Pizza dough

[Greg44]

:help: Third attempt to make homemade pizza. Well sort of homemade. I bought the dough in the dairy section - grocery store's pizza shop also sell's their dough.

I put it in a greased bowl and let it rise. The dough is at room temp. I flour the counter and ATTEMPT to roll out the S P R I N G dough! :( I roll it out it springs back!
I read where I am suppose to let the dough rest? Like how long? Any good tricks?

I would love to learn how to make good homemade pizza.

[Tiam]

I buy mine from the deli...it's from the pizza shop so it's raw dough. Yes, I rest it. I set it out and let it rise...then stretch it and roll it. If it is springy, walk away for 10 minutes or so and try again. I hold the dough in my hands and kind of hang it an rotate it and let it stretch by its own weight rather than rolling it. Rotate fairly quickly or it tears. You can really stretch it out this way.

[Gina]

YOu only need to let dough rest about 10 minutes before it 'relaxes' again. Otherwise it's very frustrating to work with.

I make an acceptable pizza dough with the aid of the food processor. It won't ever taste as good as official dough however since the flour we buy from the store is never totally fresh and lacks that nice 'wheaty' flavor those who buy in real bulk can get.

[flowerseverywhere]

You can save a bundle of money and have delicious bread products if you practice. I make my dough from scratch from a recipe from allrecipes.com. I like "Jay's signature pizza crust" but if you look at the recipes you might find one you like better. Reading the comments will give you answers to all your questions. I do let my dough rest while I prepare the rest of the ingredients. King Arthur flour website also has some great recipes, including a no knead pizza dough along with other artisan type recipes. I do not have a pizza stone so use a cookie sheet, and I prebake the crust for about ten minutes before adding toppings.

There is a recipe on allrecipes.com for "Belles Hamburger buns" that I make (yummy) and you can make hot dog or hamburg type buns - and one called "Fluffy Biscuits" that is really easy and good.

Once you get the hang of it you can find lots of interesting toppings. some olive oil, garlic and cheese makes a nice pizza. If tomatoes are in season I put sliced tomatoes ( I drain them first), garlic, basil and either fresh or regular mozarella, depending what I have. Some cooked chicken that I throw some hotsauce on, on top of blue cheese dressing then put on some cheese on top. Mushrooms, peppers and if you eat meat you can add some pepperoni or sausage.

Once I figured this out I have saved so much money, we eat much better and also I know what ingredients are in my food. We are trying to eat as few preservatives, colorings etc as possible. We have a butcher close by who makes his own sausage etc and it is worth the price to me, I save so much on baked goods.

One night we had people who were big meat-eaters over. I made some veggie minnestrone with a sally lunn bread ( it is pretty hardy and made with eggs and milk) and they could not stop raving about the meal. The only problem is once you get the hang of making good breads it is hard not to eat too many calories they are so good.

[Float On]

I make my own dough. I actually roll mine out between two sheets of plastic wrap - I don't let it rest. I also substitute honey for the white sugar.

[treehugger]

I've been making pizza from scratch (dough and sauce) for about a year and was using a dough recipe from Sunset magazine that I was fairly happy with, but I have now switched to the one from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes book and I am so happy I did. It is the best tasting (and easiest) dough I have ever made and used.

And yes, rolling out gently, then leaving the dough alone for 20 minutes to rest and finishing rolling out is what solves that springy problem.

As for sauce, I have now settled on one that is made from a can of petite diced tomatoes, tomato paste, seasonings and a little olive oil. No cooking needed! It's delicious and, of course, very simple. One recipe makes a little more than I need each time, so every third time we make pizza, I don't need to make sauce at all (always storing the extra in the freezer).

[puglogic]

How does one get that good New York style crust, though? Kinda crispy, but more stretchy, and foldable? (anybody know what I'm talking about? East Coast-ers? :)

I've tried that so many times, with different recipes, and it always comes out "not anything like it". There must be something I'm doing wrong.

[Raziela]

Flowers - I tried the "fluffy biscuit" recipe, and it was very easy and the biscuits tasted great! thanks for sharing!

[Miss Cellane]

I don't roll out pizza dough. I sort of flatten the ball of dough in my hands and stretch it out a bit while holding it in mid-air. Then I put it in the pan and use my fingers to flatten it out more and stretch it to the edges of the pan. I stretch it as far as it will go; walk away for 10-15 minutes; come back and finish stretching it. I bake it on a cookie sheet and use scissors to cut it into pieces.

I use a dough recipe from Elizabeth David's "English Bread and Yeast Cookery." The title says English, but she has French bread recipes and pizza in there too.

Last night I put artichoke hearts, sliced tomatoes, olives and goat cheese on my pizza. Yummy.

[Gina]

How does one get that good New York style crust, though? Kinda crispy, but more stretchy, and foldable? (anybody know what I'm talking about? East Coast-ers?
I'm not an eastCoaster, but a big part of the problem is the pizza pros use much hotter ovens than we at home will ever be able to duplicate.

I was watching a program the other day and the pizza pro was saying they cook their's at 700*F. My oven only goes up to 500* and I don't much like to heat it that hot.

Another thing we can't duplicate is the oven floor. We can use our cute little pizza stones, but I doubt they compare with the large, flat oven floors pro pizza's are cooked directly on. One pizza maker said if his ovens are off for several days it takes three (3) days to heat them to the proper high, even temp for cooking.

I have a friend who wants to build a pizza oven in his back yard. It might cost him as much as $1,000 to do it properly. One of these days I want to really crank up the covered BBQ and try cooking pizza in it - but then I"ve been wanting to do that for several years. I'm willing to sacrifice one of my pizza stones in case it cracks from the heat. Maybe this year...

[bae]

I use the "artisan Bread" dough for pizza dough, as I usually have a vat going.

And I usually bake it outdoors on the grill, with the cover on:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_8bdYFKk3OW4/TDkI5SsLegI/AAAAAAAABKg/F10TBzfH-Ks/s720/img_0330.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_8bdYFKk3OW4/TDkI8O4_eWI/AAAAAAAABKo/n6vsIZn2mt8/s720/img_0332.jpg

Before I got that one, I had good results using a plain old Weber BBQ grill with the cover down, and some bricks.

[Gina]

That's a cool grill. Maybe one will turn up at a local yard sale some day. ;)

Bricks. Good idea. Heavy enough to stay put when putting on and taking off a pizza, and small enough to not crack in the heat. I have some half-thick bricks that might be perfect. Wouldn't take as long to heat through.

It would be a covered Weber that I would be using, and in the past I've gotten it up to about 550* (without trying) to bbq a whole turkey.

Might need to wear fire gear however. rrrrr

[flowerseverywhere]

Flowers - I tried the "fluffy biscuit" recipe, and it was very easy and the biscuits tasted great! thanks for sharing!

Glad you liked it. It is hard to believe sometimes that I am just one generation away from everyone making their own biscuits, there was no such thing as biscuits in a tube or freezer case when I was a child.

[Rosemary]

detailed recipes for Neapolitan-style pizza:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pizza
http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm

[flowerseverywhere]

detailed recipes for Neapolitan-style pizza:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pizza
http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm


The fresh loaf site is fabulous! thanks so much. Every day I learn something new here.