Ever Try Pizza Dough Making?

By Art Damico

Pizza delivery has been around so long now that it's hard to remember a time when pizza dough making was a standard cooking routine. It's really quite simple to do.

Flour, water, oil, salt and yeast are usually the only ingredients in most pizza doughs. Five basic and inexpensive components.

Pizza dough making doesn't take a lot of time either. Waiting for the dough to rise takes the longest, but then you can be doing other things while this is happening.

Do a quick search on the Internet for pizza dough making and select a simple, plain dough to start. Then follow these steps:

First assemble all your ingredients in the quantities called for. Having all your ingredients ready to go before you begin saves a lot of time and makes things go much more smoothly.

Next combine all your dry ingredients (i.e. the flour, salt and yeast) until they're well mixed. Then add the water. It's very important that the temperature of the water be near the optimum point of 105 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the temperature most favorable for the yeast to ferment.

Combine or "cut" the dry ingredients together until a loose pizza dough ball forms, then add the oil. Continue to mix until the oil is absorbed and all ingredients have been incorporated into the dough ball.

You can now either try to knead the dough in the bowl or remove it to a flour-dusted surface. Some even work the dough with both hands in mid-air. Add a little flour to the dough ball and your hands as necessary to keep them from sticking.

Knead the pizza dough making dough ball for approximately five minutes or until it takes on a smooth appearance and is very elastic. Form the dough into a nice round ball when done.

Coat a bowl with oil and place the dough ball into it. Move the ball around to coat it lightly all over with oil. Put a piece of plastic wrap over the bowl, then move it to a warm, but not hot, location in the kitchen. Wait about two hours and check to see if it has doubled in size.

After the dough has risen, remove it to a flour-dusted surface and begin rolling it out to shape with a rolling pin. Unless you want a thick crust, most people roll in out to a 1/8" thickness.

Be gentle when picking up the dough. It can tear. If it does, try to repair it by pinching the hole together. If it won't work, mash it into a ball again and re-roll. Trim and shape the dough to fit the pan.

Guess what? You just succeeded one your first attempt at pizza dough making! - 30241

About the Author:

Sign Up for our Free Newsletter

Enter email address here