Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe, Lemon Upside Down Pie and Snicker Doodle Blondies (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making good pizza dough? ›

The secret to great dough isn't kneading or throwing . . .

It's good old-fashioned H20. “Water, water, water,” says Falco. “Pizza dough made at home should be 50 percent water. Pizza needs to cook longer in a home oven, which means the dough needs to be more hydrated.”

Flavor the dough, if you'd like: This is a great basic pizza dough recipe, but you can spice it up to make it more flavorful by adding a few dashes of garlic powder, dried basil, and oregano.

Because of the fineness of the grains, 00 flour is the ideal flour for pizza. 00 flour is a finely ground Italian milled flour ideal for pizza due to its delicate and fluffy crust.

If you're planning to make pizza today, then give the dough a rise. Clean out the mixing bowl, coat it with a little oil, and transfer the dough back inside. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let the dough rise until doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Baldwin suggests making your toppings yourself for the best homemade pizza. "Slice your own pepperoni for a thicker cut, roast red peppers and garlic, crumble and sauté some sausage," she says. "Doing all these things from scratch makes the pizza truly great."

This is done by kneading the dough. The more you knead the dough, the stronger the gluten walls are going get. And the stronger the walls are, the more the dough will keep is structure and shape. If you don't knead the dough enough, it's not going to be able to hold on to the CO2.

Strong bread flour: A higher proportion of protein and a stronger flour to allow for more gluten development. This means your dough is less likely to tear when shaping and you'll end up with a more crisp crust. Better gluten development means more air pockets, which means an airy crust.

Raw cane sugar and brown sugar add a little more flavor and color. They also contain trace minerals not found in refined white sugar. Cane syrup and molasses add even more flavor, color, and trace minerals. Whether it's appropriate for your dough is up to you.

No matter the form it's in, any yeast can work well for making pizza dough. It all depends on how much time you want to spend making it, and what kind of flavor you want. For example, sourdough starter will produce a much different-tasking crust than other yeast types.

Why is 00 flour better for pizza? ›

Due to its super-fine texture, 00 flour absorbs water much faster than a coarser flour. As a result, dough made from 00 flour tends to require less water, which in turn results in a crispier pizza crust when cooked at a very high temperature.

Too little yeast and your dough won't rise enough, and the pizza base will taste bland. Use too much yeast and your dough may over-ferment. Tell-tale signs are your dough expanding too much or tasting and smelling a bit sour, with an almost alcoholic aftertaste (the yeast produces alcohol as it ferments).

Pizza dough that has been left to rise for too long, or has been over-proofed, can potentially collapse. The gluten becomes overly relaxed, and the end product will be gummy or crumbly instead of crisp and fluffy.

Punching down dough leads to a more even rise, fewer air pockets, and a stronger gluten structure – so not punching down dough leads to the opposite.

Cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger can increase yeast activity, potentially challenging the slow fermentation process. Dry mustard has the potential to slow down yeast development and can result in a more sour flavored crust. Sweet – If not spice, than sugar is nice.

Ensure you are leaving your dough in an environment which is warm enough to get the yeast working faster. The extra yeast is fairly obvious, and the extra sugar is some extra food for the yeast – it will make sure it is feeding and producing gas as an outcome.

The goal of adding oil to pizza dough is to improve the texture of the dough and flavor the finished crust. The oil will specifically: Making the dough softer will improve its capacity to stretch when rolled out. If you don't use any oil, the dough will pull apart and produce holes.