Ok I am a pretty good baker when it comes to yeast dough, but for some reason I cannot master the pizza dough. I have tried at least six different recipes all are just a little diff then the other. My dough seems tough not that nice buttersoft elastic dough that is always discribed at the end of the recipe. what am I doing wrong? I follow it to the "T" and its all the same. It rises nice never have a prob with that its just the texture. Do I need to let it rise several times? This is really bugging me that I can't master this. I make killer bread really good Polish cookies but this damn pizza dough is my kryptonite lol. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I plan on making pizza tomorrow. TIA
*** Yes I use evoo, I have tried several recipes from allrecipes.com, the food network and even googled for dough recipes, its not what goes in it its something that I am missing or not doing correct. I am going to make a batch toniight and let it rise over night. and i gues do several punch downs to see if that helps.
well thank you for the advise, Beth G gave me a nice recipe that worked great. I let it rest overnight in the fridge then pulled it out early and let it continue to proof till late morning, punched it down rise again till 3pm divided then rise again till 6pm the dough was excellent. I will be keeping that recipe and making the dough the night before from now on.
What is your recipe? If you want, I can give you mine to try?
It may help to let it rise overnight in the fridge in a container or Tupperware. That makes it a more moist and possibly can help.
Do you add olive oil?
I usually use a really simple recipe, 1 C water (warm), 1 packet yeast, 1 tsp salt, and about 3 cups of flour, plus a TBS of olive oil.
J.
K, so I don't bake. But I DO make pizza dough. Lots of dif pizza doughs.
I've noticed if I want a thicker chewier crust, I don't knead it as much.
I knead forever, and roll out with a pin, in addition to my thumbs if i want it thick a crispy and delicate. In fact, after it's risen in the bowl twice, I will roll it out, let it sit AGAIN, roll it again, until a half hour goes by without it rising anymore.
Also, you need the hottest oven, and a pizza stone, or I put the pizza directly on the rack on a piece of parchment.
Dunno if this helps!
:)
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/grandma-vandorens-white-brea...
Scroll down and read the review from Sparker.
One you have your dough (risen x number of times the recipe calls for - usually twice), you punch it down one last time split it into balls (cut it with the dough wedge into however many ounces). You keep "tucking in" (stick your thumbs in the center and fingers pull around and tuck) the edges so that the entire middle has passed through at least once or twice and is now the "outside". This forms perfect half balls with sealed bottoms.
You then take the balls and lay them out on parchment paper. MOST IMPORTANT PART: You then proof the balls. Meaning that the balls each rise until they are about half again to double their original size. THEN you stick them in the fridge. ((You can also just stick them in the fridge, BUT YOU HAVE TO PROOF THEM FOR 2-3 HOURS BEFORE USING THEM).
Something I learned recently (and this seemed to help out my pizza dough a lot) was to let the bread hook knead it for at least 10 minutes (I use a timer to make sure that it goes that long).
