Can you make the dough and bake it without making a pizza

[wolfylee]

I'm sure I know the answer to this(i.e no) but I'll ask anyway......

The dough is the 'cheap' part of the pizza so I was wondering if there is anyway to make and bake(kneed, prove, shape...the whole enchilada) without actually dressing the pizza and still get a reliable idea of how the finished pizza would turn out?

This way, apart from huge energy bills, I could experiment without having to spend a small fortune on ingredients and also get in trouble with my old lady for turning into a huge bloater - or at least more of a huge bloater than I already am.

[widespreadpizza]

wolfye,  not a bad approach.  Just get a cheap large can of crushed tomatoes and use that to top the pizza.  that will keep it looking like a pizza instead of a balloon...  -Marc

[wolfylee]

Yeah I suppose that's the way - hugely cheap tomatoes(they are about 25p/35 cents per 400ml can here) and see what happens

[Jet_deck]

Cheap ketchup and large cooked pasta shells are  good practice toppings.

[wolfylee]

Yeah another good one 

[The Dough Doctor]

We do it all the time when we are testing dough ingredients or different dough experimentals. We go through the entire process of making the dough and then when we are ready to dress the pizza skin we use only tomato sauce but we do use the cheese that we plan on using with the finished pizza. This way we can determine what the optimum bake time and temperature is (reasonably close).
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor