cheap, especially considering that it turns out that it's not particularly grand stuff.

Pizzahut uses a metal pan that's about 1.75 inches deep, with 1/3rd cup of oil. Not all of that oil ends up in your pizza. I know this because I worked there in a previous life. The thin crust, stuffed crust, and hand-tossed varieties are baked on sheet pan. I forget if it's perforated (something tells me that it's not). Their oven is also way hotter than yours, has forced convection as well, and bakes the pizza in about 3 minutes. I think it's actually closer to 2.8 minutes but i forget. This is actually stringently regulated by the regional offices, and a guy actually shows up and tests the oven every few years.

If you like the way that pizzahut essentially fries the crust, you can mostly accomplish that at home with a dark coated steel pan of similar dimensions. You'll have to switch the oven to the broiler for the last couple minutes to brown the toppings. I've done this, when i get a hankering for that style.

I have to admit i respect their process and ingredients, since i spent 6 months working with them. I can do it at home, but sometimes it's more labor than i'm interested in. I can keep balls of traditional pizza dough in the freezer indefinitely and thaw one out whenever I'm hungry - just roll it out, and it'll proof enough while I'm topping it. But the pan-type dough doesn't work properly unless you proof it to about 2.5x it's original size in the pan with the oil in a humid environment - basically a proofing box.

Quality can vary depending on the management - There's one pizzahut unit here that you should never order a pizza from *early in the day.

Franchise rules say that the produce is delivered fresh every morning. Everything but the olives and pineapple are fresh. This one place in my town, the manager has it in her diseased brain that throwing out last night's veggies is wasteful, so she has the cooks wrap the table in plastic and leave it out at room temperature for 12 hours until they start making pizzas again. She's never sat down and considered that if this happens every day, she's not saving anything by not throwing the stuff in the dumpster like the manual says. If she wanted to save money, she'd have a smaller produce order.

Being better than Domino's and little cheezers, etc, is pretty easy. All you have to do is use better than the cheapest cheese you can find and an actual sauce instead of a can of tomato paste. A little fennel in the sausage, etc.

Sounds so ridiculous, but I do this regularly with the recipe that came with my cuisinart processor. I tried it the first time because I had a real hankering for pizza and figured what the heck. Turned out Great!

Takes longer to heat the oven up. And having a really hot oven is important.

I do use a pizza stone and also have a larger one for bread making. Makes a real difference for the crust. I got the pizza stone on sale at Dansk and consider it a real plus. I got a larger one later on because the pizza stone wasn't big enough to bake two loaves of bread on.

I'm sure glad I tried that recipe! It's a fun part of my week.

Jimmy...we do EXACTLY what we WANT to do every day. I can make four portions in less than four mintues. I know we all have an extra four mintues.

The happy people are those who are producing something; the bored people are those who are consuming much and producing nothing.

- - William Ralph Inge

That´s exactly what I did - I consume a very crusty crust ever since... :-D

Joschi

How many times are you letting the dough rise; once in the machine and once in the bowl?

Just to be clear, I make the dough in 5 minutes (mixing and kneading) but I let it rise until double - about another 45 minutes. My point is that if all you are doing is making the dough in a bread machine, then I think a bread machine a huge piece of one-use equipment that could be easily replaced with a food processor. I overlooked using the FP for dough making for years. Once I decided to give it a try (because of a message posted here) I was amazed. It doesn't seem like it would work well, but it does. And I find that it is a lot less messy than using the KA stand mixer.

I have used this recipe for a long time. In fact, I noted the level of the flour in the work bowl ( it comes up to the shoulder of the FP blade) and I just "eyeball" the flour measurement. I use instant yeast, so that goes in with the flour - a scant tablespoon- and while I have that spoon out, I fill it half way with salt. The oil is just poured in. I turn on the machine and put hot tap water into the feed tube until a ball is form. I let that knead for about a minute (40 - 50 revolutions in the bowl). Voila - dough. No mess, almost no measuring, no timers. I also don't have to come back after a bread machine has finished mixing the dough and go on to the next step. I know for a fact that if I left to do something else that I might forget about the dough for a couple hours. Getting older does that to you!

I've been following this thread with interest. Since I still don't have a food processor, I'm curious about food processors but don't a clue what I'd use it for or where I'd put it.

How long does it take to clean the food processor?

That's pretty much the same pizza dough recipe that I make in my bread machine, but with a bread machine I can program it to start at a specific time and have dough ready to be used when I return home from a long afternoon of shopping or football game for example. Putting the ingredients into the machine also takes less than 5 minutes. I don't understand what you mean about coming back to do the next step... the next step would be roll out the dough and make pizza.

Gram

You can think of a food process as a mechanized knife - with some added abilities. Therefore, a FP will slice, chop, mince, and grind. You can use a FP to chop vegetables, grind your own meat, slice vegetable, make bread crumbs, chop or grind nuts, shred cheese or vegetables, cut potatoes into French fries, julienne vegetables, crush ice, and so on. You can use it to make short dough like pie pastry and biscuits - anything that needs fat cut into the flour. It can be use to mix cookie dough and make flat icings. You can make yeast dough. You can chop chocolate and then pour hot cream over it with the blade rotating to make ganache in seconds. A food processor can be used to make an emulsion - like mayonnaise. Most of the jobs can be done with the metal blade. Some units come with a special blade for dough. Mine has a whisk for egg whites and cream. They all come with a basic set of disks for thin and thick slicing, fine and coarse shredding, and julienne slicing. Some models have additional attachments like citrus juicers. Some allow you to mount a blender jar, giving you two appliances in on footprint.

To clean mine, I generally just put the bowl, blade, and lid into the dishwasher. It can be quickly washed by hand like any other bowl. I do use a brush to clean the blade as it is very sharp and it is dangerous to try to clean sticky dough off the bade with a cloth.

I keep mine on the counter all the time. It takes about the same amount of space as a coffee maker and less space than most bread machines.

One nice thing about a FP is that you can often do multiple task in the same bowl. For instance, when I make potato salad I start with the dressing. I put a raw egg in the bowl with some vinegar and the spices that I want in the salad - salt, pepper, mustard, celery seeds, hot sauce, etc. Then, I start the machine and add oil. This make the mayonnaise based dressing. Then I can put in some pickle chunks, onion, celery, and green and red pepper - pulsing until the veggies are chopped. In go the boiled eggs (which I boiled in the pan with potatoes) and then I pulse. Once the hot potatoes are peeled and diced, I add them back to the pot they were boiled in and pour over the dressing from the food processor bowl. You can do a similar thing with coleslaw, making the dressing in the FP and then shredding the cabbage into the same bowl.

If you have no interest in baking and only want some fresh bread, then a bread machine makes sense. I know that many people will disagree, but I don't think using a bread machine has much to do with baking. To me, using a bread machine and claiming that you bake bread is like putting in a DVD and claiming you are an actor. Furthermore, it is a singe-use device. You can't make mayo, grind nuts, or shred cheese with a bread machine, but you can do all this and make dough with the FP. Therefore, if all you are using a bread machine for is making dough, it seems like the FP would be a better choice. I also think that a FP gives you more control over the mixing process because you can see what is going on. If the dough needs more liquid or more flour, you can add it down the feed tube to make corrections in real time. I gave my bread machine away because it was a "load and pray" situation for me. I put in the ingredients and prayed that I had done everything right and the gods were with me.

Well, I'm quite a hand with a French chefs knife... I'm not going to say that I as fast as a FP chopping, but I will say that by the time I cut up onions, celery, peppers, etc., rinse and wipe the blade and put it up, having neat evenly sized pieces, rings, etc, Depending upon How big a meal I'm planning.... Not forgetting that a 14" knife will cut one or many whatever with a stroke, I'm probably about even. I do have a BE&DO food processor that I use for cheese, potatoes (hash brns and chips) but if I'm just doing enough for a family meal, I just use the knife. Plus, I'm tricky with the knife... flip it, balance it vertically on the tip of my finger... BUT I AM INTERESTED IN... making dough with the processor... I don't believe that MY food processor (10 yr. old and small) will do the trick. Went on Ebay and found them from $59 to $1000.00

There is no substitute for a good knife. I don't use the FP for all slicing and dicing either.

You might try your old FP. Mine is at least 15 years old and only 400 watts. It does a fine job with one pound or so of flour ( 3 - 5 cups). That is more than enough for a nice sized loaf of bread or a couple of pizzas. Once the dough forms a ball ( which should be in a minute or two) you only have to knead for an additional minute or about 40-50 rotations of the ball around the work bowl.

Thanks for the long and thoughtful response, but I'm still not convinced that I'll get enough use out of a food processor. I love gadgets and I keep walking past a Cuisinart at Costco. each time I stop and look at it and try to imagine myself using it. I'm trying to justify making a purchase. I'm still in the research stage...

I'm an average cook, I love to bake pies and breads, make mostly basic comfort foods, Soups, stews, casseroles, chicken pie etc.

For almost 40 years I've managed with a good set of knives and my KA mixer. About 10 years ago I bought my first bread machine at Costco (impulse purchase)... It's probably my most used appliance, I love the thing! I have since purchased another. I use it 4-5 times a week. It's not a dump and go appliance as many people think. I make all our bread, rolls & sweet buns and have recently turned to sourdough. I do use the bread machine to mix & knead that too. I rarely use the KA for dough any more, I like the dough from my bread machine better and I don't have to stand by it while it works. I doubt that I could switch to a food processor for my dough, but never say never.

Does a FP produce heat when you pulse pie crust or cookie dough? I wouldn't want my crust to get warm. I don't want my bread dough too warm either.

My blender is having issues, I'm wondering if I could replace the blender with a food processor. About The only things that I use the blender for is an occasional diet frappe (crushed ice instead of ice cream) and smoothing lumps out of rushed gravy, and sometimes salad dressings or marinades. You mentioned fruit, could you make frozen fruit drinks... not that I need one, I'm getting too fat from eating all my breads, I'm thinking about kids treats here.

Cleaning is a big concern, I don't want to get stuck with something that takes longer to clean than use. The KA mixer has a bunch of attachments, but they are a pain to use clean and store, I never would have purchased any of them they were a gift. My husband ground meat once... It took forever and it was messy...that was enough!

Oh.. Chocolate , hot cream, ganache... I'm drooling

Rina

On Wed 04 May 2005 06:20:00a, Vox Humana wrote in rec.food.baking:

I agree, Vox. I also avoided using the FP for years to make any type of yeast dough until I saw several recipes for pizza dough. The FP is all I use now for my pizza dough and it's much easier and faster.

Not a lot. At least my mother's 80's era Cuisinart 7 cup doesn't. We used to buy raw milk, separate the cream, and make butter by pouring it in the FP and turning it on. We'd walk away and wait for the gurgling sound to change. Never melted any, even in the summer.

The major difference between a blender and a FP in these cases is the width of the vessel and the position and size of the blades. A blender tends to send material up the sides of the pitcher, and they then return down the vortex. The FP is simply wider, and less gravity is involved. It still achieves a vortex.

You can do all of the above in a food processor, the blender might be better at frozen drinks.

I think the FP is easier, in a sense. There are more parts, but they're easier to handle. I've never come up with a really good way to clean the blades in a blender. In extreme situations the pitcher has to be disassembled and the blades cleaned with a brush or something.

The blades in a food processor are big enough to clean with a cloth, sponge, whatever. They also pretty much just lift out of the bowl - they sit on a spindle that comes up through the bottom of the bowl. The bowl is easily rinsed or washed in a dishwasher. The lid can be a little complex, but it usually doesn't get very dirty.