Dough Recipes When stretching pizza dough, you should never use a rolling pin, as it will push out all the gas, negatively effecting oven spring and resulting in a condensed, tough texture. Generously flour both sides of rounded and proofed pizza dough. Gently flatten into a disc using the palm of your hand.
This Italian tapered rolling pin, also known as a biconical rolling pin, is the traditional tool for rolling out pizza doughs and sheets of hand-made pasta.
Now that the dough is stretched into your desired shape, you need to transfer it to a baking sheet, pizza stone, or sheet pan. Using the rolling pin, fold one end of the dough over it, then gently lift the rolling pin so that the dough hangs in the air and move it over your baking sheet, pizza stone, or sheet pan.
Whether you should hand stretch or roll pizza dough depends on your preference. If you like thicker, airier crusts, stretch your dough, or if you want thinner, chewier crusts, roll your dough.
Strategically poking holes in the dough creates little openings that permit air to escape while your pizza is baking.
If your pizza dough is quickly snapping back or difficult to stretch, your dough is too tight. Cover your dough with plastic wrap and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. After a bit of rest, the gluten in the dough will relax, making the process of stretching much easier.
Though it's important to knead your dough thoroughly, it's not necessary to knead your dough for long. We recommended kneading your dough for about 4 to 6 minutes! Over-kneading your dough will create a fine, crumb-like texture, giving your dough a bready texture rather than a light and airy pizza crust.
Once your dough has risen, you're ready to stretch it out into a flat disc. You may be tempted to use a rolling pin to do this, which can sometimes work fine, but it often causes the dough to tear. You will also find that the dough keeps shrinking back on itself making it difficult to get a large enough disc.
1. Bring the dough to room temperature. If you're using frozen or refrigerated pizza dough, allow it to come to room temperature in a greased mixing bowl. Bringing the dough to room temperature before the shaping process makes it easier to stretch and less likely to tear.
Bring your dough to room temperature.
Before you begin stretching, warm up your cold dough for at least 30 minutes at room temperature. Gluten, the protein that makes pizza dough chewy, is tighter in cold conditions like the fridge, which is why cold pizza dough will stretch out and snap back just like a rubber band.
As he explained to Food & Wine, the process is actually a tradition that can be traced back to pizza's home country. In Italy, he recounts, pizza shops, typically those serving long slab pizza styles like Pizza al Taglio or Pizza Bianca alla Romana, use scissors to customize slice size for each customer.
As Epicurious says, “Marble, silicone, metal, and nylon may have certain strengths, but when it comes to versatility, durability, and long-term performance, wood rolling pins remain the gold standard for a reason.” Keep in mind that metal, if not chilled or if used for extended periods, can conduct heat.
In Italy, unless sold on the street or “al taglio” (sold in rectangular or square slices by weight), it's always round and served on a plate. 2. You cut the pizza yourself and then eat it with a knife and fork, the most common way, or fold each slice and eat it with your hands.
Leave the dough in the mixer bowl to rest for 20 minutes. Make sure the cover is on to avoid drying. 6. After the dough has rested, turn it out onto a very lightly floured work surface and knead it by hand about 20-30 times.
In short, it means to intermittently fold the dough over onto itself during the fermentation stage. What this accomplishes is to strengthen the bonding of the gluten protein threads that hold the dough together and thus trap the carbon dioxide created by the yeast.
The longer the yeast has had to feast – ideally 24 to 48 hours – the lighter and more flavorful the pizza dough will be. It will also be easier to digest because the yeast has done the job of breaking down ingredients that your stomach would have otherwise had to handle.
Heat the oven.
The best oven temperature for pizza is between 450 and 500 degrees F (250 to 260 degrees C).
Think of it as a learning experience so you know what to do next time. Under-kneading the dough doesn't create as bad a result as over-kneading, however, depending on how much the dough is under-kneaded, it may not have the rise that you want when it is proved and baked.
Pizza dough should proof in room temperature anywhere from 1 to 24-hours or even more. While cold-proofing a pizza dough can take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours.
Don't twist! Punching is essential because it releases the built-up CO2 gas, redistributes the yeast so it can find new food sources, and equalizes the dough temperature. Once that's done, the dough is ready to be shaped for baking or its second rise.
If you don't blind bake with weights, or poke holes into the bottom of the crust, the bottom of the crust can puff up.