Salvaging Bread Dough

Hello. New person here. I hope someone can help me salvage some calzone dough. I accidentally put in too much water (about twice as much as called for in the recipe). I'm working on a second batch of dough, but I'd like to salvage the first one. (I hate to waste 4 cups of flour.) Can I simply add more flour, salt, yeast, and olive oil, in the correct proportions, to make up for the extra water? Does it matter that it had been mixing for about 8 minutes (and is now sitting in my refrigerator)? Finally, assuming it can be salvaged, do I need to use it right away, or can it be stored (refrigerator? freezer?), since I don't relish making 3 batches of calzones tonight.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Reply to
Jennifer Darling
Loading thread data ...

Yes, you can work in more flour, salt, and oil. You don't have to add more yeast if you don't want to. Knead it to the proper consistency and refrigerate it. It will slowly rise in the refrigerator in a day or two. The results should taste better than when you do a quick rise. You can keep it for about a week. After that it start to get rather sour and smell of alcohol. While I tend to be rather thrifty, four cups of flour is about a pound which costs about 30 cents. It may not be worth the hassle when you think about it.

Reply to
Vox Humana

Thank you so much! You're probably right about the hassle vs. the cost, but I just hate wasting stuff. Given the amount of refrigerator space I have right now, it'll probably go in the trash. This info will be helpful in the future, though, since these kind of mishaps are, unfortunately, not completely unknown to me.

This dough may make a good pizza crust. One more question: If I use it for pizza, could I parbake the dough and then freeze? I'm obviously a bit of a novice here.

Thanks again.

Jennifer

Reply to
Jennifer Darling

Bread is incredible adaptable. You can cool rise the dough in the refrigerator. You can put the dough in the freeze before or after the first rise. You can partially bake the pizza crust and then freeze it.

I know there has been a long thread about making bread with a formula. I generally don't measure the liquid when I make bread. I just add enough to make the dough the proper consistency. It is hard to add way too much water that way. If you have a food processor, you might consider trying it when you make your dough. I use instant yeast (AKA bread machine yeast) and add it to the flour and other dry ingredients in the bowl. I pulse to distribute the ingredients and then turn the machine on and start adding the wet ingredients - milk, water, oil, eggs, soften butter, etc.. When the dough forms a ball and starts rotating in the bowl, I stop adding the liquid and let it run for about a minute or until the ball rotates around the bowl about 40 times. At that point the dough is ready for the first rise in a oiled bowl. It's very quick and there is no mess as the FP bowl contains all the flour and then goes into the dishwasher.

Reply to
Vox Humana

Do the math sweetie...you might be disposing of 65 cents of flour. Most people wouldn't bend over to pick up six dimes in the parking lot at the mall.

Reply to
Anita P. Ness

Noted previously. The issue for me isn't cost, but just a constitutional aversion to waste. Plus, I like the idea of recycling a mistake into something useful--in this case it will probably be pizza dough. And, thanks to Vox Humana's very generous replies, I've learned a bit about dough and how forgiving it can be.

Jennifer

Reply to
Jennifer Darling

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.