I made pizzas last night – they were great! But during the dough making process, the dough didn’t ball up easily. It seemed too goopy and stuck to the bottom of the mixing bowl.
I eventually fixed this by adding more and more flour – probably 20% more than the 500g flour and 2.5 cups of water the recipe asked for.
I also had to take the mixer up and manually spatula the dough about, off the bottom of the mixer.
I was wondering if I’d used too much water?
by GeologistAndy
33 Comments
Usually if you just wait the gluten formation will naturally tend to pull it up after a minute or so.
yes, more flour. measure your water in grams not cups. but how much you need can change depending on the flour, planetary alignment etc.
Adding more flour is the trap many people fall in. Post your recipe so we can help. Is the picture after adding flour, because it looks fine?
I always have that , mine never climb all on the hook and it’s fine
2,5 cups is 590 mL.. that’s 118%. That can’t be right
Do not add more ingredients, and try not to use volume as a measurement if you can help it. Anyways, the easiest way to get it to come off the bottom is to turn up the speed on the mixer one notch. That’s it. It’ll separate and mix properly, and if you turn it back down it’ll go stick to the bottom again. Science
Gotta love when even if something doesn’t seem right it can still be delicious lol. But yeah, definitely weigh your water. Way over 100% hydration. You’re looking more at 60-70% for pizza depending on the style you want. So, 300-350 grams of water for the amount of flour you used. Also I like to fully homogenize my ingredients and let them sit covered for 10-15 minutes before any kneading. You’d be amazed how much the natural gluten process just does it for you.
This looks fine. If you’re in an area where it’s summer you have to add less water when it’s hot and humid than you do in the winter when it’s dry. The flour is “thirstier” under those conditions
The clearance on the doughhook and bowl can be adjusted. Double check that
I run into this issue all the time, but honestly, I think I just overfill my mixer most of the time (for family and friends). The end result is still good as long as I scrape the bottom and give the dough a stretch and fold to move things around every now and then during the mixing process. But yeah, like others are saying, too much water. Find another recipe.
Is the hook height properly adjusted?
https://youtu.be/wsYb-cArQqw
It’ll stop sticking when the gluten forms a more durable network. Basically, let it rest for a while.
That’s way too much water, more water by weight than flour. Sometimes even regular amounts of water can be too goopy if the humidity in my area is high, so I’ll usually add enough flour just so it’s no longer sitting at the bottom of the bowl during mixing. If it is, I find the dough is way too wet to be workable, it just won’t hold its shape at all
That’s the neat part, you don’t!
Seriously though, kitchen aide mixers aren’t good for kneading. They can really only combine dough, and then it’s best to knead the rest of the way by hand. I bought a spiral mixer exactly for this reason. I make lots of bread and pizza at home, and I used to try to use my kitchen aid, but it was not good.
I’m not going to steer you towards any particular brand, but if you make bread or really any kind of gluten dough, the first time you use a spiral mixer will blow your mind. My very first time using mine, I made the strongest and smoothest dough of my life. It basically develops gluten and whips air into the dough from the initial mix, and it’s hypnotizing to watch do its thing.
My kidding/not kidding answer is to [buy one of these.](https://www.agrieuro.co.uk/famag-grilletta-im-5230-1-speed-spiral-mixer-5-kg-p-1501.html) spiral mixers handle bread dough so much better than planetary.
Stop the mixer. Scrape the bottom up with a plastic scraper in case there are any dry bits. Start it up again. I see no issue with that picture. You typically don’t want to bring the dough to full strength in the mixer anyway unless you are making an intensively mixed sandwich bread. You’re going to develop the gluten even more during the bulk fermentation phase.
200 g of water for every 300 g of bread flour for pizza dough is the sweet spot imo
I usually turn it off and give it a 15-20 minutes rest before starting it up again.
I also very strongly recommend weighing your water instead of using volume measurements. This way you can control your dough’s hydration more completely.
Generally for pizza dough you want to aim for 65% hydration, meaning 325g water per 500g flour.
Also, are you using bread or 00 flour, or was this all purpose flour?
See if your mixer passes the “dime test” were if you have a dime in the bowl the mixing pattle hits and moves it occasionally. Some mixers have a height adjustment for the bowl if your mixer is not moving the dime at all it means that the bowl is too low and would result in stuff sitting at the bottom unmixed
Don’t mix measuring units for primary ingredients. Either use cups for both flour and water or use grams.
If the recipe you saw gave those measurements, then find a different recipe where they don’t mix units.
Try baking on the iss
Thanks for posting this – always happens
Try reserving a little bit of the water from the recipe, and adding while mixing after the ingredients are combined. I usually just eyeball it, but for the KA I’d say maybe like 10g water from the recipe.
I usually mix the ingredients until it comes together and starts looking like it does in your Pic, then add the salt and the reserved water while mixing and let it go for a bit longer.
Oh my…
Put water first not flour
Make sure you have it adjusted. I adjust mine almost ever time I use a different attachment! I just keep a screw driver with my baking stuff now lol
I crank up the speed and it eventuality pulls away from the bottom
I honestly gave up on using the mixer for any high hydration doughs like pizza dough. If it’s just as likely to stick the bowl as it is to stick to itself, I take the L and mix by hand. Anything low hydration or particularly stiff that would cause my wrists to sublux (connective tissue disorders make baking an experience) from the effort of mixing or kneading them, goes into the mixer.
EDIT: the recipe called for 1.5 cups of water and I did indeed use 1.5 cups of water – my description above is wrong where I mention 2.5 cups!
The problem still persisted though and required extra flour to pick up off the mixer
Oem here… 100% adjustment of the bowl/hook height is needed here. Flour/oil may help, but it will effect the final product.
I’ve had this, its just a case of patience and perhaps turning up the speed a bit. The dough will eventually unstick
Geez i gave up using my KA mixer because of that! But in doing so it taught me how to mix my bread dough by hand and to knead it for the recommended 10 minutes. I will have to dig it out and see if i can make this adjustment it might make my dough even better!
Keep kneading, when it’s ready, it will detach from the bottom. Sometimes it just needs to up the speed till 6-7 a couple of minutes, and it will detach itself.