Pizza Dough For Rookies
What You Need To Know To Make Great Pizza Dough
Let's face it, making dough is not the cleanest job in the world. In fact if you want to make great pizza, you have to start with the first and most important base, pizza dough.
I am not what you call a "bread person", someone who can cleverly weave together wonderful dough into bread tins, place in the oven, and out pops a wonderful creation of bread that warms your soul.
We all know someone who has the gift of making bread, I'm not that person, so take courage to know that you can do this!
Pizza Dough takes some preparation
I usually like Sundays as I can get the dough started and go to church. By the time I get back, the dough has had time to rise and is ready for the kneading board.
This recipe is generally pretty close to most you will see in recipe books. I've seen some minor differences in the amount of water and flour for instance, but generally, this is a very solid recipe for creating masterful dough for the crust of your pizza.
Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe
Basic Ingredients:
Water, yeast, sugar, salt and olive oil (extra virgin)
Take a small bowl and add 1/2 Cup of warm water.
Fast rising yeast - take one packet, around 10 g, and add to the warm water
Add 1 teaspoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the water, yeast mixture.
I will mix with a fork and try to dissolve salt, sugar, and yeast into the water. Set aside for around 10-15 mins.
After yeast begins to multiply, you will see mixture start to foam. This is a good sign that the mixture is ready.
Add 1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour to a large bowl and make a well in the center. Add yeast mixture to the center and fold in using a spatula or your hands. Work liquid into the flour as it will turn lumpy.
Knead the dough on flat board or surface. Spread some flour on kneading board and work small amounts of flour into the dough ball. As the ball of dough loses it's moisture, you will be able to tell when dough is ready to be placed in another large bowl.
After kneading process is complete, place dough in large bowl and allow to rise, approximately 2-3 hours. Drizzle olive oil over top of dough ball and place towel over bowl and allow dough to rise.
Post Dough Rise
Punch dough down and place back on kneading board. Apply flour and same kneading process as above until dough is consistent with proper balance between flour, dough and moisture content. If dough sticks to your hand, there's not enough flour worked into the dough.
Rolling Out The Dough
Flour kneading board once again and take rolling pin and roll out your dough. Start from the inside and work your rolling pin outward. Keep middle thicker than edges as you don't want too thin of crust in the middle. If middle is too thin, pizza will fall apart.
I work the edges always keeping the round shape of the dough. Work the edges and continue rolling dough outward and soon you will have a nice, well rolled out pizza dough.
Once complete, take rolling pin and place on one edge of pizza dough and roll up dough around rolling pin as you roll it forward. This will allow you to easily lay the rolling pin / dough on the pizza pan. Stretch edges so you have at least 2-3 inches of extra dough over the edge of your pizza pan.
Once completed, go around the pizza and take several fingers and roll edges by folding the excess dough over the each fold. Do this succesively until the entire dough is in a nice pie shape over the pizza pan.
This completes the pizza dough creation, kneading and rolling out to fashion on the pizza pan.
Good kneading and good luck on your first trial run.
Please let me know how you do and don't give up. You will get better and better as you perfect your method that works best for you. This will take some time so plan ahead.
