If I don't have a stand mixer, how would I generally modify prep of most dough recipes featured on this site? I'm really eyeing that pizza hut recipe.....
There are some types of dough where a mixer of some sort (stand mixer, food processor or bread maker) is generally needed. Examples include doughs with extremely high hydration values (say, 70% and above), such as Sicilian style doughs, and doughs with extremely low hydration values (say, 35-45%), such as cracker style doughs. Most pizza styles fall between the above ranges, including the NY style, the American style, Thick style and the Neapolitan style, all of which can be kneaded by hand. The Chicago style typically has a fairly low hydration value but usually has a large amount of oil or other fat that can have a "wetting" effect on the dough. That helps facilitate hand kneading.
If you have a food processor, you should be able to use it to make the NY, American, Chicago, Thick, Neapolitan and Cracker styles. It doesn't do nearly as well with very high hydration doughs because the machine can gum up trying to knead the dough. A bread maker should work for many of the above styles but I have only used mine for the NY and American styles. I am not sure how well it will work for doughs with very high or very low hydration values.
Peter
