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moonscape50
6 Posts |
 Posted - 10/19/2009 : 5:00:12 PM
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I'm thrilled to have the Artisan - my first mixer ever and I'm in my 50's. I know, I know. But never tooo late to smarten up, eh? Also grateful to this forum because it has been so instructive reading through posts.
I've never made bread by hand (only used an old breadmaker I retired) and so my learning curve is going to be steep and long, I'm sure. But I'm game...
Yesterday I tried to make a pizza with the recipe in the book:
1 (1/4 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 1/2-3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
It was a total disaster. I wanted to make a whole wheat dough but there was way too much flour at 2 cups - the dough hook stopped completely. I figured it had something to do with the whole wheat flour, so I tried again with only bread flour (which is what I had on hand.)
The result, if possible, was at least as bad. Again, the dough hook stopped with only the 2.5 cups of flour. I took it out and tried to knead by hand but it was far too dry. Why would I need fewer than 2.5 cups of flour for the dough?
I'm thinking I'll try a bread recipe and see what happens. I think I have a bit of flour left after tossing my first attempts!
Thanks - and I really look forward to learning from all of you, and hopefully contributing once I get my feet wet. |
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SpiceUmUp
USA
1865 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2009 : 7:54:43 PM
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You say the dough hard and dry? If so I would check my measurements. If the dough was soft and sticky and it still stopped the hook I woudl call KA customer service.
I make pizza dough based on the KA recipe almost every weekend, never a problem. My profile picture shows pizza I made using this recipe
I know this may sound silly but when I was first starting out I forgot my two cup measuring cup was two cups not one (Brain jam) and I accidentally added twice the flour required.
Happiness is Fresh baked bread, aged wine, soft cheese and firm friends.
Life is to short for Boring food
KitchenAid Forum: Where nuts are not just an ingredient, they are a community
Where you are is where you are meant to be. Everything you have done has brought you to this place at this time. It is where you are going that you can change
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cooknupastorm
USA
2063 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2009 : 8:45:44 PM
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I also had an awful experience with that recipe from the booklet. This is a recipe I found here in the deep dark old posts through the "search" feature a long time ago and it has NEVER failed me and it is SUPER SUPER easy!!!
Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups warm water
Put all in mixer bowl and knead with dough hook until desired consistency.
THAT IS ALL!!!! It is not tricky, complicated or prone to getting messed up. I just dump everything together (I don't even get a temperature on the warm water!) and knead until it looks about right- which is not long, a minute ot 2 is usually fine for me. It tastes really good, but we are a big whole-wheat bunch over here so maybe it is our taste buds (I'm hoping that's not the case and you'll love it too!)! I use this recipe for calzones also. And here's the best part- my son wanted white dough so I just substituted white flour for the whole wheat and the recipe worked fine that way too! I did find I needed really overflowing cups of the white flour to make the recipe work and not have the dough be too sticky, though. Hope this helps you out, moonscape50, and I also hope you love this recipe as much as I do!!! Good luck! OH!!! Another tip- I first measure the olive oil with the tablespoon and then use the same spoon to do the honey- I pour it right in the spoon and the honey just completely slips right off from the olive oil coating!  |
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Nutritionist
USA
1987 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2009 : 6:14:51 PM
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Any time the dough is too dry - don't give up on it! It's not a failure. Just add more liquid and it will be fine. 
Bonnie
"Leave your drugs in the chemist's pot if you can heal the patient with food."
~ Hippocrates, The Father of Western Medicine, 460 BCE. |
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mixedupjo
USA
297 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2009 : 9:46:17 PM
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Moonie, I've used the KA recipe for pizza crust and found it yummy with white all-purpose flour. I can't wait to try Cooknup's whole wheat recipe. I always start with 1/2 to 1 cup LESS flour than the recipe says to start with. I'd rather hand-knead some LOVE into a sticky dough than pitch a batch that's dry and dead. There's something oddly soothing about hand kneading, if you have the time. I'd rather do that than change a poo-poo diaper any day, even if the Poo King is my precious grandson. I adore the grandbabies, but yeast and flour beats diapers and wipes any day. Eck. That smell (diapers)is stuck in my nose and my head. |
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moonscape50
6 Posts |
Posted - 10/23/2009 : 04:46:11 AM
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Awesome, guys - thanks! I'm going to try the whole wheat one this wkend, cookn, and will let you know. Sounds perfect.
It's not at all stupid to question my measurements, but I use stainless cups w/ 1 C being the largest - and, I did the recipe twice. Never questioned it was the KitchenAid, I knew full well the problem was somehow on my end (KitchenAid has way more experience with this bakin' thing that I do...) and that it was because it was so dry.
Not being a baker, I have quite a learning curve, but won't allow it to defeat me, no matter how many times I clear out Safeway's supply of King Arthur flour...
I'm curious though, why my dough would be so incredibly dry at the minimum amt of flour (major crumbly), and what the factors are that cause large variations. Can humidity be a significant factor? I do live in a very dry climate, but I think I'm reaching :) |
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moonscape50
6 Posts |
Posted - 10/25/2009 : 03:08:41 AM
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I tried your recipe Cookn, and with some practice I think it’s a keeper. Thanks.
Wasn’t able to fully knead the dough. For physical reasons I’m not able to do much hand-kneading, and the mixer had trouble. Although the dough was pretty elastic and pulled out nicely into a too-thin crust (talk about overshooting a goal), I didn’t get any ir/bubbling/whatever on the crust’s edge. So – I’ve work to do, but based on a blind tasting of two pieces from the pie, am off to a reasonable start #61514;
The Artisan started stalling and stopping pretty much from the get-go, but this time the proportions did work. I went with ¾ wheat/¼ all-purpose, and next time will try bread flour for the 1/4.
Called KitchenAid to find out what I was doing wrong and they're sending a replacement. The customer service rep was great – and am impressed that she volunteered KitchenAid will switch out the product, allow upgrade, if this replacement doesn't yield the kneading results I'm looking for. Unfortunately, the higher-power models are really too tall to fit under my cabinets (just measured this evening), so this Artisan is it and I’ll just have to beat it into submission. Better would be for it to beat itself into submission – after all, I bought it to do the beating!
The rep I talked to just signed up on the forum a week ago and hopefully she'll post soon cuz she's a pizza gal. I should add - a =great= pizza gal.
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cooknupastorm
USA
2063 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2009 : 4:37:31 PM
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I knew something was up with the mixer as I was reading your post, moonscape. Glad to hear you are getting a new one- NOW you will be kneading (efficiently!!!)!!!!  Keep us posted on your pizza dough progress!!!! |
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moonscape50
6 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2009 : 03:14:49 AM
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Well Cookn, you were right about something up w/ the Artisan. The replacement arrived today and do I feel like an idiot. The 'stir' works! I'm not sure why I didn't notice this - I had just dutifully put it on '2' for kneading and ignored the fact '2' was the first setting that even worked, sort of.
But - I did use the other half of the dough from my first effort with your recipe, didn't pull it out as thinly as before, and it turned out surprisingly well. Got some nice air bubbles (bear with my terminology...) in the baked crust, and it was so healthy. Used almost no cheese except goat, went w/ pesto vs pizza sauce, and built from there.
This is going to be fun! |
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srenee
USA
1423 Posts |
Posted - 11/11/2009 : 08:57:17 AM
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Making pizza is so much fun! I have been experimenting with the different recipes, and the kids are having fun putting them together. Great family pastime.
Have fun and keep on smiling! |
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cooknupastorm
USA
2063 Posts |
Posted - 11/11/2009 : 6:39:37 PM
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| GREAT, moonscape!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ENJOY! See, it WAS the MIXER!!!!! |
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PatsyCooks
1 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2009 : 9:09:05 PM
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I just tried my first pizza dough made in the mixer yesterday. I used this recipe for the dough. http://elise.com/recipes/archives/004239homemade_pizza.php
I used my own choice of toppings for it.
I followed the directions and it came out great. I think 10 minutes of kneading with the dough hook is a bit much, but it was nice elastic dough.
I let it raise less than an hour in an oven that I preheated to 170°, then turned off. After I turned the oven off, I put the dough in it's oiled glass bowl in the oven. It doubled in size fairly quickly I thought. This recipe does make enough dough for two pizzas. I froze the other half of the dough after I punched it down. I put flour right on my cookie sheet and put the dough on and flattened it out as much as I could with floured hands. Let it rest for a few more minutes, then continue to press it out to the edges. Since my cookie sheet is "dark" I reduced the temperature of the oven to 400°. It really turned out nice. The bottom of the crust was browned just right and the edges were crisp. I took some to work today and everyone wondered where I got it...LOL
If the dough gets too "elastic" and snapping back like a rubber band when trying to spread it out, let it rest for a few minutes and try again. |
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KitchenAidQuinn
1070 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2009 : 4:53:02 PM
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You're right, Patsy, 10 minutes in the mixer with the dough hook is a bit much. You can drastically reduce the kneading time for dough with the KA mixer, because of the planetary mixing action. Two minutes of mixer kneading is equivalent to 10-12 minutes by hand. Once the dough starts to form a ball on the hook and 'clean' the sides of the bowl, knead for 2 minutes, and you should be done!
Glad to hear your pizza came out so good!
KitchenAid Quinn |
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Zarqy
Canada
7 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2010 : 8:17:57 PM
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I made the wife and kids this pizza recipe tonight with my Kitchenaid Classic. Yes, that's right I'm a husband that bakes bread! Everything worked out perfectly, not sure what all the fuss is about with prior comments on the recipe. Dough was just a tad on the dry side when I pulled it out of the bowl but a quick 20 second knead with moistened hands fixed it right up. Everyone raved about it. Accidentally used only a 12" pizza pan and it was quite a thick crust, be definitely not doughy. Will use the proper 14" pan pan (or maybe even up to 16" I know I'm a dare devil) 
***EDIT***
Okay, so just after I posted I got curious and bored....and well my boys are always hungry for pizza so I decided to whip up another batch of dough and try it out on my 16" pan. I stretched it out to 15-15 1/2" and you know what it still was quite thick. Next time for sure I'll stretch it out the complete 16". And just an FYI I followed the recipe exactly and again, just had to do a quick 20 knead with damp hands after I pulled it out of the bowl. Perfect dough again.
Oh, one more thing, just out of habit I did proof the yeast a little first with a tsp of sugar to give those little yeasts something to munch on and let it proof for about 5 mins before I added the rest of the ingredients. And the recipe calls to add salt next, but I know that salt can easily kill yeast so I mixed it in with the flour before I added it all. I guess I just never think of those little things that you do that comes with experience.
here's a before baking, and after baking pic stretched out to almost 16"
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cooknupastorm
USA
2063 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2010 : 10:19:43 AM
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| Wow, that pizza looks YUMMMMMMY!!!!!! It's only breakfast time here in NY and I'm drooling for a slice of that pizza!! |
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SandyF
USA
214 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2010 : 2:40:33 PM
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I made pizza about a week ago from the recipe in the book, and it was wonderful. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take any pictures.  Also unfortunately, my pizza stone is only 13", so our crust was pretty thick -- delicious, but thick. Next time, I think I'll double the recipe and make three crusts out of the doubled batch.
I don't have a peel, so I just carefully picked up my stretched-out dough and slapped it onto the preheated stone -- then I baked the dough for a few minutes before adding toppings. I did that because my husband likes a crisp crust, and I'd read that prebaking really helps with that, and it did. 
We like to just brush olive oil and garlic onto the crust, then add toppings without any tomato sauce, so that's what we did with this one (he likes to help add the toppings -- to the point where the pizza could probably double as a small mountain ). It turned out so well that I think I'll be making pizza more often, though with less dough.
SandyF
Classic K45SS ("Blanche") with FGA, SNPA, KPRA, SSA, FVSFGA, KPEXTA |
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Pizza dough help!
