Bread Machine Dough

Ingredient List

1 1/2 Cup Warm Water

2 TB Olive Oil

4 1/4 Cups AP Flour

2 tsp. Salt

1/4 Cup Sugar or Honey

2 1/2 tsp. Active Dry Yeast

I know that the title of this post is kind of weird. But to be honest, I really didn’t know what to name this recipe. I use this recipe for several different things. And the sky, is really the limit. I LOVE to use my bread machine to make dough. In fact, that is the only reason I use my bread machine. I love how I don’t have to worry about temperature or constantly watching it to make sure the yeast is doing what it is supposed to do. Or that I don’t have to watch the dough rise and worry about if it is sitting in the right temperature to rise properly. Some people call it cheating. I call it a life hack! While the bread machine does it’s thing, I can focus on more important things like the kids, laundry, dishes, or even better…. a nap! Here is how I make the dough!

First, bust out that bread machine that has been collecting dust and clean it up. No one likes a dusty dough. I always remove the dough hopper from the machine to load it up with the ingredients. The next thing to do is MAKE SURE YOU HAVE MIXING BLADE IN THE BOTTOM OF THE HOPPER! I speak from experience here. I can not tell you how many times I would load the hopper and then realize I forgot to put the mixing blade in place first.

Now that the mixing blade is in place, it is time to add the ingredients. It is important to load the ingredients into the hopper in this order. 1 1/2 cups of warm water (just warm to the touch… no need to check the temperature), 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 4 1/4 cups of all purpose flour, 2 teaspoons of salt, 1/4 cup of sugar or honey, and 2 1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast. Place the hopper into the machine and set the machine to Dough. (I have had 3 bread machines and they have all had a dough or pizza dough setting. On my machines they have always been around the setting of 6-9. Read your bread machine instruction manual to be sure, if it doesn’t say on the machine)

The machine will start to do its job and start mixing the ingredients together. You will need to keep an eye on the dough for a few minutes to make sure the dough comes together. It should look something like this picture. With baking, weather can play a role. If you see that the dough is too wet, add a little more flour. If you see that the dough is too dry, add water or oil (depending on the consistency… use your best judgement. Sometimes it needs a little bit more of each) After the dough looks right, close the lid and let the machine to do its thing. It usually takes about 1-1 and a half hours to finish the dough making cycle.

When the dough is finished it should be this beautiful stretchy ball. It may be a little tacky but that is ok.

Now the fun part. What do you do with your dough? I have learned that it makes AMAZING pizza crust. This is my go to recipe when it is pizza night on the homestead. this dough also makes great white sandwich bread, sweet cinnamon rolls, jelly rolls. You name it, it will most likely work for that recipe. I hope you find this recipe helpful and tasty. The bread machine has been such a great time saver and it helps me multitask many things knowing that I am working on dinner while I can get some other things done around the house.