Pizza Doug Making?!
Pizza Doug Making?
I follow a standard Pizza recipe. The dough rises and seems to come together as it should. After baking the pizza the dough and crust is very hard. What am I doing wrong??
Answers:
I have the same problems
But I still adjust my One cup of flour,
Proffed yeast 2/3 c
heat the oven 400
kneed adding flour
Forget the rise junk
streach it out, brush it with oil, and let it rise 30 min.
fix your sauce
chop your veggies meat or cheese
fix it
cook it
Pizza dough can be kind of fussy. You know what, save yourself the trouble. Go to your local pizza place and buy dough. They'll sell it to you. Your secret will be safe with me.
Well, oven temps vary, so I'd adjust the baking time. Try baking it for less time and see if it's doughier.
After your dough rises and you shape your pizza, do you allow the dough to rest so it can rise again. It's called proofing. What I would do is work your dough into the shape you want it, allow it to rest (because after you have worked it, dough toughens making it very hard. The dough needs to relax and reproof) making it soft after it is baked. You can even put your sauce and cheese on it, before you allow it to reproof, Never put cold sauce on freshly made dough, it retards the dough from reproofing, Try this and you will see a complete difference.
You might want to adjust the amount of water you put in the dough. The moister it is, the more water ecsapes during the baking process. Therefore, it makes it more chewy. The less the water the less the chewy, and it becomes to hard. Also make sure that they dough is not cooking when it is rising, or dry out. That can cause it to be very hard as well. Hope this helps!!
Maybe not enough oil or shortening in the crust? Is it something low fat? Try the recipe on this website..it looks good..have not tried yet..but want to try it...
Tim’s B****** Pizza
http://tim.rocketry.org/cooking/pizza_sa... (scroll down for pics)
http://tim.rocketry.org/cooking/bitchinp... (scroll down for pics)
May not be kneading it enough or adding too much flour. The longer you knead dough, the LESS stickey it becomes and softer when baked. here are a couple more dough recipes if ya want to try them. I got them from a secret copycat website.
P.S. I used to work in a pizza shop and we never used the FRESH dough immediately after it was made. (As you will note in the N.Y. style dough recipe at the end.) plus it kneads it for lionger. We always oiled it and refrigerated it for several hrs first. made it easier to work with. It will rise in the fridge too. Keep covered.
Basic Pizza Dough
Ingredients
1 1/2 tsp. active dried yeast
1 C. lukewarm water
pinch sugar
1 tsp. salt
3-3 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
Directions
Warm a medium mixing bowl by swirling some hot water in it. Drain. Place the yeast in the bowl and pour on the warm water. Stir in the sugar, mix with a fork, and allow stand until the yeast has dissolved and starts to foam, 5 - 10 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to mix in the salt and about 0ne-third of the flour. Mix in another third of the flour, stirring with the spoon until the dough forms a mass and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Sprinkle some of the remaining flour onto a smooth work surface. Remove the rough from the bowl and begin to knead it, working in the remaining flour a little at a time. Knead for 8 to 10 minutes. By the end the dough should be elastic and smooth. Form into a ball. Lightly oil a mixing bowl. Place the dough in the bowl, rotating it to grease the dough's surface. Stretch a moistened and wrung-out across the top of the bowl, and leave it to stand in a warm place until the dough has doubled in volume, about 40 to 50 minutes or more, depending on the type of yeast used. To test whether the dough has risen enough, poke two fingers into the dough. If the indentations remain, the dough is ready. Punch the dough down with your fist to release the air. Knead for 1 to 2 minutes. If you want to make 2 medium pizzas, divide the dough into 2 balls. If you want to make 4 individual pizzas (in pans 10 1/2 in. in diameter) divide the dough into 4 balls. Pat the ball of dough into a flat circle on a lightly floured surface. With a rolling pin, roll it out to a thickness of about 1/4 inch large than the size of the pan for the rim of the crust. Place in a lightly oiled pan, folding the extra dough under to make a thicker rim around the edge. If you are baking the pizza without a round pan, press some of the dough from the center of the circle towards the edge to make a thicker rim. Place it on a lightly oiled flat baking sheet. The dough is now ready for filling.
2nd:
--Thin Crust Dough-
- 1 envelope dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup lukewarm water (105 F)
Stir yeast and sugar into water, let sit for 8 minutes or so. In a bowl (or food processor)
mix 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour 1/2 teaspoon salt
Add the yeast mixture.
If using food processor, continue running until dough forms a ball, 10-20 seconds. By hand, mix with a sturdy spoon until ready to knead. On a floured surface turn out dough. Knead dough for 2 minutes or so. If dough is a little sticky, dust your fingers and counter with flour, (but as little as possible). Roll out by hand for a 12" pizza. Place in lightly oiled pizza pan using your fingertips to press up to the edge and forming a shallow lip. Sauce, cheese, and top with desired ingredients. Bake at 500F in pre-heated oven for 8-12 minutes, the edges will turn a nice golden brown when done. Dough will be firm and crispy, not soggy and soft like many other doughs.
3rd:
--NY Style Dough--
1 1/2 cups warm water (105F)
4 1/2 cups flour
1 Tbls. olive oil
2 1/2 teas. sugar
2 1/2 teas. salt
1/2 teas. yeast
In a large bowl, mix water with sugar and salt until dissolved. Add oil, and then flour. Stir with heavy spoon for 1 minute. Turn out to a floured board and press into a circle (it will be quite dry). Sprinkle yeast evenly over dough and knead for twelve minutes. Divide dough into portions: 6 oz. for Calzones, 10 oz. for 9 inch, 18 oz. for 12 inch, 25 oz. for 15 inch (This recipe makes about 34 oz. Adjust ingredient amounts for your purposes) Shape each portion by sliding your palms across the top portion of dough while curving your fingers inward toward each other and "tucking" the dough into the center. You want a dough ball without visible seams except the bottom. Set formed dough balls on plate, cover with plastic, and allow to proof for 1-2 hours at room temperature to use the same day, or store in refrigerator to use the next day. To stretch dough, place dough ball on lightly floured surface, and lightly flour the top. Use fingertips to evenly flatten out the dough ball. Work from the edges to the center. Place both hands within the shell edge and stretch with fingertips and palms maintaining an even pressure. Or, use a lightly floured rolling pin to stretch to desired shape. Cooking pizzas with this dough should be done on a baking stone. Using a pan will produce a very soft "doughy" crust. The stone in the oven should be preheated to 500F for an hour prior to baking, and should be placed in the middle of the oven. After stretching the dough, liberally sprinkle cornmeal or semolina on pizza peel (a wooden paddle with a handle to slide the pizza in the oven) or a cutting board. The cornmeal allows the pizza to slide onto the stone easily. After topping the pizza, when you are ready to cook it, pick up an edge of the dough and lightly blow air underneath. This will loosen any sticky areas under the dough and redistribute the cornmeal. Shake the peel or cutting board to make sure none of the dough is sticking. Carefully slide the pizza into the oven.
Hope some of these work for you.