Need Dough Tips

[helenb]

dough

Hi David,

It sounds like you aren't kneading the dough properly at the beginning. Here is how I make the dough:

600g pizza flour
2 teasp yeast
pinch salt
1 tab extra virgin olive oil

approx. 2 cups of lukewarm water

Mix all the above (except water) in a bowl then gradually add the water until the dough is moist and starting to stick. I then turn it onto a stainless steel counter and continue to add the water while kneading the dough (using the heal of your hand).

At first it will be a bit messy but then it all comes together - keep kneading until the ball of dough it nice and elastic and easy to handle. Put in a bowl, cover with a cloth and leave for 2 hours or so.

Then knock the dough down, knead again and cut into segments - I make about 6 pizzas from this.

It's more work than a machine but the result is worth it. Also, once you practice a few times it is very quick and easy to make.

Regards,

Helen from Australia.

[DavidK]

OK, here's one for all the accomplished dough makers out there. I made my first pizzas this past w/e. Tasted great, but the dough work left me with a lot of questions...

My process, following the recipe on the site using Caputo flour:
I turn out the dough from the mixer onto my lightly floured work surface, ball it up (it's sticky) and put it into a lightly oiled bowl for a 2 hr covered rising. Everything is done at room temperature.

Taking it out of the oiled bowl, it sticks a little to the bowl. Is that normal?

OK, I take the ball and cut it into smaller pieces and, with as little flour as possible on the counter and on my hands, turn it inside out (a la paul's excellent photo tutorial). The balls are still very sticky and somewhat hard to maneuver. Should I use more flour on the counter? Some dough instructions suggest dusting top and bottom with flour before handling...

I then roll the balls against my unfloured work surface into a tight ball with no opening -- no problem here but they're still sticky and I need to move fast or they won't come off my hands and onto the final rising surface.

For my final rise, I put the balls on lightly oiled baking sheets. Second rise goes well but when it comes time to get them off the baking sheets, they stick to it... more oil? Is a floured surface better?

Last, when I begin to work out the dough on my "lightly floured" peel, the dough is very soft and easy to pull too thin (picture swiss cheese). Forget about trying to pick it up. The dough pulls apart under it's own weight... OK, so what's the deal here? To warm? To moist? Not risen enough? Or is it just dough in the hands of a total novice???

Thanks for any guidance...