Pizza dough?

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MrGrizzlyBear

Assistant Cook
Joined
Jan 7, 2020
Messages
9
Location
United kingdom
Hey so i tried twice today to make pizza dough and well lets just say the second try was better then the first.
Got a new oven recently with a max degree of 300
My first question is
1.In which slot should i put the tray in? in the oven i have 5 from bellow to up.
2.Which heat degree?
3.Should i pre heat the oven before putting the pizza in?
4.How can i know how much water/salt/sugar/oil etc to use with flour?
p.s my flour have 10% protein
i tried following multiple online recipes not much of a good success i would say.


Thanks in advance for any help.
 
300 is not hot enough, I pre-heat my oven with a pizza stone @550 for up to an hour with the rack on the 2nd or 3rd from the bottom. At 300 degrees I would cook it on the lowest rack. Or as SP said CI is the way to go without a stone.
 
Here is my favorite. Just like my Sicilian side of the family used to make it on Christmas Eve.

Sicilian Style Pizza
Ingredients:
  • 1 medium russet potato
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1⅓ cup water
  • 2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1½ tsp rapid-rise yeast
  • 3 tsp sugar
  • ½ cup extra light olive oil
  • ⅔ cup marinara sauce
  • 2 tsp dried oregano
  • ½ tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1 cup parmigiano reggiano cheese
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
  • Other toppings as desired
Instructions:

Place the potato in a medium saucepan and cover it with cold water. Bring the water to a boil over high heat and cook the potato until a paring knife inserted into the center meets no resistance, about 15 minutes. Squeeze the potato through a potato ricer into a bowl, discarding the skin, and allow the potato to cool at room temperature for 10 minutes. You should have 6 ounces of riced potato.

Combine the flour, salt, yeast, sugar, and 2 Tbs of olive oil in the bowl of stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the water and mix on medium speed until the dough comes together and no dry flour remains. Add the cooled potato, increase speed to medium-high and mix until the dough is stretchy and smooth, about 6 minutes. The dough should stick to the bottom of the bowl but pull away from the sides.

Pour the remaining olive oil into a rimmed baking sheet and spread the oil over entire inner surface with your hands. Transfer the dough to the baking sheet and rub the top surface with oil until thoroughly coated. Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise at room temperature until it has spread out to touch nearly the rim of baking sheet, about 2 hours.

30 minutes before baking, adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 550°F. Carefully remove the plastic wrap from the pizza dough. Using oiled hands and being as gentle as possible to maintain air bubbles, push and stretch the dough into the corners of the pan by pressing out from the center and lifting each corner and stretching it beyond the edge of the pan. It should pull back until the pan is filled with dough.
Spread approximately ⅔ cup of the sauce over top surface of the pizza dough with back of a spoon, leaving 1-inch border all the way around the edge. Sprinkle the top of the pizza with half of the Parmigiano reggiano cheese, focusing on the edges of the crust. Bake the pizza in the 550°F oven for 5 minutes, remove it from oven, add any additional toppings, and spread the shredded mozzarella evenly over the surface. If you have extra sauce, dot the pizza with it in irregular spots.

Return the pizza to the oven and bake it until crust is well browned and the cheese is melted and lightly browned in spots, 10 to 15 minutes longer. Allow the pizza to cool for 5 minutes, transfer it to a large cutting board. If the pizza sticks to the pan at some point, use a spatula to carefully loosen it. Cut the pizza into 8 or 12 rectangular slices, depending on how hungry you are, and serve.

NOTE: Paragraph 2 can also be performed in a bread machine, using the dough setting. Place the ingredients into the bread machine in the order given, adding the potato last.
 
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Let me be more specific
The pizza dough doesn't stretch properly and tears easily and i tried adding water/flour bit by bit but no matter how much i add it still tears easily.
 
Are you using a recipe or just winging it? If you are using a recipe, please post so we have something to work from. Also, you didn't mention yeast. Are you using it?
 
Last edited:
"The pizza dough doesn't stretch properly and tears easily and i tried adding water/flour bit by bit but no matter how much i add it still tears easily."

You might try a flour that has a higher protein content than 10%. AP flour is usually in the 11-12% range and bread flour is closer to 13%. More protein will convert to more gluten which will help the dough stretch without breaking.

Also, as Scott said, knead it more to develop more gluten.

If the dough retracts when you try to stretch it, you just have to let it rest some more before trying to form it. Just leave it for 5-10 minutes and try again.
 
"The pizza dough doesn't stretch properly and tears easily and i tried adding water/flour bit by bit but no matter how much i add it still tears easily."

You might try a flour that has a higher protein content than 10%. AP flour is usually in the 11-12% range and bread flour is closer to 13%. More protein will convert to more gluten which will help the dough stretch without breaking.

Also, as Scott said, knead it more to develop more gluten.

If the dough retracts when you try to stretch it, you just have to let it rest some more before trying to form it. Just leave it for 5-10 minutes and try again.
Does a 4% protein different really make that much of a difference?
And yes of course i used yeast i tried winging it and online recipes. i used the pizza dough calculator and it was just wet wasn't even a ball.
 
adding couple of tbs. vital wheat gluten will help. Also, chill the dough after kneading for an hour or so. Letting it rest will allow you to spread it to the desired size, shape, and thickness easier. And yes, that 4% protein does make a difference. Also, the dough has to have enough fat in it to make it pliable.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Does a 4% protein different really make that much of a difference?
And yes of course i used yeast i tried winging it and online recipes. i used the pizza dough calculator and it was just wet wasn't even a ball.

From 10% to 13% is a 3 percentage point increase. It's a 30% increase in the amount of gluten. So, yes, the difference is substantial and does make a difference.
 
How much hydration? exactly so i can decide ow much water to use with the 10% protein flour that i have cuz i couldn't find any higher protein flour.
 
do you use weights for flour & water?
do you have paper and a pencil?


making a dough batch for one or two pizzas requires precision measurements.
questions like "pizza stone" and whether to pre-heat the oven indicate some real serious issues regarding experience.


I have a recipe with flour/semolina water salt yeast measured down to the gram.
unless you have KA bread flour and Bob's Red Mill Semolina, you'll need the paper and the pencil to record what you did and what modifications are needed to make it "perfect" to your expectations. different flours do in fact actually make a difference regarding amounts of things.
 
hints for making pizza.

take 5lm of yeast add it to 100ml warm water let it sit 15 minutes or until it gets foamy. then add flour and a few drops of olive oil. make a moderately stiff dough. you may need 250-300 ml of flour. the dough shouldn't be overly sticky.

kneed the dough for minutes pull off a small piece and stretch it it should stretch enough so you can see light through before it tares in two.

put the ball of dough someplace warm for 30-60 minutes. at the end of that time preheat your oven to 200-210 degrees. roll out the dough to the thickness half the width of your index finger. put a thin film of olive oil on your pizza stone. put whatever toppings you like on your pizza cover the toppings with cheese. bake on the rack a little lower than the midway point of your oven. bake for about 15-20 minutes or until it is done till your likeness. After 15 minutes if the cheese is not melted enough turn on the broiler but watc h the pizza closely until a broiler pizza can go from perfection to chared ruin in less than a minute.
 
do you use weights for flour & water?
do you have paper and a pencil?


making a dough batch for one or two pizzas requires precision measurements.
questions like "pizza stone" and whether to pre-heat the oven indicate some real serious issues regarding experience.


I have a recipe with flour/semolina water salt yeast measured down to the gram.
unless you have KA bread flour and Bob's Red Mill Semolina, you'll need the paper and the pencil to record what you did and what modifications are needed to make it "perfect" to your expectations. different flours do in fact actually make a difference regarding amounts of things.
Yeah i'm not experienced with this
By weight do u mean grams etc...
and is pre heating a requirement? if so how long do i leave the pizza in the oven if it is pre heated
Please do give any kind of advice that i haven't asked yet
 
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