Bread machines [View All]

[Duer 157099]

I think I've gone off the deep end now. I got a bread machine! Well, to be fair, it wasn't my plan, but I was at a thrift store and it looked brand new and it was only $3 so what choice did I have?

However, it didn't have instructions, and having never owned a bread machine, and being new to bread (pizza, actually) altogether, I'm not even sure what they're supposed to do or how they work. By looking at the controls, you can choose about 8 different settings, for different bread types, and one of the settings is called "dough" which I took to mean it kneads the dough and lets it rise (and then you take it out and use it for pizza).

So, I decided to try it, put all the ingredients in the pan, turned it to dough and let it go. The default time setting for "dough" was 1 hour 20 minutes -- I figured that includes kneading and rising. After 18 minutes, it was still kneading, so I got a little worried.

I know for pizza dough, you usually just knead for 5-10 minutes.

So, .. anyone know what's up? Is this normal for machines to knead for so long? I don't know how long it would have continued kneading, possibly for the whole hour plus?

Also, what's the state of this 18-minute kneaded pizza dough now? will it be tough? It's the Cook's Illustrated recipe using cake flour and AP.

I looked all over the net for the manual, it's not out there (except maybe on ebay)