Making Pizza Dough in a food processor??

[ThinCrust99]

When I bought a new food processor a few months ago I wanted to make sure that I could make dough in it. It is a Cuisinart 11 Cup. Has anyone made dough in a food processor that turned out well? And does anyone have a dough recipe for a food proccesor? Thanks

Chris

[Wiley]

HI Chris,
Here's a copy of a posting I made sometime back. I found the recipe when I was completing my WFO two years ago. It is a wet dough and if you learn to work the original recipe doughs like Ciabatta will be no problem. I have modified it to be a bit drier moving to 11 and 1/2 oz of flour with everything else remaining the same. This makes it easier for guest to handle the dough.

It makes a very thin pizza.

The previous posting:
quote:
I have had great luck using the recipe below. It uses a food processor rather than a mixer. I divide the dough ball created into thirds making for pizzas running about 170+ grams per pizza skin. You could easily divide it into two and get pizzas closer to your desired weight.

These are easy to make and for ourselves and an additional couple I usually just double the recipe (I make it twice). That delivers 6 pizzas about 11 to 12 inches in diameter. Total time to mix and clean up is 20 minutes...the rest is waiting (not that there isn't alot to do for a party. I have modified the recipe to two periods of autolyse: two hours then a stretch and fold and divide into separate containers then two more hours and into the WFO. That makes for about 4 hours and an easy count back to when I have to start mixing. I have done a party with 36 pizzas and it wasn't a problem...having enough individual containers was more of a problem.

I have not played with mixing this recipe by hand but seeing as how wet it is it should be no more of a problem that the typical no kneed bread dough.

Here's the recipe:
Quote:
piomike
Serf Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: california
Posts: 17

My first Pizza Party And Dough Recipe

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's a link to photo's of my first pizza party

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/piomike/album?.dir=7660

Also I found this dough recipe and it is the best I've had.

2 cups bread flour
1 tsp quick rise yeast or 1/2 pack
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 cup warm water

in a food processor with the plastic blade. blend dry ingrediants add oil then turn on and add the water slowly. it is a wet dough. turn out on a floured surface and knead 5-10 times put in a large oiled bowl, rise 2 hours in a warm place. thats it and it is great........

end quote. Search the archives there is a whole thread on different recipes. I did acomparison with this recipe against the Reinhart one in "The Baker's Apprentice". Among my test group there was no general feeling that the Reinhart one was better or worse and a couple people voted this one over the Reinhart one. So as it is easier to make and a toss-up or better with my friends and myself, I have continued with it., (save for my modification of two risings with a stretch and fold between).

Hope this helps,
Wiley

[ThinCrust99]

So if you were making 20 or more for a party after you divide into single pizzas what do you put them in? Would ziplocks be ok? Also can you freeze this dough and use later.....(I realize fresher is better but i mean for like a pizza for myself a day)

Thanks

Chris

[sacwoodpusher]

A pizzeria in Wilton, CA uses clear plastic wrap. What they do is take a square sheet of plastic wrap, plop the ball of pizza dough on it, gather the 4 corners together, and spin it. Then, they tie a knot in the plastic wrap.

You really do want to make the dough balls well in advance so that the dough is trained to stay together...it makes shaping easier.

Alternatively, drizzle a little olive oil into a bowl, and turn the dough so the whole ball is coated. Cover the bowl with a dish towel or cloth. Leave this on the counter.

[Prefessa]

I have done this many times...but I had on occasion had smoke coming off the motor. Pizza dough is very wet and puts alot of strain on the motor. I typically mix by hand dough wisk, and once it gets to the point of a dough I use the food process to finish it off....I made EXCELLENT dough with the same unit. Sometimes I think I got better dough on the cuisinart than the KA stand mixer! You will eventually kill your food processor tho..

[Ken524]

I agree with Prefessa.

I have a 14 cup Cuisinart (that I love). I did my first few batches of dough in it until I noticed the "burning electric motor" smell... Remember the smell you got after your old O-Scale Lionel electric trains crashed and shorted out on the tracks? Your Cuisinart motor isn't supposed to smell that way.

I realized that for the foreseeable future, we would be making a lot of pizza dough, so I bought a Kitchenaid 6qt stand mixer. A couple of years ago Kitchenaid had several production runs with bad gearboxes (they switched to plastic gears). They switched back to metal and as far as I know the new machines are the workhorses we remember. Mine was one of the first with the new metal gear box and I haven't had a problem.

[wotavidone]

Hi. The recipe Wiley posted is almost identical to the recipe that I have been using for my pizza stone efforts. It was in the book that came with bread machine. It is:
2.5 cups flour, 200mL (1 metric cup?) Water, tsp salt, tbsp olive oil, and 1.75 tsp dried yeast. I have been using cheap homebrand flour $3 for 2 kg, but reading the label and grabbing whichever one has 11% + protein.

The bread machine takes 1.5 hours to turn this into a very passable dough, that I then divide into 3 lots of approximately 200g each to make three thin and crispy crust pizzas, that generally I find very satisfactory.

But, I do believe it can be better.

My book says that the dough is ready to go after it has kneaded it twice and punched it down at the end, but Wiley says he lets it rise another two hours. Does it make a lot of difference?

The family are happy enough with my pizzas that they voted for pizza night once per week. I think it's partly so the missus gets a night off from cooking. I have been trying to make a batch the night before so that we only have to wait for the bread machine to make one batch on the night. This gives a pizza each on the night, plus one for lunch the next day for me at work. (Relax, I share it around with my workmates, I'm not planning on turning into an elephant.)
The thing is, the premade batch I wrap in cling film and put in the fridge. It works, but just isn't quite the same as the dough made on the night. Any hints on ways to make the premade dough the best it can be?
Also, any hints for freezing? I'm afraid that hasn't been very good for me.
I'm really not sure what's best. Let it rise fully, freeze, thaw, cook straightaway? Or let it rise fully, freeze, take it out in the morning, thaw, and leave it to see if it will rise some more during the day? Or mix it, let it rise somewhat, then freeze, thaw the night before and leave it on the counter to rise over the day and cook it that night?
Does yeast work after being frozen, anyway? I keep the yeast in the fridge, so I'm sorta assuming it takes more than low temps to kill that lovely little microrganism.
Any suggestions, chaps?
Regards,
Mick